Werner Menges An ambitious attempt to clean up an apartheid eyesore has landed Namibia’s former housing minister – the winner of a United Nations housing award – and top officials in the Ministry of Housing in the largest corruption trial since independence. The Windhoek High Court heard evidence about confused responsibilities, denials and disregard for […]

John Grobler Muckraking for fun and profit As a newspaperman for some 40 years, Windhoek Observer editor Hannes Smith is no stranger to controversy or to charges of contempt of court – he has had more of those laid against him than he cares to remember. Controversy has always been the middle name of his […]

Andy Duffy Cape Town City Council has pulled the plug on the car-watch scheme it set up in front of its headquarters, after a flood of complaints that its parking attendants were harassing and robbing motorists. The scheme, piloted early last year and running formally since December, was canned last Friday after the council decided […]

Mail & Guardian reporters Hollywood loves a spectacle – and a spectacular blockbuster goes straight to its heart. That’s why Titanic, the most expensive movie ever made and also a huge hit, has matched the record for the most Oscar nominations (14). That’s a tie with 1950’s All About Eve, though Titanic is beginning to […]

Maria McCloy The Independent Broadcasting Authority seems to be taking a more softly-softly approach with Radio Islam. This week the Lenasia-based community station was given another 30-day temporary licence. The IBA said the licence has been granted to enable Radio Islam to continue broadcasting over Haj, the time when Muslims make the annual pilgrimage to […]

Global climate change is spawning deadly epidemics in Africa, writes Fred Pearce For the second time in six months, the world is glimpsing the consequences of escalating climate change. After triggering the choking havoc of smoke from Indonesian forest fires last autumn, the worst El Nio for 50 years has in the past two months […]

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 […]

Incentive schemes are big business, writes Belinda Beresford It’s nice to be wanted. It’s even nicer if your desirability is displayed in a concrete way, say by an exclusive lounge at the airport, special discounts on purchases, a bigger company car or even the odd little gift. Motivating people to do what you want is […]

On the way to interview Joe Theron, publisher of Hustler and the largest porn- video distributor in the country, my taxi driver opined: “For this pornography thing, I’m a bit concerned about the area of morals. I think I can tell my child these things myself. My parents told me babies came from aeroplanes but […]