Mail & Guardian reporter Tony O’Reilly spends as he earns – liberally. When the estate of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis came under the hammer at Sotheby’s two years ago, O’Reilly paid $2,6- million for a 40-carat diamond engagement ring given to the former first lady by Aristotle Onassis. The former Ireland rugby star-turned-ketchup king was last […]

Monica Hilton-Barber : Slice of life The golden glow of goodwill between different South Africans may have dimmed and the initial dream of racial integration become more distant since the initial euphoria following the elections four years ago. But the rainbow is still bright and beautiful in many parts of the country. Number 23 Van […]

Andrew Higgins As banks wobble and crash across Asia, a sparkling, futuristic structure is rising on the Avenue of Eternal Peace in Beijing. It is a grandiose declaration of confidence by China’s biggest commercial bank. But the edifice stands on unsteady foundations. The Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC)is, by any reckoning, a wreck. […]

Ferial Haffajee Newspaper magnate Tony O’Reilly jetted into South Africa this week for a regular inspection of his African interests – no doubt he will also make time to heal an important relationship. President Nelson Mandela’s December attack in Mafikeng on foreign-owned media and its abiding white management could not have gone down well with […]

Lizeka Mda : City Limits A lifetime ago, couples would sit in Pioneer Park and smooch over a lunch of fish and chips, while mothers kept a beady eye on children mesmerised by a statue of leaping springboks. Ten years ago the park, wedged behind the Rissik Street post office and Joubert Street, still vaguely […]

Peter Makurube and Charl Blignaut Johannesburg songstress Thembi Mtshali has just wrapped up shooting her role in Steven Spielberg’s ambitious new movie Deep Impact. “It’s not a big role, but it’s a big step forward in a very tough market,” she said this week in a telephone interview from Washington DC. A spin-off of George […]

The Mail & Guardian announces two new features. From this week we are launching a new political column, Crossfire, which is to be written on a rotational basis by some of the leading commentators in the country. In the first Crossfire, Jeremy Cronin asks under what conditions a merger between the African National Congress and […]

Dogged by hyenas The dog-eat-dog world of the wild, not just human interference, may be contributing significantly to the demise of the African wild dog. The critically endangered species, with only about 5 000 animals remaining in the wild, may be succumbing not just to loss of habitat but also to thievery by spotted hyenas, […]

Wonder Hlongwa The investigative task unit head, Bushy Engelbrecht, this week applied to have part of Sifiso Nkabinde’s trial held in camera. Engelbrecht said six witnesses fear that if their identities become known in the course of testifying against Nkabinde in an open court, their lives will be in danger. The former African National Congress […]

Wally Mbhele A combined police and intelligence operation is closing in on the heist gangs and may see some of the masterminds behind the spate of cash-in-transit robberies nabbed soon. Sources within both the intelligence and the safety and security departments this week dismissed claims by one of the alleged brains behind the heists, Collin […]