A leading diamond merchant’s heavily discounted sale to the minerals and energy minister has posed serious questions of a conflict of interest Mungo Soggot and Nawaal Deane The Minister of Minerals and Energy, Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, has opened herself to a serious conflict of interest charge by purchasing a traditional tiara from a prominent diamond merchant […]

Your liberal crap makes you seem so silly (“The US doesn’t have the right to decide who is or isn’t a PoW”, January 18). You should pick your pompous ass up and come on over for a front-row seat at ground zero. Then we can talk about how inhumane it is to hood a prisoner. […]

Barry Streek Democratic Alliance leader Tony Leon has admitted there are rumblings about his leadership of the party in the wake of last year’s walkout by the New National Party. Expressions of discontent have emerged in the Western Cape and Gauteng regions of the DA, where Leon’s “abrasive” style and his “inaccessibility” have been criticised. […]

A SECOND LOOK Brian Ndoda Biyela Anthony Holiday’s perplexing article in the Mail & Guardian last week reveals how he fails to discern President Thabo Mbeki’s shrewd leadership of the government. Mbeki’s call is bigger and more noble than just pleasing the new black elite and their counterparts from Houghton and Constantia. When black arrivistes […]

Bongani Majola and Thebe Mabanga Johannesburg’s Nelson Mandela Theatre is host to an uneasy mix of audience members. Zulu-speaking hostel residents from surrounding settlements rub shoulders with black and white suburbanites keen to learn more about Zulu history. All have come to watch the life story of Zulu king Shaka in the musical Bayede Shaka: […]

Mail & Guardian Reporter Each of Gauteng’s 2 409 schools will be equipped with 25 networked computers in the next five years if the Gauteng Online initiative meets its goal. And every one of the 1,5-million learners will be assigned personal e-mail addresses, while more than 12000 educators will be trained in information and communication […]

Microsoft chooses security to increase consumers’ trust in computers, writes David Shapshak The computer world entered a new era last week, if Bill Gates is to be believed, when the Microsoft boss announced that “trustworthy computing” is now the “highest priority for all the work we are doing”. It couldn’t come any sooner for beleaguered […]

Jockey Karl Neisius rates Australian-bred Laisserfaire the best filly he has partnered and the ice-cool rider has the chance to guide her to her tenth win from just 14 races in the R250 000 weight-for-age grade 1 Cape Flying Championship over 1 000m at Kenilworth on Saturday. The brilliant daughter of Danehill, from the string […]

Thabo Mohlala Andrew Feinstein, a former African National Congress MP who resigned from his post over the arms deal imbroglio, has found a new job in London with Investec, a South African bank with a significant presence in Britain. His new responsibilities seem to dovetail with the central plank of his party: development of the […]

Paul Kirk A key member of Parliament’s public accounts committee and a local arms company boss are squaring up for a fight with the auditor general that may well test the Promotion of Access to Information Act in court for the first time. The pending battle looks certain after Auditor General Shauket Fakie dismissed their […]