OWN CORRESPONDENT, Maseru | Thursday 10.00pm. LESOTHO public servants who have stayed away from government offices in Maseru for three days due to pressure from opposition parties were ordered back to work on Friday. An announcement on Radio Lesotho from Prime Minister Pakalitha Mosisili’s office said public servants should return to work at once. The […]

RobertKirby : Loosecannon I would like to express my gratitude to Kader Asmal for his good-natured response (“Kirby should look before he leaps”, September 11 to 17) to a column of mine in which I suggested he needed a wake-up call on the matter of the Dukuduku forest – or what is left of the […]

Richard Cornwell and Jakkie Potgieter Propaganda claims to the contrary, there appears to be a relative lull in the fighting in the Democratic Republic of Congo, as the various forces regroup and resupply, while the deteriorating weather makes the large-scale movement of mechanised troops increasingly difficult. This provides a breathing space in which the region’s […]

After hundreds of years of research, the molecular spark that triggered life still puzzles scientists, writes Paul Davies In Mary Shelley’s novel Frankenstein, the monster is brought to life by a bolt of electricity. This procedure fitted in with the 19th-century view that living matter is somehow distinct from non-living matter, and that an organism […]

Julienne du Toit There are few things that strike fear into the heart of an environmentalist faster than high-speed industrialisation in remote, beautiful areas. Spatial Development Initiatives (SDIs) have been planned on and near some of the finest beauty spots. So the response of many environmentalists and environmental organisations has ranged between outrage and mistrust, […]

He’s known for his long, soft notes, but it’s the wild brushstrokes of Miles Davis that are about to get Jo’burg talking. Matthew Krouse and Alex Dodd check it out When Miles Davis was hit by a stroke in the late Seventies, his hand went into paralysis and he was terrified that he would never […]

Andrew Worsdale The French, arguably, invented cinema, although there is some contention that Thomas Edison was the founder. Either way, thanks to brothers Auguste andLouis Lumire, cinema became part of daily life with screenings at Paris’s Grand Caf in 1895. Frenchman George Mlis, probably the first cinema artist, developed special effects to create a pantomime […]

It is as much of a pleasure to talk to Julian Joseph as it is to listen to his music, writes Charles Leonard There must be a factory where they make guys like young British jazz pianist, Julian Joseph. He is the third bright young(ish) thing I’ve interviewed on visits to South Africa facilitated by […]

Food : Matthew Krouse Alighting from one’s car and approaching the Wangthai Restaurant, in Pretoria’s genteel nook of Brooklyn, one is greeted by the strangest apparition. A bevy of blonde waitresses, in flowing saris, bowing in infinite submission. It’s the start of a fabulous romance – the love we feel for our stomachs. Wangthai is […]

The United Nations last week called for urgent action to raise the living standards of the world’s poor after disclosing that a billion people have been left out of the consumption boom of the past two decades. In its annual Human Development Report, the UN said gross inequalities between rich and poor countries were getting […]