Alan Finlay WITS: A UNIVERSITY IN THE APARTHEID ERA by Mervyn Shear (Wits University, R69) INhis history of the University of the Witwatersrand -Wits – from 1919 to t= he=20 1990s, Mervyn Shear tries to uphold the idea of a place of learning that is= ab le to negotiate an even-handed response to a torn […]

For South African fans enjoying a feast of cricket, the arrival of the Aust= ral ians is the cherry on top CRICKET:Jon Swift IT hardly seems credible that, in the midst of what seems a plethora of cri= cke t, we have yet more coming our way – the Australians open their account wit= h […]

Tangeni Amupadhi ESCAPED gangster Joshua Rabotapi was reunited with his thumb and parts of his fingers this week after he was arrested at his luxury home in one of Johannesburg’s northern suburbs. Police say Rabotapi lost his digits in a shoot-out with police during a robbery in 1994 in which three people were killed. The […]

Eddie Koch The confession by a group of policemen=20 about their role in the killing of Steve=20 Biko and the grisly assassination of at=20 least nine other anti-apartheid activists=20 from the Eastern Cape has focussed renewed=20 local and international attention on the=20 main themes and controversies shaping the=20 work of the truth commission. The revelations […]

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 […]