President Nelson Mandela and Graa Machel, the widow of the late Mozambican pre sident Samora Machel, have been involved in a very public relationship. Kingsl ey Makhubela, chief of state visits in Mandela’s office and M-Net presenter Do reen Morris are expected to tie the knot in the near future. South African rug by wing […]

Scientists made a giant leap this year in understanding the HIV virus, which u ncannily changes itself as it invades human bodies, writesLesley Cowling It’s taken more than a decade of concentrated study by thousands of scientists all over the world to begin to understand how HIV operates. Part of the probl em is that […]

Julia Grey Seeing barefoot, shivering urchins begging on a cold winter’s night is not unu sual. What was unusual on that particular July night in 1995 was that my frien d Lee and I didn’t blindly breeze past them, or dismiss them with a 50c piece. Instead, we spoke to them as children. Stanley (7), […]

Mail & Guardian writers, photographers and cartoonists produced prolifically t his year – and won a number of awards You Have Been Warned (Viking), written by Mail & Guardian co-founder Irwin Man oim, covers the newspaper’s first turbulent decade. l Zapiro, aka Jonathan Shapiro, published Zapiro – The Madiba Years (David Phi lip), a collection […]

Black economic empowerment is taking place gradually, but a more holistic approach is needed, writes Madeleine Wackernagel The buzz-word of 1996 was BEE – black economic empowerment, epitomised by the Johnnic deal. Later, there was JCI, sold to Mzi Khumalo’s Capital Alliance with far less fanfare, but no less significance. The cynics would sneer that […]

>From the despair of a series defeat against New Zealand to the joy of an undefeated away tour, can South African rugby continue with its present management Rugby: Jon Swift this has been a year of personalities in rugby … the almost gloating shadow of Louis Luyt … the glowering countenance of Andre Markgraaff … […]

Media Mad President Nelson Mandela is seen by his presidential aides as Superman Which television programmes do you watch most often and why? The news bulletins in the various languages – depending on time and availability. Which book have you read recently that you would recommend? Not much time to read. When 1999 arrives, there […]

M&G cinema critic and film-maker Andrew Worsdale left South Africa in 1988, despairing of our film and TV industry. But he returned to find a whole new scene developing Eight years ago I was in the final rounds of pre-production on a feature film called Durban Poison, a sex, drugs and rock’n’roll road movie about […]

Jan Taljaard THE full realisation of what the changes in the country mean has finally hit h ome to the right wing, says Henk van de Graaf, editor of the Conservative Part y mouthpiece, Die Patriot. Thus “more than anything else, 1996 has been a year of reflection” – a quiet y ear for the […]

Thomas Khoza (above), former R15-a-month farmboy from Warmbaths, is a musician who busks on the streets of Johannesburg’s Yeoville. He was a pikinin carrying a white man’s lunch bag underground at Cooke 3 Secti on of the Randfontein gold mines when he was shot and severely wounded in a mi ner’s strike on Christmas Eve […]