TWENTY-SEVEN people are missing in the sinking of a ferry off the east coast of Madagascar, papers said here Saturday. Press reports said the vessel went down on Thursday with 41 people on board while sailing between the eastern port of Soanierana-Ivongo and the popular tourist island of Sainte Marie, which is some 30 kilometers […]
A SOUTH Korean court on Friday ordered the liquidation of the ailing Dong-Ah Engineering and Construction Company, a lead contractor for an ambitious project to build a canal across the Libyan desert. Libya’s waterway project is the largest of Dong-Ah’s overseas contracts and is worth $6.5bn. It has completed 98% of the work on the […]
STRIKING workers at the Lilongwe Water Board, the only water supplier in Malawi’s capital, have turned off the taps to demand a 100% pay hike and better working conditions, workers said on Friday. “We are not re-connecting the water until our demands are met,” one worker said, on condition of anonymity. Employees at the parastatal […]
AT least 42 people were killed on Friday and Saturday in heavy fighting between government troops and militia opponents battling for control of the port in the Somali capital Mogadishu, residents said. The fighting, the most intense in the city in months, pitted soldiers of the Transitional National Government of President Abdiqassim Salad Hassan against […]
MARIANNE MERTEN, Cape Town | Friday WE are divided and we will remain divided. Lets vote and go home, an African National Congress member of Parliaments ethics committee proposed. And for the first time ever the committee voted – mostly along party political lines. Minutes earlier Pan Africanist Congress MP Patricia de Lille had also […]
THAILAND wants to double trade with South Africa over the next few years, the country’s trade minister, Adisai Bodharamik, said in Johannesburg on Thursday. Bodharamik, speaking at Thailand’s Trade Exhibition at the Sandton Convention Centre, in northern Johannesburg, said trade between the two countries had exceeded $400-million during the last few years with significant growth […]
A SOUTH African defence forces helicopter came under fire in eastern KwaZulu-Natal province as police and soldiers mounted a joint operation after the deaths of at least seven people in faction fighting, a police officer said on Thursday. Captain At Slinger said the Oryx helicopter was not hit in the volley of automatic gunfire on […]
AUTHORITIES detained more than 21_000 South Africans along with foreigners at a detention centre between 1996 and 1999 because they believed they were illegal immigrants, parliament was told on Thursday. The 21_719 South Africans were released from the Lindela repatriation centre near Pretoria after being held for up to five days, the report said. The […]
SA Airlink on Thursday took delivery of the first two of thirty ERJ135 Regional Jets ordered from Brazilian manufacturer Embraer. The aircraft will join SA Airlink’s existing fleet of Jetstream 41 aircraft and will open up new opportunities for the airline. Another two jets are expected in August. The new jets are capable of speeds […]
ALMOST 4_000 municipal workers in Mpumalanga on Wednesday marched on the South African Local Government Association (Salga) to demand a 10% wage increase. SA Municipal Workers Union (Samwu) demonstrators also briefly picketed Salgas regional headquarters in Nelspruit to demand a minimum wage of R2_000 for all municipal workers countrywide, in addition to an across-the-board 10% […]
The recent international documentary film festival in Nyon, Switzerland, showcased five South African works Neil Sonnekus If a recent documentary film festival in Switzerland is anything to go by, South African films are rapidly losing their cringe factor. This is largely due to Cape Town suss and Swiss expertise. The former belongs to director of […]
Nawaal Deane If you have HIV and cannot afford a private clinic for the treatment of opportunistic diseases, where in Gauteng would you go? Peter Foxcrost, an HIV patient, thought the best place would be Johannesburg hospital, but he was shocked to discover that its HIV clinic is closed to all new patients. The clinic, […]
Martin Gillingham athletics The preparations of more than 30 South African athletes for this year_s world championships have been plunged into crisis following allegations of corruption and financial mismanagement against senior Athletics South Africa (ASA) officials, which prompted the postponement of the team announcement. The announcement, which was to have included the launch of the […]
AIDS activists in Kenya on Thursday urged MPs to include “life-saving safeguards” when reviewing legislation concerning drug patents. Kenyan legislators are currently reviewing the Industrial Property Bill which, as it stands, conforms with World Trade Organisation (WTO) rules on countries’ rights to, in certain circumstances, overcome patent restrictions. Paralllel imports are re-purchased drugs from countries […]
Mail & Guardian Reporter The Centre for Development and Enterprise (CDE) has released a publication focusing on South Africa’s inability to stimulate economic growth and job creation. The publication is an edited summary of a round-table discussion of private sector economists, business leaders, government officials and the president’s economic adviser, Wiseman Nkuhlu. CDE executive director […]
Letters to the best man Chez Uhuru 228 Musgrave Road iThekwini To: Dr Essop Pahad The Presidency Union Buildings Tshwane Dear Dr Pahad, I was shocked on Sunday night to view, in the security of my own home, a television news report that Tokyo Sexwale has now been appointed as an Honorary Colonel in the […]
Michele Pickover and Verne Harris Brought into operation on March 9 this year, the Promotion of Access to Information Act is intended to be the legislative cornerstone of freedom of information in South Africa. Technically it is sound, drawing on the experiences of drafters and implementers of such legislation in a number of other countries. […]
UGANDAN-BACKED rebels in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) have accused government troops and their Zimbabwean allies of attacking a rebel position in the northwest of the country. The attack took place Tuesday on “our defensive position in Lusombo,” Jean-Pierre Bemba, the leader of the Congo Liberation Front (FLC) said late on Thursday. “Our forces […]
Ntuthuko Maphumulo badminton For the first time in South Africa or Africa a badminton tournament of world importance will be staged on the continent. South Africa will be hosting the sixth world junior championships in November next year. About 30 countries will participate in the tournament, which will determine the world rankings. African Badminton Federation […]
About 30 employees have already completed an adult literacy programme at Hilton College and another 32 are attending classes Jubie Matlou Gladys Dlamini (34) is a mother of two and works as a cleaner at Hilton College for Boys, the famous and exclusive private school outside Pietermaritzburg. Her working day starts at 7am and continues […]
Khadija Magardie Victims of violent crime in South Africa may in future receive financial restitution for their pain and suffering. This is if a recent discussion document, released for public comment and submitted to the Minister of Justice and Constitutional Development Penuell Maduna this week, is favourably received. The South African Law Commission has mooted […]
OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Thursday THE South African Competition Tribunal has approved a multi-billion dollar bid for diamond giant De Beers, the company announced Thursday. “That clears the last regulatory hurdle for the takeover to go ahead,” said a spokesman. Investors were meanwhile positive but careful after an announcement by a major American shareholder that […]
Paul Kerton Body Language Your partner’s body will change but it doesn’t mean that you should give up sex. As her tummy develops, it can become quite a beautiful erogenous zone in itself. And I don’t know of any man alive who has ever complained when his partner’s breasts increased by a size or two. […]
Belinda Anderson Inthebag, the Woolworths/ Wooltru joint-venture online shopping portal, aims to be profitable by January 2003 and, according to chief executive officer Jessica Knight, is burning less cash than it had expected to in the first year. By June R66-million will have been spent, about R22-million less than the R88-million it had projected. Wooltru […]
Khadija Magardie The Eastern Cape MEC for health this week admitted his department kept a lid on information that peanut butter being fed to indigent children on its school feeding scheme was toxic. Bevan Goqwana said this was because the department lacked evidence that certain suppliers were passing on contaminated peanut butter, and because they […]
US oil company Chevron on Thursday reported a minor oil spill off the Nigerian coast after reports from local community leaders of a major spillage. Chevron Nigeria Limited said around 140 barrels of low-sulphur crude oil had leaked from an underwater pipeline about six nautical miles off the southern coast in its Delta Oil Field. […]
Charlotte Mathews The South African Red Cross, the largest humanitarian organisation in the country, is struggling with a financial crisis that it hopes can be resolved within the next few weeks. If not, a wide range of aid projects will be jeopardised. Mandisa Kalako-Williams, vice-president of the Red Cross, said the organisation’s fixed assets were […]
David Beresford Another Country I’ve made an application to Grenoble, France, for the brain operation to deal with my Parkinson’s. Whether I will be accepted, despite being a known admirer of that scourge of Napoleonic France, Lord “‘Oratio” Hornblower, is another matter. I must also confess to a certain anxiety as to whether my schoolboy […]
For the third time in six weeks a Cape Town court has wrapped up a rape and attempted murder case with tough sentences Marianne Merten Karriema Viljoen* was not in court this week when the men who raped, stabbed, slit her throat and left her for dead were sentenced to long periods of imprisonment. The […]
A SOUTH African magistrate ordered an art restorer to pay out R20_000 on Thursday after an oil painting of a tavern scene by 17th century Dutch master Adriaen Van Ostade was returned to its owner with a beard added to a face. The painting had also gained a traditional South African touch – a black […]
A cellphone service provider has spent R15-million on upgrading Alexandra police station and magistrate’s court Ntuthuko Maphumulo It is a typical busy scene as you drive into Wynberg towards the Alexandra police station and magistrate’s court. There are many people going to the taxi rank, and around the rank are the makeshift stalls of hawkers […]
Charlene Smith crossfire The list of conspirators against President Thabo Mbeki grows ever longer. On Monday I returned home from lending support to a young rape survivor, took out a thick wad of letters from people with HIV in my letter box, and downloaded e-mails to discover that I was leading a right-wing media conspiracy […]