by Yemeli ORTEGA Adriana Fargo nervously bites her lip as she waits for news on the fate of her seven-year-old daughter, feared buried in the earthquake-hit remains of a Mexico City elementary and middle school.
President Jacob Zuma, hounded by 783 corruption charges and saved by the immunity conferred on him by his office, will do anything to stay out of jail. South Africa’s fate depends on how this existential nightmare is resolved. This country is always five minutes to midnight. Another minute is about to tick by. RICHARD POPLAK watches the clock.
What do former Eskom board member Mark Pamensky, former Eskom CFO Anoj Singh, and at least four of the ousted KPMG partners have in common? At least two things, it turns out. First, they have all been implicated in some measure of wrongdoing as a result of the #GuptaLeaks saga (and in KPMG’s case, the handling of the SARS report, too). And second, they are all registered chartered accountants. If it’s possible to single out one professional designation as coming off the worst from this unholy mess, it might just be CA (SA). By REBECCA DAVIS.
Senzo Mchunu has been a player in KwaZulu-Natal politics for over two decades. When he took to the stand at the Moerane Commission to testify about what he thinks are the reasons for the recent assassinations in the province, it was worth sitting up and listening. The ANC must accept responsibility for the killings, he said, recommending that dialogue would be the best way to deal with divisions and faction fights. Some were sceptical following a recent court judgment on the 2015 provincial conference. By CARIEN DU PLESSIS.
On Friday 15 September KPMG International made a dramatic admission that KPMG SA had fallen way short of governance standards, qualities and ethics in relation to work the global auditing giant had done for the Gupta family as well as in compiling a report for SARS into the “rogue unit”. This triggered an exodus of several senior leaders while new CEO, Nhlamulo Dlomu, stepped into the flaming cockpit of the jumbo. Can she crash-land safely? By MARIANNE THAMM.
As the ANC’s elective conference in December gets closer and closer it appears, surprisingly, that some of the heat is leaving the party. That instead of the two factions getting more and more intense in their competition with each other, there is an easing of hostilities. This may be because it’s been a long year, and they’re saving up for the final sprint. But it may also be because the chance of some kind of compromise is in the works. Or that everyone in the party now realises that the major aim should be simply to keep the party going. Either way, the ANC may be preparing to muddle through rather than deal outright with the tensions plaguing it. By STEPHEN GROOTES.
Now that US President Donald Trump has delivered his first address to the UN General Assembly’s autumnal opening in New York City, J. BROOKS SPECTOR takes a look at the rhetoric and reality of this speech.
Late on Wednesday, scientists at Wits University announced that they had possibly found a missing piece of the puzzle in how complex life evolved. But if South Africa is to continue putting itself on the map where fundamental science is concerned, we face significant funding hurdles. By MARELISE VAN DER MERWE.
Stricter quotas are failing as fishers turn to poaching to make a living. By Steve Kretzmann for GROUNDUP.
In a year when presidential elections are decided, no stokvel meeting is too small or live event too big to overlook when you are campaigning. Death might be a great leveller, but Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma seized the chance to get one up on the rest of them by being the keynote speaker at the recently-held Funeral Indaba in Durban. By CARIEN DU PLESSIS.
The government encourages corruption to make up for its inability to fund its own institutions. By DEREK MATYSZAK for ISS TODAY.
In the Western Cape, child murders have dominated the news over the past few months. These brutal killings of defenceless children have understandably caused much outrage and civil society organisations have called for decisive action by the Western Cape Government, in particular for a commission of inquiry to stem the tide of these killings. However, is a commission of inquiry an appropriate response when we know enough about this problem to take action now? By SHANAAZ MATHEWS and LORNA MARTIN.
Ekapa Minerals has abandoned part of its interdict against zama zama miners, calling into question the validity of the entire interdict, writes Safura Abdool Karim for GROUNDUP.
A revolution is brewing in the hearts and minds of Africa’s youth. By JODI WILLIAMS.
The constitution of Zimbabwe recognises the rights of persons with disabilities but is limited as it states that government is mandated to act if resources permit, which the already cash-strapped and ailing Zimbabwe government can use in order not to honour its obligation to provide appropriate services for the disabled. By SALLY NYAKANYANGA.
Massive earthquake hits Mexico, Manafort outraged over leaks, and WWI submarine discovered.
Three years after the Khayelitsha Commission of Inquiry, the office of the Western Cape Premier said it was satisfied with the progress it was making in turning things around. But the activists who set the ball rolling are not so sure. They say the National Ministry of Police is not coming to the party, limiting the capacity of others to keep making improvements. The matter will be heard in the Equality Court in November. By MARELISE VAN DER MERWE.
You are the guardians of us as citizens, sworn to uphold ethics in the business sector, I told the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants this week. Courage is free. It has to be more action than hanging a portrait of Nelson Mandela in your reception or boardroom, or doing the CEO sleep-out, or committing to 67-whatever.
How must government go about resourcing schools without sacrificing democratic school governance and facilitating further inequality and further alienation of mainly poor communities from claiming their schools as sites of liberation and empowerment?
If the ANC allows individual ambitions to dominate instead of doing what is right come the December elective conference, we will see trouble when it comes to the 2019 general elections.
Not everyone who participates in the world of Cape wine is a recreational consumer of the fruits of our vineyards: there are other consumers, living in communities where hope for a better life has long ago faded into the gloom of despair, and where alcohol – cheap wine, and cheaper so-called ales – as well as tik and nyaope are used to block out the vista of desperation extending endlessly into the future. If the industry wishes to transform this labour from a burden borne with resentment to a career of choice, it must come with skills development and the prospect of skilled labour rates and job satisfaction.
Losing It
Atletico Madrid's new 68,000 capacity Wanda Metropolitano stadium will host the 2019 Champions League final, European football's governing body UEFA announced on Wednesday.
Jake LaMotta, the former middleweight boxing champion who was portrayed in the Martin Scorsese film "Raging Bull," has died at the age of 95, his family announced Wednesday.
Tanzanian President John Magufuli on Wednesday ordered the army to build a wall around the country's tanzanite mines to prevent smuggling and better control exports of the precious gems unique to the East African country.
Researchers at a remote Australian Antarctic station have received their first-ever food drop from a plane Tuesday after a successful maiden mid-air refuelling over the icy region.
by Tristan MCCONNELL Kenya's Supreme Court on Wednesday placed the blame for last month's annulled presidential vote firmly on the election commission, in its full ruling detailing the judges' decision.
Cape Town – South Africa should not pin its hopes for recovery from the brutality of the country's past on the ANC's December elective conference, said politician and academic Mamphela Ramphele in Cape Town on Wednesday.
by Jennifer GONZALEZ COVARRUBIAS When the earthquake hit, it sent panicked people running into the street but many weren't so lucky. The dust settled minutes later to reveal a landscape of flattened buildings and rubble in the heart of Mexico City.
Cape Town – The Cape Peninsula University of Technology (CPUT) has again been targeted by arsonists, with its Mowbray and Bellville campuses coming under attack in the early hours of Wednesday morning.
