up Winning tenders to run government contracts is becoming an increasingly important source. There are widespread fears that this may contribute to a decline in criticism of the government. Mark Heywood, head of the Aids Law Project, which may close at the end of this month after government funding was cut back, says foreign funders […]
Lynda Gledhill Preliminary results of a financial audit of South Africa’s largest literacy NGO – the National Literacy Co-operation (NLC) – closed the doors of the organisation last week amid allegations of mismanagement. The initial report, released to the Mail & Guardian this week, confirms a lack of proper record keeping and expenditures that were […]
The political mud-slinging that erupted this week between the Democratic Party and the African National Congress over the so-called “Aids treatment” Virodene has served to obscure the real issues, and significant dangers, associated with the Virodene project. Minister of Health Nkosazana Zuma’s fierce response seems to indicate that the tenacious minister has not yet given […]
Mungo Soggot Central Energy Fund chair Don Mkhwanazi tried to crush government opposition to his appointment of Emanuel Shaw II with a string of threatening letters to the civil servant who raised the alarm. The Mail & Guardian is in possession of two letters Mkhwanazi wrote to Deputy Director General of Minerals and Energy Gordon […]
Andy Capostagno: Rugby It has been an interesting couple of weeks for the South African Rugby Football Union (Sarfu). First came the good news; the Super 12 season would begin with four regional teams from South Africa who, at least on the surface, would all be happily putting aside provincial differences to raise the level […]
FRIDAY, 6.00PM: SHARES on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange staged a late rally after a dull day on Friday, much to the consternation of dealers who were at a loss to explain the recovery. The all gold index slipped 2,1 points to 742,7. The industrial index rose 69,9 points to 8187,2, and the financial index, 103,3 […]
Belinda Beresford There’s something sensual about the feel of a fat wad of crisp new banknotes. The rippled paper is a small piece of attempted perfection which took a month to forge and contains dozens of security devices. All South African paper money is printed by the South African Bank Note Company (SABN), although the […]
Michael Brooks At Nasa’s research labs in the heart of Silicon Valley, alchemy is back in fashion. But turning base metals into gold is an old dream; the new alchemists are trying to turn coal into diamond. Re-arranging carbon atoms to build diamond-based materials would release a range of powerful new technologies – from silicon […]
Janet Smith On show in Pretoria When your eye first catches the glitter and runs over the roughness of the sand, you don’t see the exquisite miniatures occupying spaces that would otherwise reveal emptiness. On more intimate inspection, it becomes evident that there’s performance in every part of Motlhabane Mashiangwako’s The Efforts of Those Who […]
Stepping from the relentless glare of a Johannesburg summer morning into the cool darkness of the Wits Theatre is not unlike entering a secret, parallel universe. One minute you’re dodging a stream of sausage-factory suits hurtling along the pavement to work, the next you’re watching a man in a loincloth sweep his arms over a […]