Ivor Powell Nosizwe Madlala-Routledge, the newly appointed deputy minister of defence, is no militaristic hawk or securocrat. She’s a self-professed pacifist – and a practising member of the Society of Friends or Quaker movement. She is married to Jeremy Routledge, the director of the Quaker Peace Centre in Cape Town. In the 1980s the centre […]
respect you’ Sarah Ruden Okay, okay – don’t forget the United States entirely. You need those tourists, and you need foreign direct investment. But the irony is that economic progress is not going to happen if the South African government is craven in following advice from abroad. Current American economic policy, even as applied in […]
AN electric locomotive pulling 18 goods trucks derailed on Thursday at Rosenegal near Middelburg in Mpumalanga, causing damage of more than R100 million. Police said that the train driver and his assistant were missing. The train was on the way to deliver titanium slabs to Highveld Steel at Witbank when the accident happened at about […]
Loose cannon Robert Kirby There’s an ancient Australian proverb which runs: “By his piss-up mates shall you know your neighbour best.” Attributed to Dunny the Elder, the wisdom of the saying is self-evident. This appealing fragment of Antipodean social philosophy came rushing to mind when I read in last Sunday’s newspapers that among the host […]
Shaun de Waal Low-budget movie of the week In Rose Troche’s debut feature, Go Fish, a lesbian is put on “trial” by her peers for daring to contemplate the idea of sex with a man. This scene seemed to confirm some viewers’ worst fears about lesbians, but Troche’s intention was indubitably satirical. Her satire, though, […]
David le Page Finding out that there is a special cellphone service for deaf people was a little puzzling. After all, surely any phone with a vibrating alarm, which is pretty standard, and a normal short message service (SMS) – just as standard- can work perfectly well as a wireless communicator for deaf people? Sure […]
Wonder Hlongwa A taxi driver from Pinetown in KwaZulu- Natal claims he was arrested, handcuffed to a chair for seven hours, assaulted and suffocated after he reported to police that his minibus was stolen. Three weeks ago, the minibus Mthokozisi Mwelase (26) drives was stolen outside his home. He reported the theft at the Marianhill […]
Angela Neustatter Body Language Mid-life isn’t what it used to be. The days when women of a certain age were expected to fade into the wallpaper, wearing beige crimplene and accepting they had reached their sell-by date, are no more than a memory. And what has caused this disruption of the definition of mid-life? The […]
THURSDAY, 12.15PM: BAFANA Bafana may be out of the World Cup finals, but they have reason enough to hold their heads high, writes ROB DAVIES. The fact that the South Africans qualified for the tournament is testimony to their spirit and their commitment to South African soccer. For a side that has only been playing […]
priority The Border Rural Committee (BRC) and Eastern Cape provincial office of the Department of Land Affairs were shocked to read in the Mail & Guardian (“Back to the bad old days”, June 18 to 24) the allegation of a lack of departmental interest in the Extension of Security of Tenure Act (Esta). The article […]