FINE ART: Hazel Friedman CARL GIETL’S exhibition 1996 is and is not what it seems. The paradoxical seductiveness of his work is that while it has been conceptualised with such obvious – almost simplistic – clarity of purpose, in the eyes of the beholder it takes on a metaphoric life (or in this case, death) […]

Marion Edmunds THEY are called the “Gestapo”. These are not the security police but the men from the Medicines Control Council (MCC) inspectorate who stand accused of raiding and harassing homeopaths and dispensers of natural medicines. And while some homeopaths have sunk into silence for fear of having their businesses closed down, others have started […]

The M&G’s guest writer Hein Marais visited the SACP’s headquarters and found a party still spinning as it tries to recreate its role THERE’S not much here to bolster one’s preconceptions. The offices are not sandwiched into Shell House. They’re not festooned with posters of Karl and Vladimir or peppered with souvenirs from China and […]

Stephen Buckley in Gisenyi, Rwanda AS they hustled to escape the world’s largest refugee camp last week, thousands of Rwandans left behind some of their most important possessions: their children. Some youngsters got separated from loved ones during the two weeks when as many as 500 000 Rwandan refugees were crushed into Mugunga camp in […]

Aerial advertising has put a new thrill into the industry and is cost effective, reports Gillian Farquhar ALTERNATIVE advertising has been around in South Africa in varying states of ebb and flow since the Eighties; but this small and avant-garde form of marketing is slowly becoming more of an attraction, spawning spectacular vehicles to get […]

It took a two-year investigation to uncover members of the `Muslim mafia’, reports Angella Johnson THEY called themselves the “Muslim mafia” and bragged openly that they were untouchable because of the number of police officers on their payroll. Then an honest cop found a way to break one of the biggest criminal syndicates operating in […]

Joshua Amupadhi South Africans may have stumbled across a treatment for the Ebola virus this week. American scientists may shortly begin new experiments after the Gabonese doctor who brought the virus to this country responded well to steroids given to him by doctors who did not know he had the virus. Johannesburg Hospital’s Professor Guy […]

A survey has found that diplomats at 51 out of 71 missions are overpaid – so they’re taking heavy salary cuts, writes Mungo Soggot THE Department of Foreign Affairs has slashed the salaries of South African diplomats – some by as much as 50% – after exploring what it really costs them to live abroad. […]

Desmond Morris, at 68, is still pursuing his provocative studies of the naked ape. He spoke to Andrew Billen in Oxford DR DESMOND MORRIS has made a career out of watching people. He has the eye of a zoologist trained in the tradition of Julian Huxley and Darwin, but he also possesses highly developed showbiz […]

A few years in New York changed Tananas’s drummer Ian Herman. GWEN ANSELL finds out how much THE club is crowded. So crowded, in fact, that the punters can’t get to the toilets and the musicians can’t get to the stage. The bar staff are sprouting extra arms, and the waiters have started a human […]