Scriptwriter and creator of sci-fi TV series First Wave, Chris Brancato, tells Katy Bauer how to hurtle across Hollywood potholes without getting whiplash or becoming a jerk Writers? They’re a pain in the arse. They hover between chronic insecurity, bar- room brawls and delusions of grandeur. Hardly surprising really. The vast majority do exist in […]

Mail & Guardian reporter A brother-in-law of Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe is under investigation after he allegedly sexually assaulted a teenage girl at his home in Ottawa, Canada, last week. Police were called to the home of Simbarashe Reward Marufu, a second-ranking diplomat at the Zimbabwean high commission in Canada, on October 5. They summoned […]

Much as he cared about the proletariat, Karl Marx – named Thinker of the Millennium – was beset by his own struggle supporting an ailing family in genteel poverty. In this extract from the biography of the year, Francis Wheen discovers Marx the man Karl Marx was born a bourgeois Jew in a predominantly Catholic […]

Aaron Nicodemus Most baby albums begin with a picture of a tiny baby held proudly in the arms of a tired mom. But Pieter and Mandy de Graaf’s pictorial record of their twins starts with fertilised eggs. The couple are among the few South Africans who can afford to overcome infertility. Because it is expensive […]

South Africa’s judiciary reacted angrily this week to suggestions that parliamentarians could hold them accountable for their judgments. We too are concerned that politicians should not undermine the independence of the judiciary. But that independence should not be an excuse for those judges who continue to propagate old South African values and political prejudices. How […]

Charlene Smith Minister of Education Kader Asmal says that Childine’s estimate that one in four school-going children under the age of 16 have been sexually violated is a national crisis. “Sexual violence in schools must be rooted out and I will take a personal interest in this happening,” Asmal says. His vow comes as police […]

The Alexkor diamond mine controversy is far from over, write Donna Block and Mungo Soggot The government has jumped the gun in its attempt to clear Bridget Radebe’s Nabera consortium of its embarrassing breach of contract. There are still key legal problems preventing Nabera from being truly in the clear. The Department of Public Enterprises […]

Ian Wylie American Express has pipped rivals Visa and Mastercard by launching an Internet credit card in the United States, containing a fraud-busting computer chip and a free PC card-reader. American Express claims its new “blue” card provides cardholders with the extra security they need when they are shopping on the Net. To spare shoppers […]

Mungo Soggot A row is brewing between Transparency International’s South African arm and the Berlin-based secretariat of the international anti-corruption group after it revoked the South Africans’ mandate to run this week’s anti-corruption conference in Durban. It has emerged that the organisation’s secretariat in Berlin cancelled the mandate of the South African branch to run […]

Andy Capostagno Rugby World Cup The worst thing that could have happened to the Rugby World Cup duly occurred on Saturday at Twickenham. For an hour England and their fans in the stands and among the media were confident that the ogres from New Zealand could be beaten. At 16-16 northern hemisphere rugby really was […]