Wonder Hlongwa President Nelson Mandela’s support for a merger between the African National Congress and the Inkatha Freedom Party this week spurred IFP president Mangosuthu Buthelezi into an unprecedented attack on Sipo Mzimela, his senior Cabinet and party colleague. Buthelezi hinted that Mzimela, who is correctional services minister and IFP deputy chair, could be on […]

They like Beethoven as much as Busta Rhymes and kwaito, and TKZee includes the first black member of the Drakensberg Boys’ Choir. Maria McCloy reports Ask anyone – I mean anyone, from South Africa’s hot producers to popular young artists and DJs to the average kid looking for a good time – what they’re getting […]

The food revolution is changing the face of the world, report John Vidal and Mark Milner Six giant agrochemical corporations are poised to dominate world food production with genetically engineered food. The result could be millions of farmers unemployed, poor countries losing whole export markets, a consumer revolt in Europe, and concentration of farming in […]

Africa Marcellus Chuene writes a cautionary message to Pallo Jordan and the new elite I am responding to an article by Pallo Jordan that appeared in the Mail & Guardian of November 28 to December 4 1997 entitled “ANC must cultivate the new elite”. I am not opposed to the views of the minister about […]

Police display South Africa’s crime history in a museum that is brought to life by actors, writes Donald GMcNeil “Yaaaaaaaaa!” Bursting out of the darkness at the end of the corridor, the screaming man charged right into the crowd, his razor-sharp machete flashing above his head. People slammed back against the walls, screaming too. Captain […]

The Johannesburg mortuary is preparing for the holiday bodies of evidence, writes Emeka Nwandiko Dr Vernon Kemp has a face you would never forget. But chances are if you were to come into contact with him you would not see him because, most likely, you would be dead. The face of the director of the […]

Stephen Gray : Unspoilt places `Madikwe!” said Oom Schalk Lourens, “yes, I know it. That’s what the Tswanas call our Marico River, because of its rusty colour – the River of Blood. But now with all this new community involvement, we don’t talk of all the bloodshed in those forgotten wars. It’s peace time now, […]

Madeleine Wackernagel : Taking Stock I hate to be the bearer of bad tidings, especially at this time of year, but spare a thought for the growing numbers of unemployed for whom this is definitely not the season of joy. News from the Central Statistical Service this week was glum: employment in the mining and […]

FRIDAY, 12.30PM MERRILL Lynch, the merchant bank, has been awarded the post as lead transaction adviser for the partial privatisation of South African Airways. The public enterprises ministry said it had initially received 11 applications for the position, with a shortlist of four having been drawn up last month. Public enterprises ministry adviser Kennedy Memani […]

There are grounds for thanksgiving, perhaps, that Nelson Mandela’s sudden taste for loquaciousness did not lead him to challenge Chief Mangosuthu Buthelezi’s record of 11 days as the world’s longest speech. But South Africa has little else to be grateful for where the president’s five- hour “Enemies of Change” address to the African National Congress […]