As the final constitutional deadline draws closer, some rights remain unresolved, write Gaye Davis and Justin Pearce Exhausted constitutional negotiators kept smiling — sometimes grimly – — this week, saying they were on track to meet the May 8 deadline for the adoption of the final Constitution. But the happy faces barely concealed the reality […]

Philippa Garson reports on mixed reactions to the proposed new higher education system MANY academics blanch at the discourse of today’s education policy-makers, who talk of multiple exit and entry points, ladders, frameworks and flexibility — descriptions of “pathways of learning” that seem to bear closer resemblance to complex obstacle courses than the hallowed process […]

Ann Eveleth Rural voters in 22 KwaZulu-Natal communities have threatened to boycott next month’s elections if democratic reforms are not introduced in their areas, the Association for Rural Advancement (Afra) said this week,. The communities — representing about 20 000 voters in the KwaZulu-Natal Midlands and north-west regions — called on Local Government MEC Peter […]

The District Six Museum is a memorial to the evils of the Group Areas Act, but its survival is threatened by the government’s lack of support, writes Rehana Rossouw ALTHOUGH memorials celebrating Afrikaner history receive millions of rands of support, the government has only been prepared to make a one-off payment of R200 000 for […]

Consumer confidence may be buoyant, but manufacturers, wholesalers and retailers are concerned that the credit spending spree will be short-lived. Lynda Loxton reports While most economists are still bullish about the economy, the latest round of surveys by the University of Stellenbosch’s Bureau for Economic Research (BER) send out worrying signals about future growth. Consumer […]

The Constitutional Assembly has spent millions of rands encouraging people to involve themselves in the writing of a new fundamental law for our country. Often this campaign has looked like no more than an advertising agency empowerment exercise, and there is little evidence that anyone in the CA gave more than a cursory glance to […]

exploitation In advertising one ‘must use whatever one can to make whatever point one needs’. But are children abused by this system? A decision by the Olympic Bid to use the photograph of an impoverished child in its ad campaign has sparked a debate on the ethics of using children in marketing. Jacquie Golding- Duffy […]

Holes are appearing in the story of the ‘professional climber’ chosen to lead a South African Everest expedition, write Mike Loewe and Mungo Soggot A curious picture began to emerge this week of Ian Woodall, the mountaineer who was to have led a South African expedition to glory on the summit of Mount Everest. The […]

After a couple of years in the wilderness, Marius van Heerden is firmly back in the limelight after breaking the South African 800m record ATHLETICS: Julian Drew THREE years ago Marius van Heerden approached the new athletics season full of optimism. He was one of this country’s rising new stars who, the previous year, had […]

‘Advertisements’ like the one below are popping up in publications around the world. Now the M&G joins in The Fear Project Hazel Friedman ADAM BROOMBERG knows what it is like to be shit-scared. Literally. Or, rather, he has a mediated understanding of it from reading articles on experiments in which white mice were exposed to […]