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 […]

Sechaba ka’Nkosi Embattled Gauteng MEC for Safety and Security Jessie Duarte came out this week with guns blazing in a bid to clear her name from what she calls a “smear campaign” against her. In an exclusive four-hour interview with the Mail & Guardian at her Johannesburg home, Duarte said while she was willing 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 […]

Madeleine Wackernagel : Taking Stock One subject has dominated the financial news in the past six months – the Asian crisis. The coverage has been phenomenal, with every economist and his neighbour wading into the debate, dissecting the causes, prescribing solutions. Not all the analysis has been correct, and much of it has been emotive. […]

Chris Roper When Arno Carstens, the dynamically imperious lead singer of The Springbok Nude Girls, leans into his microphone and tells his adoring fans, “Let’s make this the year we say `Fuck South African music – and enjoy it!’” you know you’re witnessing a sea- change in local music as well as an erotic double […]

Stefaans Brmmer and Ann Eveleth An extraordinary legal battle reaching to the office of Deputy President Thabo Mbeki is set to reach a climax in the Johannesburg High Court next week when ousted Zairean dictator Mobutu Sese Seko’s military elite demand continued safe haven in South Africa. The court hearing follows months of legal wrangling, […]

Maria McCloy The multi-media revolution hit Khayelitsha in July 1997. That’s when a colourful tower came up, built by Rainbow Nation Community Towers Project. It’s a tower with a difference and it broadcasts programmes as varied as soccer matches, news, the DStv music show Channel O, SABC and M-Net as well as educational videos and […]

Janet Smith Deon van der Walt’s conversation is blunt. They use “cum doubles”, he reveals, when South African men can’t get it together at the critical climactic moment in porn movies. Unlike our men, American actors can apparently shoot from the groin in three minutes. They’re very professional about it. A quick chat with the […]