The darling of the stands is back and set to get tongues wagging again Martin Gillingham Bob Skinstad, the glamour boy of South African rugby, has called on the sport’s top brass to drop their ban on overseas-based players representing the Springbok team. “I’m of the opinion that you should be able to play Super […]
Did the damp masses who attended last weekend’s South Africa Freedom Day Concert go to celebrate African democracy or were they just there for the stars? Adam Welz The South Africa Freedom Day Concert on the Square was the first major concert ever to be held in Trafalgar Square. The organisers made full use of […]
DIAMOND magnate Nicky Oppenheimer has no plans to raise any higher the buy-out bid for De Beers. “This is a take-it-or-leave it offer,” De Beers chairman Nicky Oppenheimer has told the Johannesburg newspaper Business Day. Oppenheimer is driving the move by the bidding consortium, DB Investments, to turn De Beers into a private company run […]
Khadija Magardie Body Language Allow me to admit it I’m all for a bit of role playing where members of the opposite sex are concerned. Not a tte–tte that may involve riding crops, or Superman capes, more along the lines of my liberated woman sensibilities giving way to a genteelness of helpless abandon; especially when […]
While children with autism require specialised teaching, huge demands on the education budget mean subsidies are woefully inadequate Barbara Erasmus As soon as you enter a classroom at the Key School in Johannesburg, you know these children are different. They don’t look different. Just kids busy with puzzles at their desks. But no one notices […]
Stewart Bailey Tokyo Sexwale is known in Johannesburg’s mining circles as the “rainmaker”; an affectionate nickname alluding to his success in bringing black empowerment in the resource sector into the commercial mainstream. A previously sceptical investment community has applauded the achievements of Sexwale’s Mvelaphanda Mining, the black empowerment business vehicle he created in 1998. Before […]
David Beresford Another Country A wonderfully talented hockey-player at my boarding school went into hospital for a minor operation to relieve a pinched nerve and returned with one leg missing. A cousin who badly fractured an ankle during a rugby match hobbled out of a clinic sporting a broken jaw, having been dropped while being […]
US based Human Rights Watch called on the Democratic Republic of Congo to spare the lives of four child soldiers, who were aged between 14 and 16 when they were sentenced to death by Congo’s Court of Military Order. The rights advocacy group said the DRC has executed at least one child soldier, a 14-year-old […]
Alec Hogg Boardroom talk One of my favourite authors, historian Paul Johnson, summed up his best-selling History of the Modern World (1917 to 1980) with a view that during this period: “The power of the State to do evil expanded with awesome speed. Its power to do good grew slowly and ambiguously.” For the most […]
Grant Shimmin Don’t go wasting that money you were going to put down on the Cats or the Sharks to win the Super 12 this year. The Hurricanes are going to step in and extend the Kiwi domination of the tournament in the closing weeks. At least that’s the opinion of one Doug Golightly. If […]
Specialised Outsourcing is at the heart of a fraud investigation by Umgeni Water Alec Hogg and Bruce Whitfield Reputations, careers and the future of a listed company are on the line as Umgeni Water prepares to release the findings of a controversial report into the awarding of the outsourcing contract of its multibillion-rand treasury. The […]
For eight months after it was opened four years ago the Ethembeni Care Centre stood empty. Today it offers much-needed help to those in crisis from long-term illness Niki Moore From the outside, it looks like any ranch-style colonial home in the middle of a timber plantation in Zululand. An electric fence, huge spreading canopy […]
OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Friday CYRIL Ramaphosa, chairman of the Black Economic Empowerment Commission is to suggest that an Act be promulgated for the economic empowerment of blacks, which will force companies to invest 10% of their assets in areas of national priority, Sake Beeld reports. Beeld said that according to an article on the […]
Marianne Merten A former leader of People against Gangsterism and Drugs (Pagad), Nadthmie Edries, has been arrested for the second time in almost five years on charges related to the August 1996 lynching of Hard Livings gang boss Rashaad Staggie. Sedition charges against Edries, who was ousted as Pagad security chief in an internal leadership […]
up Marianne Merten Under pressure from civil society, the Department of Labour is speeding up the investigation into how best to include domestic and seasonal workers in the proposed revised unemployment benefits. Minister of Labour Membathisi Mdladlana could announce the probe as soon as mid-May with regulations to follow within 12 months of the Unemployment […]
Bruce Whitfield When interviewed on Classic Business shortly after taking over as Specialised Outsourcing (Outsors) chief executive in March last year, Dave McLean was on top form. Upbeat about the firm’s prospects and promising to continue previous management’s policy of promptly releasing quarterly results, he vowed to continue the firm’s rapid growth strategy and insisted […]
Stephen Gray pays tribute to poet Guy Butler, who died last week aged 83 The death of Guy Butler on 26 April in Grahamstown was not unexpected. He had been monitoring a leaky heart valve since the early 1980s, when he bowed out as professor of English at Rhodes University. Yet he enjoyed a productive […]
SECHABA KANKOSI, Johannesuburg | Friday PRESSURE is mounting on African National Congress leaders and, in particular, Minister of Safety and Security Steve Tshwete to publicly withdraw claims that some senior party members are involved in a plot to overthrow President Thabo Mbeki. Members of the partys national executive committee (NEC), Cabinet ministers and senior MPs […]
Peter Robinson cricket Normal service having been resumed by Shaun Pollock’s South Africans in the Caribbean, this might be as good a point as any to consider the vexed question of rotation. By way of explanation, rotation is the selection policy employed by Manchester United football club and the Australian one-day cricket team. As a […]
Stefaans Brmmer An undeclared intelligence unit based at Luthuli House, the African National Congress national headquarters in Johannesburg, played a key role unearthing the “plot” against President Thabo Mbeki. The unit, which appears to report directly to Mbeki in his capacity as ANC president, was deployed as early as 1998 to investigate former Mpumulanga premier […]
Glenda Daniels Had the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) been invited to the African National Congress’s national executive committee (NEC) meeting when the alleged “plot” to oust President Thabo Mbeki was first discussed, the debacle, which has seriously embarrassed the government nationally and internationally, might not have happened. An official of the National […]
South Africa are almost home and dry in their bid to qualify for the World Cup again Ntuthuko Maphumulo If Bafana Bafana manage to overcome Zimbabwe on Saturday, expect Soccer City to erupt as victory would almost guarantee South Africa a place in next year’s World Cup finals in Japan and Korea. Beating our northern […]
Ntuthuko Maphumulo South Africa fared very well in a report on the state of media freedom in Southern Africa, where Zimbabwe led the charts with the highest number of violations. Thursday was World Press Freedom Day, and the Media Institute of Southern Africa (Misa) released its report on the Southern African region titled So This […]
Neal Collins soccer ‘Everything is corrupt.” “It’s like a web of prostitution.” “We have become too commercially orientated.” No, those aren’t the world views of the May 1 anarchists before tearing up the town this week. Just a very frank assessment of Brazilian football, issued by former captain Socrates. A shock 1-1 draw with Peru […]
Mail & Guardian reporter The cops had not found the spent cartridges of the bullets supposedly fired on former African National Congress youth leader James Nkambule on Tuesday night. The shots were apparently fired at his house in Barberton, Mpumalanga, while Nkambule sat watching videos with a friend. Nkambule complained that the police had not […]
Cosatu held its biannual central executive committee meeting from April 24 to 26. The meeting discussed a host of issues. Zwelinzima Vavi reports on the debates on the nature of democracy in South Africa and the anti-privatisation campaign that may culminate in a two-day strike The allegations of a conspiracy against the presidency sparked reflections […]
Ntuthuko Maphumulo hockey The Italians arrived in good spirit just 28 hours before the first match in the five-Test series against South Africa hoping to emulate their soccer counterparts, who beat Bafana 1-0 last week. The visitors’ young squad coped with the drizzle and the altitude but not the home side’s stickwork and hunger for […]
Bruce Whitfield Metcash shareholders have taken an unusual step of rejecting the company’s efforts to lower the price on staff share options. Sixty-eight per cent of shareholders voted in favour of a special resolution that would have effectively meant the cost of the options would have been lowered from 550c to 130c. But the resolution […]
Dr Trudy Thomas has lambasted the ANC-led government for being in the forefront of creating ‘Worse Services for All’ Pule waga Mabe The former MEC of health in the Eastern Cape, who resigned from the provincial legislature last week, has blamed the ruling party’s monetary policies for the collapse of health and social services in […]
whipping boy Champions Day indeed! David Ferraris pulled off a training feat of epic proportions at Turffontein on Saturday when he saddled six of the day’s nine winners and earned more than R1-million in stake money. In the process Ferraris all but ensured that he would regain the champion trainer crown. A good day for […]
Thebe Mabanga in your ear The Internet is increasingly becoming an integral part of how stations pitch themselves to their target audiences. A leisurely browse through the Net to check out various radio stations can spring up surprises ranging from rude to pleasant. You can be jolted into life by the antics of United States […]
James Hall Nothing much disturbs the placid facade of Swaziland, but the murderous escapades of David Mahlanga (45) have shaken assumptions about the kingdom. Mahlanga, who may be responsible for at least 34 deaths, has triggered anxiety because of what his crimes represent a realisation that Swazis can no longer presume they are safe. “Women […]