Mail & Guardian reporters The Minister of Mineral and Energy Affairs, Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, has axed the board of the Strategic Fuel Fund (SFF) and called in the police to pursue a criminal investigation of the state oil company’s R1,5-billion deal with an international oil company. Mlambo-Ngcuka has also asked for the resignation of Keith Kunene, […]

All that glitters: Having been knighted, actor Antony Sher was celebrated by Ambassador Cheryl Carolus at South Africa House. As an openly gay man he lamented that his partner, theatre director Gregory Doran, would not be called Lady Gregory from then on. Going for gold: In an industry full of fat egos and tiny balls, […]

For foreign investment to grow in South Africa, political leaders must learn to be careful about what they say Reg Rumney The South African economy enters the new year with a lot to prove. The growth rate for 2000, which has been steadily revised downwards, is now expected to come in at 3% way off […]

Gavin Foster It’s hard to believe that all the fuss about the “millennium bug” took place a full year ago. But a year can be an age in sport. Sharks and Springbok winger Deon Kayser hasn’t been really thrilled this year. “I broke my jaw in the World Cup semifinal against Australia last year, and […]

Deon Potgieter boxing The future of boxing received two serious blows last weekend in two world title bouts featuring South African fighters. On Saturday Mbulelo Botile hammered a brave Paul Ingle into a critical condition in their International Boxing Federation featherweight world title bout in England. The night before, Dingaan Thobela was robbed of his […]

Sheree Russouw Last year, as millions of people across the globe guzzled champagne and saluted the new century with rowdy renditions of Auld Lang Syne, the pervasive threat of Y2K was on their minds. But the predictions of computer systems crashing worldwide on the eve of the millennium paled this year alongside a very real […]

With no presents or homes to go to, street children won’t see much festive cheer this season Boetie Damane While many, bolstered by seasonal good cheer and fat 13th cheques, are whipping themselves into a spending spree this Christmas, what is the state of the Yuletide economy for Mduduzi, Nhlanhla, Mpho & Co, teenaged members […]

As Beijing braces for its full plunge into global trade, a cautious realism is replacing the old illusions John Gittings The Chinese phrase for joining the World Trade Organisation which should finally take place in the coming year is rushi or “entering the world”. After more than 20 years of economic reform and “opening up”, […]

Six years after the genocide, the killer children of Rwanda are going home. Maggie O’Kane visits the camp where they are being prepared for freedom At the foot of Misoko mountain, where mad, sad, gorilla-lover Dian Fossey lived out her life, stands the higher institute of agriculture and animal husbandry. Soon 10 buses will pull […]

Greed and corruption too often drove athletic achievement off the sports pages Gavin Evans Sport’s first year of the third millennium (or the last of the second) will be remembered as hugely significant in so many ways here good, there bad, but mostly merely ugly. Let’s start with the good, because it was indeed far […]