Mail & Guardian Reporter THE Johannesburg Bar enjoyed another round=20 of debate this week over its controversial=20 northern suburbs consultation rooms, with=20 increasing signs that those in favour of=20 the suburban set-up want full-time chambers=20 there. The rooms in Sandton are the headquarters=20 of the newly formed Arbitration Foundation=20 of Southern Africa. There are also=20 […]

Hazel Friedman=20 EUGENE RILEY told me that Chris Hani would=20 be assassinated a few days before the death=20 of this charismatic South African Communist=20 Party leader . “You mark my words”, he said. “There is a=20 hit-list of top African National Congress=20 officials who are seen as a threat to both=20 sides. There will be […]

Mungo Soggot THE Securities Regulation Panel (SRP) this week vowed to subpoena a Mail & Guardian journalist in the hope of furthering its insider trading probe at car manufacturer Automakers. The M&G reported last week that the SRP planned to investigate the cause of a 37% increase in the price of Automakers shares on the […]

IT is with foreboding that we watch the=20 unfolding of the latest Aids saga – the=20 excited discovery by the Cabinet of a cure=20 for the disease which ranks, at least in=20 the popular imagination, as the world’s=20 public enemy number one. The sense of d=E9j=E0=20 vu – Sarafina II and all that – is=20 […]

Mandela’s R500-million school food scheme=20 is under review, reports Marion Edmunds PRESIDENT Nelson Mandela’s primary school=20 feeding scheme, founded with great fanfare=20 in the first days of his government, is=20 under review and may face closure. The Health Department has commissioned the=20 Cape Town-based non-governmental=20 organisation (NGO), the Child Health Unit,=20 to assess the effectiveness […]

Gustav Thiel EDUCATION Minister Sibusiso Bengu admitted=20 this week that his department’s offer of=20 voluntary severance packages to teachers=20 has caused enormous financial strain to the=20 already cash-strapped public school system. In an interview with the Mail & Guardian he=20 called for “a thorough rethink of the=20 structure, specifically of severance=20 packages”. The education department […]

Pact dancers have spoken out against=20 abusive treatment, reports HAZEL FRIEDMAN `I WENT in with talent … and hope. I left=20 in extreme physical pain, emotionally=20 devastated … all my dreams destroyed …=20 Mr Joseph, I appeal to you with all my=20 heart, to make it possible for me to become=20 once again a fully […]

Lesley Cowling THE scientific community in South Africa=20 and internationally are speculating that=20 the active ingredient of Virodene is an=20 industrial solvent called dimethylformamide=20 (DMF). DMF is used in laboratories to=20 “denature” DNA, a process that releases it=20 from its double strand shape. Medical researchers say DMF is also the=20 agent used by Pretoria researcher […]

Centurion’s NP council believes it is=20 creating affordable housing, but the ANC=20 says it is separate development, writes=20 Stuart Hess TO the council of Centurion, the=20 development they are planning on 30=20 hectares of vacant land outside city limits=20 is a gesture to the new South Africa,=20 affordable housing for the increasing=20 numbers of squatters […]

Composer BONGANI NDODANA explains why he=20 chose a criminal as the hero in his new=20 opera, Broken String VILLAINS have always been the stuff of=20 opera. From the tormented Don Giovanni,=20 whom we are glad to see dragged down into=20 the portals of hell, through to the almost=20 parodic Peter Grimes, awkward and=20 misunderstood, evoking […]