There are grounds for hope that the story with which we are leading this week’s edition of the Mail & Guardian will represent a watershed in relations between the press and the judiciary – showing, as it does, the appreciation of those two institutions as to the primacy of justice, as opposed to merely the […]

THE United States has agreed to delegate one of its most senior law enforcers, US attorney general Janet Reno, to head a new binational crime committee with South Africa. The new subcommittee on crime and justice will be launched by US vice-president Al Gore at the seventh meeting of the US-SA Binational Commission in Cape […]

Adam Levin chats to some of the greats coming to Benoni this weekend about the politics and possibilities of world music The first time I heard Yungchen Lhamo’s heavenly, snow-pure, bone-rattling voice was in 1995 at Womadelaide, the Australian version of the unmissable event coming to Benoni this weekend … Only Miss Lhamo was rather […]

ZIMBABWEAN writer Yvonne Vera, author of Under the Tongue, which won the Commonwealth prize in 1997 (Africa Region), has been awarded Sweden’s The Voice of Africa literary award for 1999. Vera (34) will be presented with the award at a function at the Gothenburg Book Fair. 11

Loose cannon: Robert Kirby I can’t imagine why such a fuss is being made about the appointment of Mr Ramesh Vassen as consul general to India. Anyone with two eyes in his head could see it coming a mile off. The appointment of one’s political buddies into high office has always been within the purview […]

Chiara Carter A by-election in Lotus River on the Cape Flats this week showed the New National Party still has clout with coloured voters. Although the Democratic Party has begun making inroads in heartlands of working-class coloured voters, it stands little chance of supplanting the NNP overnight. NNP candidate Nur-ud-din Bell won the ward with […]

THE Angolan army claimed on Friday to have recaptured the strategically important northern town of Mbanza-Congo from Unita rebels.The city, 500km north of Luanda, near the border with the Democratic Republic of Congo, is among the main points of access to economic targets such as the oil fields of Soyo on the Atlantic coast about […]

DEMOCRATIC Party Gauteng leader Peter Leon told the Gauteng legislature on Thursday that he has information that a gambling operator paid R1-million to a Gauteng MEC to secure a casino license. Leon refused repeated requests to name the MEC. Leon subsequently came under fire from leader of the house Firoz Cachalia, who charged that Leon […]

Matthew Krouse Down the tube You’ve probably caught the new SABC2 commercial – but if you haven’t, try not to mistake it for a Sun International campaign. It’s not about any reality in particular, rather it’s a pretty tidbit about four different types of over- dressed Africans, representing the four elements. After short, but dramatic […]

Jamie Doward Online war is set to break out when Christie’s announces later this year that it will hold auctions over the Internet, putting it in direct competition with Sotheby’s. Two weeks ago, Sotheby’s, the world’s oldest international auction house, revealed it was to develop an Internet trading arm for art, antiques, jewellery and collectibles. […]