Sharon Hammond and Hazel Friedman Four years after a high concentration of arsenic was first found in drinking water at Anglovaal’s New Consort gold mine in Barberton, Mpumalanga, the poison is alleged to have claimed its first victim. An investigation into the mine started recently after 2 000 residents were poisoned by drinking water in […]

Dear Walter, The great debate is upon us. Or at least it is upon me. It descended with great abruptness early in the morning a couple of days ago, when I tottered out of bed and, as is my habit, made my way to the bathroom and the adjoining place to reassure myself as to […]

Rowan Callaghan Local spaza shop-owners in Ivory Park no longer have to make long journeys to replenish supplies now that the Ivory Park spaza wholesalers have set up shop in the township. The wholesalers operate from blue shipping containers, donated by Safmarine, in a mall- type complex, selling everything from food stuffs to building materials. […]

Rowan Callaghan Two-year-old Fartoun plays innocently in the doorway of the cavernous room at Angelo hostel just outside Boksburg, indifferent to the omnipresent stench which fouls the air. Her family fled civil war in Somalia, but they feel abandoned in South Africa. The little girl’s mother has left home for the day to see if […]

Mehlo Mvelase A VISIBLY angry King Goodwill Zwelithini for the first time blamed the Inkatha Freedom Party publicly for violence last weekend — after his brother, Prince Mbousi Zulu, had escaped a hail of bullets fired at his car. Zwelithini’s outburst, during a traditional ceremony in KwaZulu-Natal’s KwaNongoma last Saturday, marks a new low in […]

CRICKET: Jon Swift WE ARE two days into the scheduled five of the pivotal Test in the series against England. All the frustration of the rained-out opening confrontation at Centurion Park, matched only by the vexation of the South African bowlers, thwarted by Mike Atherton and Jack Russell in the interminably long fifth day at […]

Gaye Davis SOUTH Africa has not yet begun to wrestle with the question of whether the country should become a safe haven for, and even help, exiled movements fighting for democracy in their home countries — but the issue is at least on the Members of the Nigerian grouping Democratic Alternative met members of Parliament’s […]

Chris McGreal The Rwanda war crimes tribunal has issued its first international arrest warrants for eight men accused of genocide and crimes against humanity during the organised extermination of hundreds of thousands of Tutsis last year. The chief prosecutor, South Africa’s Judge Richard Goldstone, declined to name the accused while their arrest is sought in […]

The attack on the Koeberg nuclear plant was a chilling demonstration of the vulnerability of an atomic installation to attack as well as a reflection on the incompetence of South African security. The authorities at Koeberg have since made the extraordinary claim that they not only anticipated the attack, but had pin-pointed the date. In […]

Justin Pearce When the Griqua people call for the return of Saartjie Baartman, they are seeking more than a load of human remains. Baartman’s body, preserved in French museums since she died in 1816, has become a symbol for the marginalisation of the Griquas from colonial times until the present day. The Griqua National Conference […]