Wonder Hlongwa Police have been blamed for the latest spate of taxi wars in Gauteng, which has claimed 20 lives in the past two weeks. Both the provincial transport department and taxi organisations say police either turn a blind eye to taxi-related crime or are involved in the crimes themselves. In the past two weeks, […]
A bold new album deal and a minor national controversy have made it quite a week for top local band Boom Shaka. Charl Blignaut reports The mutterings began more than a fortnight ago, at the afterparty of the 1998 FNB South African Music Awards (Samas). It was evident, before the first glass of wine had […]
Martin Kettle in Washington The United States has discovered a fashionable new writer, and his name is Norman Mailer. Mailer was on the front pages of the New York Times and USA Today last week. He has done a television interview with American breakfast television’s flagship show. All this is because he has published a […]
Melvyn Minnaar Potable pleasures Drinking and flying is not on. Even if you’re not piloting the long-haul Boeing, alcohol indulgence is bad for your body. The hours spent physically static and confined to a seat in a pressurised cabin, exposed to the ensuing dehydration, is not the recommended condition for a cocktail party, never mind […]
Mail & Guardian reporter The archbishop of Cape Town, the Reverend Njongonkulu Ndungane, is to present the world’s largest gathering of Anglican bishops with an explosive document suggesting the church take a fresh look at issues such as polygamy and euthanasia. The 24-page report, entitled Called to Full Humanity, is to head the agenda at […]
Phola Park’s economy Sechaba ka’Nkosi A housing project that started as part of the Reconstruction and Development Programme in the one-time battlefield of Phola Park on the East Rand is paying dividends to the community. The project – a joint venture between low-cost housing contractors Ecodev, the Gauteng Department of Housing and Land Affairs and […]
Stephen Gray Unspoilt places The clanking centre of the Moffat mission near Kuruman is a real old museum piece – a manual printing press. A cast-iron precision machine, it kept running through most of the 19th century. Then abandoned and shipped to Kimberley, it was exhibited there as a pretty historic item – the contraption […]
Rupert Jones Banks and building societies in the United Kingdom are pouring money into ever-more sophisticated services, but are they focusing on tomorrow at the expense of today’s mundane issues, such as customer complaints and lunchtime queues? There have been a spate of personal computer (PC) and Internet banking initiatives. This week, Royal Bank of […]
Vuyo Mhlati In response to the article “Tempers Flare on the Wild Coast” (Monitor, May 8 to 14), I’d like to make it clear that the call from communities on the Wild Coast is not for more consultation, but for economic development and jobs. At the launch of investment projects on the Wild Coast, the […]
Jeremy Cronin: CROSSFIRE Jonathan Steinberg’s ”The ‘mysterious’ decline of the left” (May 8 to 14) is a useful antidote to some of the recent excesses of John Pilger. What Steinberg dwells upon, what Pilger neglected, is that the South African transition is occurring in a world very different from the first two-and-half decades after World […]