Nomboniso Gasa writes how as a child in rural South Africa she discovered what abortion was, in an open letter to ANCmembers of Parliament LIKE many of you, it was not at university or as a result of “Western influence” that I learnt of abortion. I was seven years old when I first heard the […]

Cinema: Derek Malcolm THERE have been plenty of films about the drug culture, almost all of them adopting a moral tone that liberals can conveniently call “responsible”. But there have been none quite like Danny Boyle’s Trainspotting, adapted from Irvine Welsh’s novel. The film, like the book and the play, shows the pleasure of drug-taking […]

At the Sacob conference, a German industrialist warned South Africa against consensus-building policies, writes Max Gebhardt FOREIGN businessmen, discussing this week’s South African Chamber of Business (Sacob) annual convention at the World Trade Centre in Kempton Park, expressed surprise that “big wigs” from Europe were giving South Africa lessons on how to become a winning […]

The team behind Trainspotting is fast becoming the most formidable of talents in British cinema. They talk to Adam Sweeting about their great adventures on the big scereen FROM the team that brought you last year’s black and sardonic thriller Shallow Grave, Trainspotting is certain to be one of the cinematic hot shots of 1996. […]

Rehana Rossouw THEY’VE been labelled reactionaries, racists and gravy-train wannabes, but the group of former United Democratic Front activists, church leaders, youth leaders and unionists behind the “December 1 Movement” believes the political salvation of coloureds lies in their hands. They are gathering in Cape Town this weekend to fine-tune plans for their launch, the […]

Mail & Guardian Reporter KLAUS VON LIERES UND WILKAU has apparently discovered the Durban air to be a miracle cure. With the legal spotlight on former defence minister Magnus Malan’s acquittal in Durban, little attention was paid this week to the defence team’s most famous member. The former attorney general of the Witwatersrand emerged fighting […]

The planned World Bank loan does not signal a departure from government policy, the trade minister tells Madeleine Wackernagel TRADE and Industry Minister Alec Erwin this week dismissed suggestions that the proposed $70-million World Bank loan signalled a deviation from stated government policy. “This is not a new borrowing initiative. We have set borrowing limits […]

There is widespread support for Bantu Holomisa to become leader of the MDM, but for now he’s still trying to stay an ANC member. Gaye Davis and Joshua Amupadhi report DISAFFECTED African National Congress members want Bantu Holomisa to lead the so- called Mass Democratic Movement (MDM), under whose banner he has been speaking at […]

Marion Edmunds NEWLY elected Stellenbosch student leaders have held talks with Minister of Education Sibusiso Bengu to discuss the university’s future, and whether Afrikaans should be its sole language of instruction. The meeting comes in the wake of a row between African National Congress MP Jannie Momberg and members of the university council over the […]

Lynda Loxton LAWYER Penuell Maduna is coming under pressure from all sides as he gets to grips with his new post as Minister of Mineral and Energy Affairs. In a frank discussion with the parliamentary mineral and energy affairs committees this week, Maduna admitted that, after four months in the job, he was still on […]