Wits University has become the first South African tertiary education institution to have a golf driving range, writes Ntuthuko Maphumulo. Retief Goosen’s victory at the United States Open and the Tiger Woods phenomenon have brought golf to the attention of people who never before would have been interested in the sport. Wits has decided to […]

Rowan Callaghan Hundreds of women in townships around South Africa who are fed up with failed diets are resorting to the drastic measure of wiring their jaws for a few weeks and consuming only liquids. The practice is so popular that one dentist claims to have performed the procedure at least 80 times in the […]

David Helfgott, the legendary pianist whose life was immortalised in the Oscar Award-winning film Shine, is in South Africa. This Australian piano virtuoso showed extraordinary talent from an early age. He won various competitions in Australia and went on to study at the Royal College of Music in London. His tutor likened him to Vladimir […]

Communities in southern Mozambique are fighting to keep their land, which has been earmarked for an exclusive coastal resort Fiona Macleod While delegates debate environmental racism at the Durban racism conference, a few kilometres north a row is brewing over a classic case of poor communities being displaced to make way for an elitist wildlife […]

The government should see the newspaper as a flattering reflection on our democracy, writes Political Editor Drew Forrest ‘Why go to that right-wing rag?” was one government official’s response when told that I was moving to the Mail & Guardian. It was not untypical. There is a quite general perception not only in ruling circles […]

Q&A: Andy cato Shaun de Waal Groove Armada are one of modern electronica’s most innovative and beguiling acts, with a range from the funky I See You Baby to the dreamy haze of their hit At the River both off their second album, the highly successful Vertigo. Their new album, Goodbye Country (Hello Nightclub), will […]

Power struggles at the huge university are jeopardising distance education in South Africa David Macfarlane The future of distance education in South Africa hangs in the balance following extraordinary turmoil at Unisa this week. The shock resignation of Unisa vice-chancellor Professor Antony Melck exposes massive power struggles at the country’s largest university. Events leading to […]

Khadija Magardie Several pressure groups attending the World Conference against Racism in Durban have complained bitterly that their plight has been drowned out by the hype over the Israeli/ Palestinian impasse and the debate over reparations for slavery and colonialism. With the full title of the conference including “Racism, Xenophobia and other forms of Related […]

Comment Charles Leonard I have been mauled publicly by a 12-legged, designer-label-clad, Mother Africa-idolising, American-talking hip-hop machine. And while it was ear-glowingly embarrassing, maybe I asked for it. I am at a media conference at a casino for the first-ever “Black August” tour in South Africa a three-city tour by some of the top exponents […]

obituary: christiaan barnard Surgeon Christiaan Barnard, who has died aged 78, led the surgical team that performed the first human-to-human heart transplant on December 2 to 3 1967. The operation captured public imagination around the globe, and, literally overnight, Barnard became one of the best-known people in the world. Although his achievement, courage and vision […]