Meshack Mabogoane and Reg Rumney If any government aid is granted to the closed African Bank (AB) it will not come from the Reserve Bank. Pressure built up this week to throw the AB a lifeline, but Registrar of Banks Christo Wiese is adamant the Reserve Bank will only lend support to solvent institutions — […]

Turfloop University closed early this week amid student strife. Philippa Garson asks what has gone wrong WHEN Njabulo Ndebele took up his position as vice-chancellor of the University of the North over two years ago, he was glowing with optimism about the institution’s future, believing not only in its “tremendous potential”, but wanting “to be […]

Neil Bierbaum A NUMBER of radio stations — some of them leaders in the field — have had a decrease in audience figures, according to research just released by the All Media and Product Survey (Amps). The Amps survey is conducted twice a year by the South African Advertising Research Foundation (Saarf) and provides in-depth […]

M&G Reporter ONLY three of the country’s nine premiers passed the Mail & Guardian’s second Government Efficiency Test. The newspaper investigated whether the premiers care enough about ordinary citizens to answer their letters. After six weeks, responses to a citizen’s letter had been received only from Gauteng’s Tokyo Sexwale, the Northern Cape’s Manne Dipico and […]

Paul Wilkes JOHN PAUL II, who survived an assassination attempt 13 years ago, the removal of a tumour the size of an orange two years ago and who suffered two bad falls within a year, still has his faith intact. But no longer can his iron will command a weakening body to do its bidding. […]

FINE ART: Hazel Friedman USING mild terminology to describe Moshekwa Langa’s debut solo exhibition at the Market’s Rembrandt van Rijn Gallery would be tantamount to defining a tidal wave as a ripple. Here’s this newcomer from KwaNdebele, barely out of his high- school blazer — he recently matriculated from the Waldorf School — who is […]

Ruth Sack SCHOOL outings to the museum … Does this conjure up dark images of well- meaning but remote guides leading footsore trails of children? If so, you must be a bit of a museum-piece yourself. Because things have been changing. At the Johannesburg Art Gallery, education officer Dammon Rice is developing a programme in […]

At least debate about this country’s media can take place now without fear of government clampdown. No longer do editors have to respond to every government criticism by warning of the dangers of action which might inhibit press freedom. Even if Deputy President Thabo Mbeki had such activity in mind when he criticised the media […]

Hazel Friedman WINIFRED BROUCKAERT still carries the scars and bruises of a brutal attack more than six months ago. But more agonising than her injuries is the knowledge that the man who allegedly robbed and stabbed her in the face — leaving her partially blind and close to death — is a police officer still […]

The Skweyiya Commission, which examined corruption and political destabilisation in the former Bophuthatswana homeland, should set an example for other provincial governments, argues Dr John Seiler BOPHUTHATSWANA’S only president, Lucas Mangope, has taken to the political hustings with the cynical, self-serving argument that only he, of all former homeland leaders, has been subjected to an […]