genius He is serving a life sentence for the murder of his mother, but he is quite unlike any other inmate. His tale leads from Mexico to Nazi Germany and Hollywood. And he’s a chess grandmaster. Julian Borger follows the bizarre trail of Claude Bloodgood The prisons of Virginia are strung out like dark farmhouses […]
Andy Colquhoun Rugby The Stormers should have been given a ticker- tape parade down Adderley Street when they arrived back in Cape Town earlier this week. Wins Down Under by South African sides occur only as frequently as Fiji fail to win the Hong Kong Sevens – which is to say almost never. The storm […]
Evidence wa ka Ngobeni The Kruger National Park has called on tourists to help back up its contention that there are still plenty of healthy lions in the reserve – despite the impact of bovine tuberculosis (TB). The call follows reports that TB is wiping out Kruger Park lions, which are a prime attraction for […]
At a recent seminar on journalism in Africa, I was asked about the Mail & Guardian’s uncomfortable relationship with the office of Deputy President Thabo Mbeki. Was there something uniquely African about the apparent intolerance of criticism at the highest levels of our government? Not at all, I shot back. The experience of our sister […]
DAY ONE (Thursday) Dagga Makes The World Go Round `Follow!” yells the bored, overweight prison guard as he slams shut the outer door of Pretoria Local’s first floor. “Follow! Follow! Follow!” He moves down the line counting the 25 “new ones” that are hastily kneeling in twos on the floor along the outer wall of […]
Matthew Krouse Down the tube When did we become a nation obsessed with yacking? Presently there are no fewer than nine chat shows on TV, four of which get repeated, consuming about 15 hours of viewing time a week. The American ones all look the same – wide stages bulging with interesting furniture, portable screens […]
are greatest threat to Africa’s wildlife The Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism said last week it will investigate a funding scandal involving the police’s endangered species protection unit. The unit’s commander, Pieter Lategan, takes on his critics A Zambian representative at a conference of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (Cites) once […]
The public protector’s decision to assist a highly paid academic who was suspended and sacked for financial impropriety and abuse of power is one of the low points of the watchdog’s first stint in office. Selby Baqwa spent 13 months intervening in the disciplinary probe of the academic, the former vice-chancellor of the Vaal Technikon, […]
Progressive policies are needed to make the Klein Karoo festival more inclusive, writes Lauren Shantall It’s the only place where Bles Bridges performs solo inside Joshua Doore. Bheki Mkhwane and Ellis Pearson take their energetic physical theatre to the streets amid placards bearing questions like “Waar’s Ons Volkstaat?” brandished by black performance artists. It’s a […]
Nato air attacks on Serbian military targets continue in what is clearly a paradoxical exercise: the emphasis on air intervention has worsened Serbian attacks on Kosovar military and civilians, bringing the prospect of Nato ground intervention to establish control – peacemaking – imminent; and the expanded Serbian repression has increased Kosovar support for independence, a […]