Cameron Duodu LETTER FROM THE NORTH ‘We have told everyone we will shave our heads to be like Mr [Abdoulaye] Wade. After that, we are going to stand naked in front of the presidential palace – to proclaim that we are like new-born babies and that a new Senegal is born.” With these words, the […]
Fiona Macleod Graa Machel, the “first lady” of South Africa and Mozambique, has agreed to be co-patron of the Nedbank/Mail & Guardian Green Trust Awards. She will share patronage of the country’s premier environmental awards with Anton Rupert, founder of the Rembrandt Group and long-time conservationist. The new patrons have been asked to attend this […]
NET WATCH Ever been frustrated by Junk Mail’s insistence on obscuring phone numbers in their online edition? Well, now you can advertise free online at consumer.co.za, and read the ads free as well. It’s a new service from online store etenga, and you can leave your ad up as long as you like. Those who […]
John Matshikiza With the Lid Off Lusaka looks sadly dilapidated these days. You can tell that no one really comes here because the huge, pompous international airport that was built in Kaunda’s heyday, shortly after independence in the 1960s, stands gaunt, faded and out of step with the times. The car park is the same […]
De Beers has recently declared that its Central Selling Organisation (CSO) can guarantee, from March 26, that no diamonds from rebel-held zones will contaminate its sales. This is laudable, if late, but the diamond giant also seems to be trying to airbrush history and tell us that it has no idea how it is that […]
Ivor Powell The South African Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (Satra) ignored the reports of its own technical experts committees in recommending the Cell C consortium for the country’s third cellular phone licence. Documents in the possession of the Mail & Guardian show that Satra’s own specialist committees placed Cell C only third among the five shortlisted […]
Brenda Atkinson MIXED MEDIA There is something unnervingly seamless about the public face of Andersen Consulting’s high-profile investigation into electronic commerce in South Africa. Called “dotcoza”, the project was launched on March 6 this year and goes like this: a volunteer – a kind of Consumer Zero – is installed in a Johannesburg house, empty […]
Barry Streek The rich just clicks a computer mouse he calls that an honest day’s labour The following are some extracts from a most extraordinary book, Of Money, Mandarins and Peasants: A collection of South African poems about poverty, launched in Johannesburg this week. Last year, the South African NGO Coalition (Sangoco) and Homeless Talk […]
Bertrand Rosenthal The Restoration of the Ten Commandments of God cult, of which about 470 members apparently committed mass suicide in rural Uganda, is the latest manifestation of indigenous Christian sects with apocalyptic, sometimes revolutionary overtones. In Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda, Burundi and Uganda, the synthesis of Christianity and traditional African religions, partly as a rejection […]
Steven Friedman WORM’S EYE VIEW We like politicians who act. We do not seem to like working out whether the actions solve our problems. Take Minister of Safety and Security Steve Tshwete. With his enthusiastic support, police are “sorting out” inner Johannesburg amid gung-ho statements on the success of the operation and the number of […]