A US-linked consultant offered to advise on the premier’s security, writes Stefaans Brmmer A private security adviser this year made a bizarre proposal to spy on be- half of Gauteng Premier Mathole Motshekga. The Mail & Guardian is in possession of a draft contract between the premier’s office and security consultant Bob Power – composed […]
Frank Keating Cricket After their ultimately rootless and fidgety show in the West Indies, England’s batsmen this year could be forgiven a collective sigh of relief and a presumption that the home waters will be far less choppy. If so, they have another think coming. Allan Donald is pawing the earth at the end of […]
Ferial Haffajee In your ear It’s good to hear South Africans holding their own among the products of one of the world’s best broadcasters. Safm’s daily joint programme with the BBC is an easy synergy providing a boost to drive-time radio around the country. It is on Safm every day from 5 to 7pm. The […]
`I’m riding high upon a deep depression,’ sings Garbage’s Shirley Manson. But the band’s tunes are exhilarating, cutting-edge rock. Caroline Sullivan reports The Brit Award for best female artist always goes to some pleasant dullard (Gabrielle, Eddi Reader and this year’s winner, Shola Ama, spring to mind) who barely impinges on one’s consciousness the other […]
Ferial Haffajee ‘Steady as he goes.” The seafarer’s motto has served Don Ncube well, and next month this captain of industry steers his ship into new seas. In June he will list Real Africa Durolink, an investment bank of which he owns 37%. These banks are all the rage in this age of mergers, acquisitions […]
The conflict between Hutus and Tutsis in Rwanda is often characterised as mindless ethnic bloodletting. Mahmood Mamdani provides a far more complex background to the conflict No two conflicting groups in the Great Lakes region have a longer and more comprehensive history of intermarriage than do the Hutu and the Tutsi. Intermarriage between the Hutu […]
Ferial Haffajee They have been living together for just a year and now they’re getting married. The happy couple tying a R70-million knot are the advertising agencies Azaguys and Meintjes-Parker. It’s something of a cross-cultural affair. Meintjes-Parker is a distinguished old Afrikaans firm with a client list to match. They count Saambou, CTM, Clover, Subaru […]
Angella Johnson The first thing Hazel Kidson did on entering the Johannesburg courtroom where she is standing trial for murdering her husband was reapply her lipstick. Then the bejewelled 52-year-old sat clutching her miniature Bible. “I always carry it with me,” she later explained. After more than a year in jail, she was dressed to […]
Johnny Masilela BLACK PERSPECTIVE(S) ON TERTIARY INSTITUTIONAL TRANSFORMATION edited by Sipho Seepe (Vivlia/ University of Venda, R39,90) Once upon a time a young university student lamented that as the only African (except for menial workers) he was regarded at best as a curiosity, and at worst as an interloper. The institution was Wits University, the […]
Wally Mbhele Mounting frustration over the continued incarceration of Robert McBride, who has been languishing in a Mozambican jail without trial for almost two-and-a-half months, has prompted calls for the South African government to become more active in securing the freedom of its foreign affairs official. After the Mozambican authorities failed this week either to […]