Prove it or shut up! Since May this year, the Mail & Guardian has fed us a series of articles on police National Commissioner Jackie Selebi’s alleged “links” with people allegedly under investigation by the so-called elite crime-busting unit for alleged contraband networks. Yet to date no one has been charged with crime related to […]

Mangcu: the real issue Xolela Mangcu’s resignation from the Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC) has been presented in the Mail & Guardian as an assault on academic freedom (December 15). But the issue is not quite so easy. There is a much weightier question of the status of South Africa’s research councils. If Xolela’s resignation […]

Good riddance, Carroll As a 25-year-old Indian woman who grew up in Durban, I remember the days before the release of Nelson Mandela. I remember going to a school for Indians only. I remember going to Addington beach as part of a protest when it was whites-only, and I remember a policeman with a rifle […]

Mindless vilification The opprobrium heaped on Ronnie Kasrils by the Zionist lobby (Letters, September 8) has a lengthy pedigree. Writing in 1970s Britain, Labour MP Christopher Mayhew and journalist Michael Adams provide an insightful analysis of Zionist rancour in their book Publish It Not (The Middle-East Cover-Up). Particularly ludicrous and threadbare is the accusation of […]

Build and be damned It is a sad day in our country when eminent persons with an admirable track record in government, such as Mike Muller, feel compelled to rubbish the mandated custodians of South Africa’s rich natural heritage, SANParks, “and their allies”, for objecting to appallingly poor planning decisions (“SANParks retreats to its old […]

Ethanol is not green Kevin Davie’s article “Green fuels start now” (Feburary 10) seriously overstates the advantages of ethanol auto-fuels. Ethanol may be 45% cheaper than petrol in Brazil, but anyone who has driven in that country will know that you get significantly fewer kilometers per litre from it than from petrol. Brazilian E85, which […]

Encouraging free thought A million thanks to the Mail & Guardian for “The God rush” edition (April 13). What a great contribution you’re making in encouraging free thought and open debate as the hallmark of a mature and modern South Africa. You hold out the vision of a diverse society in which religious practice and […]

Erwin not against EIAs Fiona Macleod’s “Mbeki joins assault on green laws” (August 4) and last week’s letter from Richard Worthington, “Too red to see green” — both critical of Minister of Public Enterprises Alec Erwin — are completely misleading. Macleod implies that Erwin is against environmental impact assessments (EIAs). Nothing could be further from […]

Who’s Malthusian now? It is a pity Fiona Macleod didn’t take the time to read the speech on global warming Tony Leon gave at the Oxford Debating Union before lambasting him for it (“The Malthusian musings of Tony Leon”, November 10). She might have spotted these remarks: “I am not arguing tonight that the developing […]