A team of researchers is close to developing a drug that might help people with Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s Anthea Garman Human beings will live longer in the 21st century. But the bad news is that they will suffer more from brain denegeration diseases such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s. But, says Oxford University neuro- pharmacologist Susan […]
Steven Friedman WORM’S EYE VIEW The “meaningless” may mean more than we think. One example may be parliamentary questions. The African National Congress wants to re-engineer them by allocating them to parties according to their strength. And it has scrapped “interpellations” in which MPs can initiate debates with ministers. This has drawn predictable reaction from […]
Paul Kirk More details about the intelligence services’ complicity in KwaZulu-Natal political violence came to light this week when it emerged that a top army spy held secret meetings with one of Richmond’s most notorious killers while the killer was being hunted by police. Bob Ndlovu, otherwise known as “Comrade Bob”, was once described by […]
Womad, the North Sea Jazz Festival and the Sama awards last week overloaded the aural senses of the nation Nicky Blumenfeld The term “pink noise” best describes the momentous series of events which took place in our land of plenty last weekend. It refers to the sound produced when combining all the frequencies of the […]
PRESIDENT Thabo Mbeki expressed sorrow at the death on Thursday of Tunisia’s first president Habib Bourguiba and praised his efforts for the development of Africa. Bourguiba, Tunisia’s first president after independence from France in 1956, died on Thursday after a long illness. He was 96. Africa “feels greatly indebted to the efforts of leaders such […]
Andy Capostagno RUGBY It was only a matter of time, really. South African rugby is in crisis, let’s find a scapegoat and ask Louis Luyt, if he’s not doing anything important, whether he would like to ride to the rescue. Things have been entirely too stable in the corridors of power, it’s time for the […]
A landmark court judgment could force women to choose between having a family and pursuing a career Khadija Magardie The Labour Appeal Court has ruled that it is fair for employers to reject work applications for senior positions from women because they are pregnant. The judgment, delivered this week, is the first ever decision by […]
Kotli Molise RIGHT TO REPLY There is a gross misrepresentation of facts and distortions in two of Ivor Powell’s articles about the third cellular licencing process (“Cell C scored third with Satra”, March 24 to 30, and “Satra split over Cell C decision”, March 31 to April 6). It is not correct that the South […]
Iden Wetherell Zimbabwe’s headlong descent in to anarchy was given a further shove this week by President Robert Mugabe’s renewed support for land invasions and the refusal of police to rescue farmers from violent mobs of ruling Zanu-PF party supporters. The police said they didn’t have sufficient vehicles or fuel to intervene but, in reality, […]
Jane Rosenthal EMBRACE by Mark Behr (Little, Brown) Mark Behr’s first novel, The Smell of Apples, was prescribed for schools and won the M-Net and CNA Awards more or less simultaneously with his revelation of his spying activities in the apartheid era. Or so it would seem in the popular memory. His new novel, Embrace, […]