A joint committee of senior African National Congress and Inkatha Freedom Party politicians, under Deputy President Jacob Zuma, has been charged with breaking the long-standing impasse between Minister of Home Affairs Mangosuthu Buthelezi and his Director General, Billy Masetlha, writes Bongani Majola. As well as Zuma and Buthelezi, the committee includes ANC-linked Deputy Minister of […]

Regrettably, I’m compelled to reply to the smorgasbord of misrepresentations and irrelevancies in Max Ozinsky’s response (January 11) to my “Of rhetoric and resistance” (December 14 2001). Ozinsky claims that their “declaration” was intended to call for negotiations, “not to write a history”. The first heading of their article reads: “The fundamental causes of the […]

Paul Kirk Emergency powers have been invoked by Obed Mlaba, Durban’s African National Congress mayor, to extend a lucrative contract awarded to ruling party stalwart and disgraced former attorney Linda Zama. Critics say Mlaba did not have that right. And making matters worse for Zama, the Mail & Guardian this week confirmed she is to […]

Barriers must be erected against the transmission of cholera analysis Lindy Morrison and Richard Holden Facing the threat of cholera in South Africa requires a multifaceted, multi-stakeholder, coordinated effort. Life shows us that when faced with any problem it is best to treat both the symptoms and the cause. The problem, unfortunately, with many cholera […]

The president’s failure to act decisively is paralysing his office, writes Anthony Holiday Join the poolside circle at the home of one of Gauteng’s black elite. Get over any astonishment you might feel at the opulence of the cars in the driveway. Ignore the importunate ringing of cellular telephones. Attend instead to the typical chatter […]

Jaspreet Kindra In a further sign of the rising tensions between the Inkatha Freedom Party and its African National Congress coalition partner, IFP leader Mangosuthu Buthelezi launched an attack on the government policies on Aids, the rand and Zimbabwe at his party’s national council meeting at the weekend. According to IFPsources Buthelezi told the council […]

A Pietersburg NGO is battling to create a home care centre for Aids orphans Suzan Chala Joe Funky Ngobeni, the 13-year-old orphaned “man of the house” featured in the Mail & Guardian’s Christmas edition, began ninth grade this week in Ga-Maja, near Pietersburg, unaware that the article has made him a celebrity. The article has […]

BODY LANGUAGE Johann Hari It was a Friday night a few months ago. Rob* was standing on my doorstep, ashen and trembling. We could not guess what had happened; we could only assume that something terrible must have happened to his fiance, Karen*. Gradually, the story emerged. Rob and Karen had recently moved out of […]

Jaspreet Kindra The Inkatha Freedom Party has demanded the withdrawal of an exhibit at a Durban museum run by the African National Congress-led council which, it says, “maliciously and libellously” links the IFP to political violence in KwaZulu-Natal. The IFP’s national council, which met at the weekend, attacked as a “distortion of historical facts” and […]

A second look Khadija Magardie Space constraints may be the explanation behind the bizarre selection of examples used to illustrate the horror colonialism in Shyaka Kanuma’s “colonialist atrocity smorgasbord” (“It’s time to stop whining”, December 14). Throw out the word “colonialism” and the last thing that would spring to mind would be a traffic light. […]