Philippa Garson To pay or not to pay? That is the politically loaded question. Whether school fees should be compulsory is being hotly debated in government circles and is holding up the implementation of new education policy for schools. If the government goes for minimum free education for all it risks losing wealthier parents — […]

M&G reporter AN investigation against South Africa’s top detective, Priority Crimes Unit head Assistant Commisioner Karel `Suiker’ Brits, has failed to uncover sufficient evidence that he neglected to bring to book police members linked to apartheid crimes. KwaZulul-Natal police reporting officer Advocate Neville Melville was asked last year by Safety and Security secretary Azhar Cachalia […]

Jacquie Golding-Duffy THE `new-look’ SABC will hit our screens on February 5 when SABC 1, 2 and 3 take over the reins from CCV, TV1 and NNTV respectively. The grand reshuffling of programmes is an attempt to reach particular language groups at the provincial level. The provincial broadcasts will, at first, be half an hour […]

Etienne Mureinik, one of the academics at the heart of the campus conflict, asks what has gone wrong with the transformation of Wits University A rush of words has flowed these last few months to censure Wits for not transforming fast enough. Frighteningly little of it has found it necessary to define `transformation’. Confusion about […]

The debate over unbundling is once again heating up, reports Aspasia Karras Unbundling has, to a large extent, been viewed as one of the panaceas of the South African economic environment. The Reconstruction and Development Programme considered unbundling as a major solution to the question of competition and black business empowerment, arguing that if the […]

Andrew Worsdale VETERAN South African film-maker Jamie Uys, who died of a heart attack on Monday aged 76, was often berated by progressive film-makers and academics for being a paternalistic racist who trivialised both nature and black people in his movies. In reality, however, he was a true film fantasist who operated within the confines […]

The pundits overseas favour Rome, but there is a strong argument for South Africa being the favourites to win the race for the 2004 Olympics, writes Julian Drew THE 11 candidates for the 2004 Olympic Games have only travelled three weeks along the 21-month obstacle course that will culminate in the awarding of the Games […]

an exclusive club The Davis Cup tie against Austria may be an elitist event but its success will result in many new members being able to join the exclusive club of South African tennis TENNIS: Jon Swift IT IS an inescapable fact that the South Africa-Austria Davis Cup tie which gets under way on the […]

Eddie Koch Griqua leaders have sent a letter to President Nelson Mandela to back demands for the bones of a 19th-century chief to be returned and reburied after they were dug up by researchers from Wits University more than 30 years ago. The Griqua National Conference this week sent a statement to M&G saying it […]

Education in the new South Africa: While apartheid still rules on the platteland, Soweto schools stand half empty as pupils move to the suburbs The week after white parents barred black pupils from Potgietersrus Primary, Justin Pearce found apartheid to be a fact of life at many Northern Province schools Grey-haired, bespectacled headmaster Hennie Berg […]