Bongani Siqoko Rugby may have appeared to unite the country when South Africa won the World Cup, but soccer could be the catalyst for real integration of blacks into financial markets. Soccer team Kaizer Chiefs is expected shortly to announce plans to list on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE). Representative Louis “Sprinter” Tshakoane said discussions […]

Peter Beaumont and Shyam Bhatia Who is . . . Saddam Hussein? Saddam Hussein doesn’t take chances. Two weeks ago when the United States first threatened to rain bombs on Baghdad, he moved the young thugs of the amn al’rais, the presidential security force that always accompanies him, out of their barracks and into quarters […]

Simon Caulkin in London It was trumpeted as the key to reducing unemployment. Everyone, just everyone, agreed: flexible working was A Good Thing. It was the wonder drug for good management. As with the medical variety, management wonder drugs all too often turn out to have nasty side effects. Indeed, sometimes the complications are worse […]

Diplomatic relations have all but broken down. In Washington earlier this month, Tony Blair’s most senior advisers ratcheted up the pressure. All-out war cannot be far away. For the British government has the enemy clear in its sights: it is the BBC. Labour fired off two heat-seeking missiles within 72 hours, as the prime minister’s […]

debate Comment The recent media hype around human cloning illustrates, starkly, why South Africa needs a year of science and technology to promote public understanding of the subject. The human cloning reports rival the Virodene “miracle cure” debacle – once again we have a media that fundamentally misunderstands the subject it is reporting on, but, […]

Fiona Macleod Setting up a big cat commission would help put an end to “canned” lion hunting, says a report that will be submitted to Parliament in the next few weeks. The commission would ban the hunting of big cats in small enclosures, from vehicles or hides, by drugging or baiting them, and while they […]

Ann Eveleth Fresh legal action has been launched by 20 South African workers against chemical giant Thor. The workers are claiming unspecified damages from the corporation’s United Kingdom parent company, Thor Chemical Holdings Ltd, for ailments arising from chronic mercury poisoning allegedly sustained during their employment at Thor’s Cato Ridge mercury-processing plant in KwaZulu-Natal. Lephila […]

But health inspectors remain watchful, writes Wonder Hlongwa Durban health authorities are concerned about traditional healers’ hospitals which are springing up in the city and may not conform to health regulations. At the corner of Brand and Moore roads in Durban is a two-storey building belonging to Judas Milazi, a traditional healer who operates a […]

to our cousins Scientist George Schaller wrote of gorillas: “The eyes have a language of their own – being subtle and of emotion that in no other visible way affects the expressions of the animal. I could see hesitation and uneasiness, curiosity and boldness and annoyance.” He believed it was impossible to observe other species, […]

cost housing? Mail & Guardian reporters The first official figures for new housing for the poor show a massive gulf between the government’s boasts to the electorate and the reality for South Africa’s homeless. The information, which the Department of Housing has so far kept under wraps, shows that fewer than 200 000 low-cost houses […]