The apartheid state used diplomatic bags to smuggle sensitive and often dangerous equipment rather than classified documents Stefaans Brmmer Department of Foreign Affairs documents suggest diplomatic bag facilities were regularly abused to smuggle arms components during apartheid – endangering the lives of airline passengers. A file in possession of the Mail & Guardian shows how […]
Steven Friedman WORM’S EYE VIEW Solving most of our society’s problems has far more to do with how we handle people and politics than with the fancy techniques we use. Take one of our toughest and most important challenges, HIV/Aids. At first glance the idea that beating a virus has anything to do with getting […]
Jubie Matlou previews issues to be tabled before the SADC Economic Summit next week If Southern African Development Community (SADC) countries were to go to war, it would be over a piece of a fabric. Belligerents would consist of South Africa and its Southern African Customs Union (SACU) partners of Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia and Swaziland […]
Tim Adams ANIL’S GHOST by Michael Ondaatje (Bloomsbury) It has been seven years since Michael Ondaatje published The English Patient. Prior to that book, prior to the Booker Prize and to Ralph Fiennes and the seven Oscars, Ondaatje had written two other novels, as well as a critically successful memoir and 10 volumes of poetry, […]
rights Khadija Magardie A SECOND LOOK The constitutionally entrenched right to gender equality faces subordination to the provisions of customary law. And unless the issue of balance between entrenched rights and respect for traditions and customs is seriously addressed, South African women, particularly rural black women, will be emancipated on paper only. The Supreme Court […]
The cricketing world is waiting for Hansie Cronje’s testimony Mail & Guardian reporters When Hansie Cronje takes the stand he will reveal the tragic story of his extraordinary double life as South Africa’s captain – a life that finally brought him crashing down in a flurry of death threats to him and his family. In […]
Belinda Beresford The government will fight them in the gardens, it will fight them in the garden centres and it will fight them in the streets and parks – unless of course they’ve got special permission to be there. The Department of Agriculture is about to outlaw trading in a number of invading alien plants, […]
Mail & Guardian reporter The Cape High Court has dealt a severe blow to press freedom by ruling that the reputation of an institution outweighed a reporter’s right to freedom of expression. The Freedom of Expression Institute (FXI) and the Mail & Guardian are considering appealing against the decision, which upheld the expulsion of a […]
The world’s largest modern art museum is now open Adrian Searle The opening of Tate Modern is a watershed in the cultural life of Britain. It signals the importance of the art of our times, and its centrality in British culture. Unlike most of the big cities and capitals of the Western world, London has […]
Peter Robinson If Bob Woolmer could be persuaded to take one position on Hansie Cronje and stick to it, then it might be possible to establish, if not guilt, then at least some kind of responsibility for the former captain’s fall from grace. All around the world this week, cricket tried to come to terms […]