Stuart Hess A disabled pupil was expelled from her school after she laid a charge of rape against two pupils. The boys have not been expelled. A doctor at Cecilia Makiwane hospital, who examined the pupil and confirmed she was raped, said this was not the first rape complaint at the Vukuhambe School for the […]

Mail & Guardian reporter Minister of Home Affairs Mangosuthu Buthelezi had an extremely close relationship with the notorious Bureau for State Security (BOSS) during a decades-long collaboration with apartheid-era security structures, according to explosive in-camera testimony presented to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC). This testimony – leaked to the Mail & Guardian this week […]

Victor Keegan on Microsoft’s worst enemy … itself It’s lunchtime in the spacious restaurant. Outside the windows water flows gently over landscaped rocks and maple trees are starting to shed their leaves. There are millionaires to the left of me and millionaires to the right of me – though you would never guess from their […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Thursday 11.00pm. SPRINGBOK hooker James Dalton may not make the starting line-up for the Springboks in their rugby Test against Ireland at Lansdowne Road after injuring a hamstring during practice on Thursday. Dalton injured the muscle on Tuesday during a gym session in Cork, but trained with the team on Wednesday. […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Cape Town | Thursday 5.00pm. THE South African government’s decision to go on a massive arms shopping spree has sent out “an enormous signal” that it is serious about playing peacekeeper, Deputy Defence Minister Ronnie Kasrils s on Thursday. “If we had put this decision off … I would say the perception out […]

SARAH BULLEN, Johannesburg | Thursday 4.30pm. ONE would be forgiven for thinking the Johannesburg Stock Exchange lacked a pulse on Thursday as it all but shut down as the United States markets closed for Thanksgiving. A miserably thin volume at R667-million left the all share index 0,08% up, with the all gold index gaining 0,43%. […]

ROB DAVIES, Johannesburg | Wednesday 10.30am. THURSDAY heralds the first South African cricket Test against the West Indies at the Wanderers in Johannesburg, and as tour openers go, none can be more important than this. The tour has been called the most important since South Africa’s return to international cricket, and with good reason. Brian […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Ulongwe | Wednesday 9.30am. SOUTH African scientists believe they have made a major breakthrough in the long battle against African Swine Fever with a Mozambique-based programme to develop pigs’ resistant to the killer virus. The scientists say a herd of such pigs could be used as breeding stock which in time could replace […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Geneva | Wednesday 10.10am. RWANDAN Hutu rebels have turned to drug trafficking in order to finance their military operations in the Great Lakes region of Africa, according to a United Nations report issued in Geneva, Switzerland on Tuesday. The report said ex-soldiers of the Hutu nationalist regime ousted in 1994 after one of […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Wednesday 12.15pm ZIMBABWE has announced the launch of an eastern offensive in the Democratic Republic of Congo by allies of President Laurent Kabila. The Zimbabwean government said on Wednesday morning that “allied air force planes” inflicted heavy casualties and extensive damage to enemy targets in the Lake Tanganyika area over the […]