Alan Gignoux explains why 30 families prefer uneasy exile to post-apartheid South Africa `Most people are here because they thought South Africa was going to burn. I am here because it did not,” said a newcomer to South Africa’s 30-family community in Caaguazu, eastern Paraguay. “De Klerk sold out his country”; “We did not even […]

Johannesburg’s night A Johannesburger through and through, Mark Varder has realised, after a hijacking, that his city is the near-death experience I am sitting on a green vinyl chair on the second floor of the Bramley Police Station. It is 7.30am. The man across the room is about to speak on the phone. “Hell-o-o-o-oh,” he […]

Craig Bishop `My neighbours still believe in it, but the politicians are destroying the spirit of ubuntu.” Arthritic and near-destitute, Sindiswa Frans does not think she will vote African National Congress next year. Many of the estimated 635 000 pensioners in the province who have not received their pension cheques for December and January may […]

of education Mail & Guardian reporter More popular and less pie-in-the-sky. Thats what The Teachers new editor Philippa Garson has set out to do with the publication she took over last month. Readers may not notice the subtle redesign, but the new columns and features tailor- made for teachers cannot go unnoticed. A Day in […]

Stefaans Brummer and Mungo Soggot Documents in the possession of the Mail & Guardian show that the deputy president of the Constitutional Court accused Mathole Motshekga, the man who is to be sworn in as Gauteng premier on Monday, of fraudulently administering international donor money. These, or similar, allegations have been known to senior African […]

attacks Marion Edmunds Western Cape police have put rural landowners in the Boland on a security alert for fear of attacks on farms by the Pan Africanist Congress’s disbanded armed wing, the Azanian People’s Liberation Army (Apla). Police have been visiting owners of farms and smallholdings, warning them of the possibility of attack, encouraging extra […]

Anthony Kunda in Lusaka The detention of former Zambian president Kenneth Kaunda in connection with the botched military putsch of October 28 last year has brought frustrating privations for journalists. The government has not introduced any new legislation to restrict the media. But the police seem to have become paranoid, especially about journalists from independent […]

Marion Edmunds Parliament aims to close early this year, on September 23, to free up parliamentarians for constituency work and electioneering, in anticipation of next year’s election which may be held as late as July 1999. This early deadline puts extraordinary pressure on the year’s legislative programme — and exposes South Africans to a lengthy […]

Peter Makurube When you hear Philip Tabane play guitar you know you are in the presence of greatness. Tabane is the spiritual and creative force behind Malombo, a band that is a national institution or would be if South Africa cared much about original music. This weekend, those who do care will once again have […]

With the trade talks on track, the EU’s first man in South Africa is returning to Brussels confident his time has been well spent, writes Madeleine Wackernagel Erwan Four has a knack for leaving a posting just before disaster strikes — once in Venezuela, prior to the 1989 riots; and again in Mexico, ahead of […]