Do annual government budgets really matter? A great fuss invariably accompanies them and they attract a degree of examination which seems quite disproportionate for what they usually turn out to be. In fact, the annual budget is really little more than a household accounting of how much money will be needed to pay for the […]

Matthew Krouse Down the tube `Greetings to Germany from the youth of South Africa!” They could have been words on a corny postcard – a happy message to friends, from friends far away. But they weren’t. Rather, they were the prelude to an in-your-face cultural confrontation that, with the aid of advanced technology, will be […]

After holding the number one spot on the World Music Charts for two months solid, Busi Mhlongo launches her long-awaited second album, UrbanZulu, at home. Bongani Madondo gets to the source of her sound Despite the sea breeze caressing my extra melanin-ebonied skin in a way no massage parlour can, on this particular Friday Durban’s […]

police New evidence has emerged that arch-rivals David Ntombela and Sifiso Nkabinde were both security police informers. Mail & Guardian reporters investigate Two of KwaZulu-Natal’s most notorious warlords – seemingly on opposite sides of the political fence – were agents of the security police and were at one stage handled by the same policeman. Sifiso […]

ANGLOGOLD and Iamgold announced an initial estimate of 1,9-million ounces of gold for the Yatela deposit, located 25km north of the Sadiola Gold Mine in Mali, West Africa. Yatela is owned by the 50:50 Anglogold/Iamgold joint venture, Sadex. The estimate was based on 455 boreholes totalling 21381 samples. “The resource estimates will continue to be […]

When I first walk into the Association for Visual Arts, primed to review Medina Morphet’s exhibition of abstract art, it’s disconcerting to first encounter the illustrative drawings of Bongi Bengu. There also seem to be two distinct crowds here tonight, a relatively bourgeois, middle class crowd who are attracted to Bengu’s narrative depiction, and a […]

Howard Barrell The praise heaped on Minister of Finance Trevor Manuel for his budget by the African National Congress and its alliance partners relied upon the government’s determination to delay until after the election a number of politically awkward economic decisions it knows it must take soon. The South African Communist Party and the Congress […]

Wonder Hlongwa The family of Muzikayifani Zingubo say he was repairing the door of his shack when the commandos of Weenen, KwaZulu-Natal, arrived at the squatter camp. Assigned by the farming community to provide security, the armed commandos accused 49-year- old Zingubo of shooting dead Aleta Vanenberg and wounding her husband, Piet, on their Weenen […]

Eliminating unfair discrimination and making class distinctions a punishable offence is the aim of new legislation. Charlene Smith reports Capitalism will stand in the dock if new equality legislation to be presented to Minister of Justice Dullah Omar becomes law. In terms of the Prevention and Prohibition of Unfair Discrimination Bill, the “market economy” which […]

Studies show that forcing children to use computers is creating techno-anxiety and impairing the learning process. Louise MacLeod reports There may be a huge vault of health information on the Internet, but how healthy is using the technology itself? Researchers in the United States have recently reported that people who spend even a few hours […]