Nicholas Fraser: Down the tube Oprah Winfrey is Chicago’s sustaining local deity, a queen of popular consciousness whose every alteration of size or mood is avidly followed. Green signs direct proud bus drivers under the E1 to the Harpo (“it’s her name spelled backwards”) studios. You enter a marble and cream lobby, traverse a human […]

Anton Harber: Crossfire George Lai Thom was South African open and welterweight judo champion in 1965. The Sunday Times wrote that “Mr Thom is said to have done more to further judo in the republic than any other man.” He had won a title every year since 1962 and, at 24, was described as the […]

Suzy Bell Allegations have surfaced that the newly appointed deputy director general in the Department of Arts, Culture, Science and Technology, Musa Xulu, has given false testimony and participated in a fraudulent substitution of documents in an attempt to prove a case of misconduct against a former colleague and teacher. Jeff Robinson, who has taught […]

The Mail & Guardian continued its steady growth with the latest ABC circulation figures showing a 5% year-on-year increase. The paper’s ABC figure from July to December last year was 34 144 copies, compared with 32 510 for the last six months of 1996. The paper experienced its highest sale ever over the Christmas period, […]

Tim Radford Humans have underestimated their closest relatives. They cannot form words, but that does not mean they cannot speak. Bonobos – pygmy chimpanzees observed in the wild – post directions and leave notes for each other when they disperse on the forest floor. And recent research has shown something unexpected: a special area of […]

Neve Gordon in Indiana We had just left the headquarters of Arthur Andersen, a consulting and accounting firm that employs more than 50 000 people, as I said to my friend: “The proof is in the cubicle.” In 1996, short of space, Arthur Andersen had relocated to a nicer building in downtown Chicago. Many of […]

Ferial Haffajee Investigative journalists Max du Preez and Jacques Pauw have been commissioned to produce a weekly investigative programme for the SABC. “Special Assignment will carry on the tradition of TRC Special Report,” says Du Preez. His weekly programme on the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and related issues has kept the probe into the country’s […]

Thabo Mbeki is an intelligent man with long experience of the press. When he complained this week that the press was failing to inform the public – pointing out that only 17% of Nelson Mandela’s Mafikeng speech had been conveyed to readers – we initially assumed he was making a joke. In the absence of […]

Mukoni T Ratshitanga While political parties are busy grappling with programmes on racial equity, authorities in the NorthWest appear blissfully ignorant of the damage that could be caused by their failure to change the names of places. On the N14 highway outside the town of Coligny, a sign points the way to Kafferskraal, 12km away. […]

Marion Edmunds Two former Western Cape housing officials are skimming hefty profits off the provincial low-cost housing programme in exchange for processing subsidy information for the state. The Centre for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) has appointed RR, a Cape- Town based consultancy run by two former senior departmental officials, to help manage electronic subsidy […]