aspirations Dr Eddy Maloka CROSSFIRE South Africa’s geopolitical position within the region and xenophobia were raised sharply in articles that have appeared in the Mail & Guardian recently. These critical issues are raised against the background of our country’s call for the “African renaissance” which has failed to bring on board the old debate about […]

Untiring, unrepentant and unscathed, ‘Teflon Don’ is boxing on, writes Donald McRae ‘See you in Paris, baby,” Don King had promised as the diamond-studded crucifix swung gently from his massive neck. And so, big Don being a man of his word, it came to pass. A day later we walked through Paris together. His cross […]

Mail & Guardian reporters The three SABC executives named in a report alleging commissioning irregularities are: the SABC’s head of television, Molefe Mokgatle; the head of corporate communications, Thaninga Shope; and the control account finance manager, Prince Phaweni. The report, compiled by the auditing company KPMG, has recommended that the three executives be suspended pending […]

Movies of the week Political corruption lies behind the events in both Divorcing Jack and An Ideal Husband, the two most impressive movies to open this week, and both are from the British Isles. Apart from that, they couldn’t be more different. Divorcing Jack is David Caffrey’s feature debut, and it’s a lunatically fine one. […]

Marianne Merten A new report on moneylending in South Africa questions the effectiveness of the recently established Micro Finance Regulatory Council to regulate the R15- billion industry often accused of widespread malpractice. A Black Sash report says new measures have downscaled moneylending to a consumer issue which addresses neither the unwillingness of the formal banking […]

FOSSIL remains of two new types of herbivorous dinosaur dating back more than 100-million years have been discovered in Niger, nearly intact. The largest of the two dinosaurs, named Jobaria tiguidensis, unknown until its recent discovery by an international team, is 17 meters long and had spatula-like teeth which enabled it to munch on small […]

Khadija Magardie Mention the word “witch” and the imagination is likely to conjure up a host of images, ranging from black-shrouded spinsters bent over cauldrons to New Age hippies dancing naked in the moonlight. Few will expect them to be a group of rather pleasant-looking women and men, lounging around a garden patio with a […]

receive their rewards Awhopping R700 000 is on offer for organisations which deliver innovative poverty reduction programmes, writes Barry Streek A programme to recognise and reward innovative poverty reduction projects for government delivery programmes with R700 000 to 15 different projects has provoked huge interest from both the government and NGOs. In a rush to […]

If any proof were needed that the SABC’s management and governing board has failed in its duty to the South African public, that was forthcoming during interviews for a new board in Cape Town this week. Reluctantly, both outgoing board chair Professor Paulus Zulu and finance subcommittee members Paul Davis and Litha Nyonyha finally admitted […]

Iden Wetherell As Commonwealth leaders meet in Durban this weekend, relations between Harare and London, which have been plummeting since the election of Tony Blair’s Labour government in 1997, are at a new low. Calls for Zimbabwe to be expelled from the association of former British colonies for human rights abuses are mounting. The two […]