Azhar Cachalia A SECOND LOOK The Human Rights Commission’s (HRC) hearings into racism in the media is over. The dust has settled and most members of the media seem to agree that the process was a productive one. The hearing provoked vibrant discussion both inside and outside the media industry. The industry must tackle those […]

Barry Streek Wilmot James, once the hot favourite to become the new principal of the University of Cape Town (UCT), has resigned from the powerful position of dean of humanities at the university. After barely a year in office, he quit after he failed to be placed on the two- person shortlist for the position […]

David le Page The deaths of five women in HIV/Aids drug trials were more likely the result of flaws in the handling of the trials than problems with the drugs themselves, researchers working on related trials said this week. The researchers were responding to the controversial decision by the government this week to suspend recruitment […]

Khadija Magardie BODY LANGUAGE To be honest, I’ve always wondered how she manages to do it. Barbie, that is. With her impressive, nipple-free bosom more than twice the size of her waist, equally impressive legs more than twice as long as her torso, and feet so femininely tiny that she can neither balance nor stand […]

Graham Rock HORSE RACING A lanky chestnut with a white blaze will be entrusted with the hopes of 24 Irish prison officers in the Grand National at Aintree in Liverpool. Micko’s Dream has won nine of his 19 races and earned prize money of 104E000 for his syndicate of owners. Victory on Saturday would add […]

M&G reporters Hands-free kits for cellphones do not protect your brain from radiation – on the contrary, they channel three times the dose into the skull that you receive by holding the phone next to your ear, according to the British Consumers’ Association. A report in Which? magazine will upset those who rushed to buy […]

A magistrate went beyond rhetoric in sentencing a rapist, writes journalist Charlene Smith The worst thing a criminal does is remove the dignity and humanity of those he seeks to victimise. The criminal justice system is worthless unless it restores that to the survivor of violent crime. It took a magistrate in one of the […]

Belinda Beresford A LEADING UNITED STATES UNIVERSITY HAS BEEN USING HUMAN GUINEA PIGS IN UGANDA TO TEST THE RATE AT WHICH HIV CAN BE TRANSFERRED FROM INFECTED TO UNINFECTED PARTNERS – WITHOUT APPRAISING THE UNINFECTED PARTNERS OF THE RISKS INVOLVED. The trial, which was conducted by researchers from Johns Hopkins University, has triggered a furore […]

Brenda Atkinson MIXED MEDIA Most of us have accepted that the glory days of television are over, which cannot be altogether bad. For one thing, we are no longer in thrall of Cliff Saunders’s duplicitous droning on the SABC news; for another, the proliferation of alternative news and entertainment media can only improve the quality […]

It was most disturbing to read last week’s Mail & Guardian revelations about Mr Enoch Sithole. No one enjoys seeing such stylish colossi toppled. What is more, it makes for a general nervousness in the television- watching populace when, one after the other, senior SABC directors are suspended for fraud and corruption, stealing each other’s […]