Glynis O’Hara : South African music On the one hand, there has been far more variety available in local music through 1997 than ever before, says Dave Alexander, owner of Tequila Records, but on the other hand there were “no stunners, no huge, extraordinary sales. Leon Schuster sold 130 000 (with Gautvol in Paradise), Rebecca […]

Steve Morris : Rugby In the uncertainties that abound in the game of rugby, this country has managed — during a year which has had more than its share of trauma and perhaps less triumph than could have been expected — to formulate a new equation. There are four distinct sides to this: an administration […]

Eugene Nyati Mr Dial-a-Quote bolted to the United Staes two years ago — after relieving Mpumalanga of R1,2-million for two months’ work — amid revelations that the Masters degree from the University of Pittsburgh in his CV was just one of several fabrications. His real name is Albert Nana and he was born in Zimbabwe, […]

Western Cape Premier Hernus Kriel gets a D for bedevilling race relations by playing the “swart gevaar” tune to keep his white and brown voters happy. The big question is whether the Western Cape’s above-average economic performance is because of him or in spite of him, and whether he can defend the last National Party […]

“Turning around a ship the size of the SAPS is a little bit like making love to an elephant: first of all … there’s very little pleasure in it, there’s every likelihood you could get crushed, and I know from my house doctor it takes years to see the result.” — Police CEO Meyer Kahn […]

Janet Smith There was remarkably little snow and far fewer fat white men in red suits sleighing across the hundreds of Christmas cards that passed through the Mail & Guardian offices this year. It has taken some time for South African Christmas card manufacturers to realise that we’re not in the northern hemisphere, and now […]

As we enter the third millennium, will the heavens open or will some nutter detonate an explosive device next to you? Charl Blignaut grapples with what the year 2000 means At the start of my research for this article, I eagerly typed the word “millennium” into a standard Internet search engine, hoping that it would […]

Ferial Haffajee “All in all, a bleak year lies ahead for [the SABC] unless it vigorously evaluates its operations.” — Raymond Louw, Mail & Guardian December 24 1996. He was spot on: 1997 was the SABC’s annus horribilis. But with the help of that 20th-century engineer of capitalism — the management consultant — the broadcaster […]

The next generation: those who will be at the forefront of their fields in the years to come. In the first of what will hopefully become an annual Mail & Guardian feature, we have captured a snapshot of 100 people, groups and trends that will be leading the pack as South Africa heads for the […]