FOSTER Davis worked more than three decades on three continents in journalism, but his effect on his profession was felt not only in his hometown Charlotte, in the United States, but also in Johannesburg. Davis, 61, died on Sunday in Charlotte from cancer. He worked at The Observer from 1976 to 1992 and in that […]
After years of antipathy between Hollywood and Cannes, the Americans are finally proving that big box office movies can be creative and credible Akin Ojumu At the press conference following the Cannes screening of Moulin Rouge, Baz Luhrmann, the film’s Australian director, proudly proclaimed the film’s Antipodean origins. This was a film conceived and executed […]
Paul Kirk Last week Durban’s largest shelter for the homeless ran out of food. This week, a homeless man had to be turned away because there was no space for him. This is because hundreds of Gauteng’s indigent winter at the coast where, thanks to the warm Indian ocean, daytime temperatures seldom drop below 20C. […]
David Macfarlane The future of a charitable organisation that provides therapy for the disabled hangs in the balance firstly because the local council mistakenly sold the land it occupies, and secondly because the buyer, Australian university Monash South Africa, appears unwilling to resolve the matter. The highveld branch of the South African Riding for the […]
THE United Nations Security Council has commended the efforts of leaders in the volatile Great Lakes region to restore peace in war-wrecked Burundi and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). A high level 12-man delegation of the council currently touring Africa in a new resolve to end years of conflict in the region gave the […]
TANZANIA?S third modern large-scale gold mine has started commercial production ahead of its official commissioning in mid-July, a company official said on Friday. “Gold is now pouring out at the mine … all is going on well,” said Roy Meada, general manager of Kahama Mining Corporation Limited, owners of the mine in the remote village […]
Lawrence Booth ‘Corruption report stuns cricket world,” announced one website this week. Remove cricket from that headline, and you might be closer to the truth. Because for those in the game who have followed developments closely since Cronjegate and have greeted each new revelation with less shock and horror than the last there is precious […]
Sizwe samaYende American fast food giant McDonald’s has been dubbed “McGreed” in Mpumalanga after refusing to supply anti-Aids drugs to a staff member who was raped after working a late shift. The transnational corporation refuses to supply transport for staff who knock off between midnight and 2am, and who are regularly ambushed by criminals. A […]
Mail & Guardian reporters Investigators in South Africa’s R50-billion arms deal have expressed serious reservations about the advisability of public hearings into the procurement scandal due to open on Monday. The concerns have divided officials of the three investigating bodies although there are indications that the final format the hearings will take has partly allayed […]
A TOTAL of 232 new cholera cases have been reported in KwaZulu-Natal since Wednesday afternoon. The provincial health department said no new deaths were reported. Most of the cases occurred in Eshowe/Nkandla (81), Ulundi (50), Lower Umfolozi districts (47) and New Castle/Nqutu (21). There are still 274 people being treated in provincial hospitals. A total […]
Charlene Smith Over one weekend recently 80% of patients admitted to Johannesburg hospital were HIV-positive. Sixty per cent of the hospital’s paediatric admissions are HIV-infected and at least half of all patients are HIV-positive. The hospital is ill-equipped to deal with the crisis, seriously lacking in both medical staff and drugs. In a letter to […]
The Mail &Guardian and the ANC faced each other in court this week over the allegation that a white editor wrote an article and put a black journalist’s name above it, Khadija Magardie reports The Johannesburg High Court looks miles away from a resolution of the dispute between the Mail & Guardian and the country’s […]
Glenda Daniels Almost two years after the promulgation of the Employment Equity Act only 10% of the total workforce has undergone training in accordance with the provisions of the Act. A Department of Labour progress report on equity indicates that 84% of companies have conducted employment equity training. The National Union of Metalworkers of South […]
OVERCROWDING in Moroccan prisons is a “bomb”, the Moroccan Prison Observatory (OMP) said this week, reporting appalling conditions in many of the country’s jails. “The overcrowding is a bomb that forces us to think about alternative solutions to incarceration,” said Abderrahim Jamai, a director of the Casablanca-based independent watchdog organisation. “Integrating minors into social life […]
A third South African police officer has been arrested for his apparent involvement in a group that are said to have raped young girls, The Star reports. The arrest this week follows investigations of at least 15 members of Pretoria’s Flying Squad. By Monday, four girls had already made statements to the investigating officers, and […]
THE Rwandan army killed 35 rebels and took into custody 21 others, most of them minors, after they launched an attack in a town in northwestern Rwanda, the deputy army chief said this week. The attack in Nyamutera, near Ruhengeri, was launched early on Sunday and continued until Monday morning, according to Brigadier General James […]
US Secretary of State Colin Powell left Washington late on Tuesday for his first African tour, a five-day trip that ends on Sunday. The trip is seen as an effort by the new administration to maintain US interest in Africa, building on the personal attention lavished on the troubled continent by former president Bill Clinton, […]
OWN CORRESPONDENT, Mbabane | Thursday THE Swaziland government has banned two news publications critical of the authorities for a second time, barely a week after the Swaziland High Court lifted an earlier ban on one of them. The government banned the weekly Guardian newspaper and monthly Nation magazine, both privately owned publications, in a gazette […]
JACQUES NELL might be the first white member to serve on the Northern province executive of the National African Federated Chamber of Commerce (Nafcoc) if he is elected at the organisation’s annual provincial conference on Thursday. Nell, who served as president of the South African Chamber of Business (SACOB) in Pietersburg for two years until […]
FORMER White House intern Monica Lewinsky wants to get back the blue dress reputed to carry traces of semen from former president Bill Clinton. Her lawyers are negotiating with investigators for the return of the dress, the Washington Times has quoted Lewinsky’s publisher as saying. The scandal surrounding Lewinsky and Clinton nearly cost Clinton the […]
OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Thursday THE war of words between the Mail & Guardian newspaper and the ANC has now come to a head in court, with the newspaper demanding a public apology from Public Enterprises Minister Jeff Radebe. Radebe, on behalf of the ANC, told the Human Rights Commission hearing into racism in the […]
SOUTH Africa’s biggest sugar firm Illovo Sugar said on Monday its headline earnings per share for the year ended March 31 had fallen 23% to 67.5 cents, but earnings would show good growth in the coming year. Illovo said it had paid a dividend of 34 cents compared to 48 cents for the previous year. […]
OWN CORRESPONDENT, Harare | Thursday FOREIGN investment in Zimbabwe dropped 61% between January and April this year compared to the same period last year, the country’s investment promotion agency was on Thursday quoted as saying. The state-owned Business Herald said statistics from the Zimbabwe Investment Centre (ZIC) showed that only 24 projects compared to 63 […]
IRIN, Johannesburg | Thursday AN Amnesty International (AI) research team has found widespread evidence of politically-motivated murder, torture, rape and violence. Tor-Hugne Olsen, head of the team, told IRIN on Wednesday that after spending a week in the country, they had established that such acts were “commonplace” and that the government was doing nothing to […]
ABOUT 80 bodies of Ghana’s football stampede victims remain unclaimed by relatives almost two weeks after their deaths. Lieutenant Colonel Sam Aninkora, administrator of the 37 Military Hospital in Accra, said the corpses had not been claimed although relatives had identified the bodies and submitted the required documents, including copies of death certificates. “This could […]
MAI Mai tribal kidnappers holding at least 19 Thai nationals hostage in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) are just bandits seeking money, according to rebel leader Jean-Pierre Bemba. His comments contradicted remarks by Thai Foreign Minister Surakiart Sathirathai who said pm Tuesday the kidnappers’ motives were political and the hostages would be released within […]
OWN CORRESPONDENT, United Nations | Wednesday THE UN Security Council on Tuesday “strongly condemned” recent attacks by Angolan Unita rebels and urged the release of all civilians – both children and adults – currently being held by the armed group. The council particularly condemned Unita attacks on the town of Caxito, 60km from Luanda, and […]
OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Wednesday THE United Transport and Allied Trade Union (Utatu) and the SA Logistics, Services and Allied Workers Union (Salstaff) have reached an agreement with Spoornet management on a wage increase, Spoornet said in a statement. Spoornet representative Mike Asefovitz said the agreement was reached with two of the three unions involved […]
OWN CORRESPONDENT, Maputo | Wednesday HALF a year after the assassination of Mozambican journalist Carlos Cardoso – editor of the independent fax newspaper Metical – the country’s public prosecutor’s office has charged six people for the murder, the Media Institute of Southern Africa (Misa) reported on Tuesday. Quoting the Tuesday issue of Metical, Misa said […]
OWN CORRESPONDENT, Pretoria | Monday TWO of nine club rugby players charged with murdering a black teenager in South Africa were refused bail in the Pretoria High Court on Monday, while four others were granted it. One of the remaining three accused did not apply for bail, another was granted bail earlier by the High […]
A UN Security Council delegation on Sunday announced the reopening to commercial traffic of the Congo river, the main supply line to the capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo and which has been closed for almost three years by war. Navigation on the river between the capital Kinshasa and Kisangani, the country’s third largest […]
THREE children were killed when a bomb dating from the 1954-1962 Algerian war of independence exploded in Ouled Hezaz, near the countrys eastern border with Tunisia. The two sisters and their brother found the bomb on Friday on the so-called “Challe et Morice” line – an electrified borderline which French troops densely planted with land […]