Andy Duffy Cape Town City Council has pulled the plug on the car-watch scheme it set up in front of its headquarters, after a flood of complaints that its parking attendants were harassing and robbing motorists. The scheme, piloted early last year and running formally since December, was canned last Friday after the council decided […]

Werner Menges An ambitious attempt to clean up an apartheid eyesore has landed Namibia’s former housing minister – the winner of a United Nations housing award – and top officials in the Ministry of Housing in the largest corruption trial since independence. The Windhoek High Court heard evidence about confused responsibilities, denials and disregard for […]

Managed currency funds provide limited-risk offshore investments, writes Dan Atkinson from London As the turmoil on the currency markets abates, there can still be few easier places to make or lose a million. Novice investors are ill-advised to take a ride on roller-coastering foreign exchanges. But managed currency funds will allow the adventurous to play […]

Mail & Guardian reporters Hollywood loves a spectacle – and a spectacular blockbuster goes straight to its heart. That’s why Titanic, the most expensive movie ever made and also a huge hit, has matched the record for the most Oscar nominations (14). That’s a tie with 1950’s All About Eve, though Titanic is beginning to […]

fiction Jeremy Cronin: Crossfire During the past months there has been kite- flying around the idea of a merger between the African National Congress and the Inkatha Freedom Party. Peter Mokaba, in the flurry of interventions he made prior to the ANC annual conference in December, punted the idea. The IFP’s Mangosuthu Buthelezi slapped down […]

Maria McCloy The Independent Broadcasting Authority seems to be taking a more softly-softly approach with Radio Islam. This week the Lenasia-based community station was given another 30-day temporary licence. The IBA said the licence has been granted to enable Radio Islam to continue broadcasting over Haj, the time when Muslims make the annual pilgrimage to […]

Global climate change is spawning deadly epidemics in Africa, writes Fred Pearce For the second time in six months, the world is glimpsing the consequences of escalating climate change. After triggering the choking havoc of smoke from Indonesian forest fires last autumn, the worst El Nio for 50 years has in the past two months […]

Ferial Haffajee Newspaper magnate Tony O’Reilly jetted into South Africa this week for a regular inspection of his African interests – no doubt he will also make time to heal an important relationship. President Nelson Mandela’s December attack in Mafikeng on foreign-owned media and its abiding white management could not have gone down well with […]

Andy Duffy The man responsible for controlling student debt at the University of the Western Cape (UWC) was tied to a bizarre contract for most of last year, which gave students the power to oust him. Student debt had more than doubled to R60- million, steering UWC toward bankruptcy, by the time Professor Ikey van […]

trade Comment The Asian crisis has given greater urgency to the debate over the social dimension of global trade. While the region was booming, complaints about the neglect of minimum labour standards could be brushed aside as a covert assertion of Western protectionism. It was hard to query an economic miracle even if a few […]