Without more aid nearly 300 000 people, now subsisting on leaves and roots, will starve early next year, reports David Gough from Xuddur The threat of famine hangs over war- torn southern Somalia, for the second time in six years. The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) says as many as 300 000 people are […]

The once-staid centre of Pretoria is bursting with cultural life waiting to be released, writes Charl Blignaut It’s a very different Church Square that we approach on a sweltering Sunday morning – and it’s not just that the drag queen trippling on the grass is drawing more attention from the startled pigeons than from the […]

Louise Viljoen VIR ‘N PERS HUIS by Karin Cronj (Human &Rousseau) Karin Cronj’s novel Vir ‘n Pers Huis starts with a scene in a supermarket. The narrator is overcome with disgust as she observes a woman who gorges herself on the Danish pastries she is loading into her shopping trolley, and cringes pathetically while selecting […]

SOCCER: Rothman’s cup final, Sundowns vs Chiefs Andrew Muchineripi The safest bet before the Rothmans Cup final between holders Kaizer Chiefs and Sundowns at FNB Stadium on Saturday is that Amakhosi coach Paul Dolezar will take longer to choose his team than counterpart Ted Dumitru. Suspensions rule defender Jacob Tshisevhe and wingback Lifa Gqosha out […]

teacher Swapna Prabhakaran Durban maths teacher Busi Mzimela is paid her salary every month, despite the fact that she has not set foot inside a classroom for more than 18 months. Mzimela says she stopped teaching last April after a disagreement about her post at Ntwenhle High School. With several degrees behind her name, Mzimela […]

There were so many irritating presumptions in Joan Smith’s column, “Why women don’t cruise” (November 13 to 19), that it’s difficult to know where to begin to protest them. Shaun de Waal’s response in last week’s First Person took a considered look at the implications of Smith’s article for the nature/culture debate, but was, in […]

Despite the pretty lights and bells, there’ll be little Christmas cheer and ho ho ho-ing in the retail sector this year, writes Ferial Haffajee At Edgars, Christmas comes in July. The manager of the city store in Johannesburg begins planning for the summer high season in mid-winter. “The atmosphere, the look, the gift- wrapping corners. […]

Andy Colquhoun in Dublin Rugby Imagine being lightly beaten about the body with baseball bats while running a 10km race – a race that you have to win – and you may have some idea of the mental and physical threshing machine through which the Springboks seem to have been passing every Saturday since the […]

Mail & Guardian reporters Wally Mbhele and Mungo Soggot have won the prestigious Foreign Correspondents Association Press Award for their courageous investigative journalism. Plaques honouring their achievement were presented on Thursday to the reporters by President Nelson Mandela, who was the guest of honour at the ceremony. The award was established in 1995 to recognise, […]

Friday night: Dave Chislett Ten years ago, much against my will, I spent two hormone-fuelled years in Port Elizabeth completing my high school career. As a Johannesburg boy, recently transplanted to the coast, I hated the place. My nickname for it at the time was PE-nis by the sea. Now, my good friend Hagen Engler […]