Timothy Trengove-Jones CROSSFIRE The clearest indication of the health of this democracy is to be found in discourse surrounding the HIV/Aids pandemic. President Thabo Mbeki has told Parliament, the country and the world that this government’s policies on HIV/Aids are “based on the thesis that HIV causes Aids”. He has also conceded that the government’s […]

Ordinary Chinese in South Africa look to charity, religion, business and culture to counter divisive politics. Osita Nwajah reports The men, women and children assemble in their numbers. The compact space outside a house in Mamatheda Street in Mofolo, Soweto, can’t contain all of them, so they spill into the narrow street. The people, clutching […]

Adam Evans I was having a quiet drink with an old friend the other day when he told me, very proudly, that he had just finished his first novel. This was completely out of character – he had never displayed any interest in writing before – and, with mounting amazement, I asked him what it […]

Glenda Daniels and David Macfarlane The South African Universities Vice- Chancellors Association (Sauvca) this week rejected the heart of the Council on Higher Education’s (CHE) recent recommendations for restructuring tertiary education. The core of the recommendations are that all institutions be re-arranged to create what Sauvca refers to as “a three-tier system”, one that it […]

Paul Kirk Car manufacturers, environmentalists and the oil giant Sasol look set to clash over a controversial petrol additive that is dangerous, destructive and a poisonous menace to people and cars. Sasol says, however, that the manganese- based additive MMT is a safe and cheap substitute for lead in petrol. The company is preparing to […]

cass abrahams cooks cape malay: food from Africa by Cass Abrahams (Metz Press) This is an updated edition of the previous hardback The Culture and Cuisine of the Cape Malays. Abrahams has single-handedly managed to lift Cape Malay cooking to more glamorous heights by distributing her oh-so-well-packaged spices and condiments to snooty Cape whole food […]

Davina Cohen Giant monitors and telephones marked the dawning of a new era of techno-music last weekend. It didn’t happen by way of an onslaught of entrepreneurial ravers of the popular dance scene, but through a fusion of communications technology and live performance. An array of British and South African sponsors combined forces to present […]

Ebrahim Harvey Left field President Thabo Mbeki is finding it difficult to manage the crisis in relations between his African National Congress-led government and its alliance partner, the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu). Forced to strike a balancing act between the two, Mbeki has to draw on all his resources to try and […]

Deon Potgieter boxing Mpush Makambi is in danger of being stripped of his International Boxing Organisation (IBO) middleweight world title. Makambi, who was to have made the fourth defence of his title this weekend in Holland against Raymonn Joval, pulled out of the bout this week. “Mpush wasn’t happy with the purse on offer and […]

Andrea Meeson Mzwandile Zuma has been a farmworker much of his adult life on land near Gingingdlovu, northwest of Stanger. Zuma has planted, weeded and harvested cane on sugar estates and private farms all over KwaZulu-Natal. His hands – calloused, cut and stained blacker than his sunburnt skin – are testament to more than a […]