If the world does end on December 31, at least it will be having a good time. Christina Goumeas and Marthali Brand survey the globe’s millennial celebrations The first permanently inhabited place to see in the millennium officially is Pitt Island, part of the Chatham Islands, 850km east of New Zealand. Just 55 people, thousands […]

Hutu detainees are fighting disease and hunger in concentration camps, while the Burundi army blocks attacks on the capital, writes Chris McGreal Josephine Ntahuga fears her son is dead. He was among 350 000 Hutus herded by Burundi’s army into dozens of camps beyond the capital, Bujumbura. Then he vanished. The army said he must […]

South Africa is about to start building the second-largest telescope in the world , writes David Le Page June 1 1998. A nervous astronomer sat in Parliament, waiting to hear then minister of arts, science, culture and technology Lionel Mtshali deliver his annual budget speech. Director of the South African Astronomical Observatory (SAAO), Bob Stobie, […]

Chris Gordon This has been a season of rumour in Luanda, with speculation over Unita’s next moves as thick as the flowering of the flame trees. Five weeks of near hiatus in major confrontations following the fall of Unita leader Jonas Savimbi’s headquarters has now been ended by intensified fighting along borders associated with the […]

Johnny Masilela Twenty-four screenplays drawn from across Africa are set to find their way into the ever-growing collective of motion pictures attempting to tell the African story. Angie Mills, of the Johannesburg-based Mamaland Productions, said the 24 scripts were shortlisted from a total of just over 400 synopses, treatments, short stories, story ideas and even […]

Neil Manthorp Cricket Gary Kirsten-baiting season is back. It’s a national cricket lovers’ pastime that stems from an understandable desire to have Lance Klusener batting everywhere from one to nine and to have Nantie Hayward (or whoever else is flavour of the month) bowling from both ends. Paying spectators have paid for the right to […]

M&G reporters Ccrimes against the state unit: A squad of former murder and robbery unit detectives tasked with probing People against Gangsterism and Drugs (Pagad) related crimes. The unit was initially known as the Pagad task team, but later changed its name. It reports to Western Cape police Director Leonard Knipe, the man at the […]

technology Bob Woolmer FROM THE PAVILION What a great Test match at Port Elizabeth – it had everything that a cricket connoisseur would want. Great bowling, gutsy batting, an English revival, confirmation of South Africa’s standing in world cricket and the fact that a game of cricket can last five days. Credit to the groundstaff […]

Barry Streek God may not play dice with the universe, as Einstein famously posited, but a church group in Caledon has a different take. The Anglican Church in the sleepy town is a partner in a bid for a casino licence. The church has taken this extraordinary decision after setting up an empowerment trust which […]

Evidence wa ka Ngobeni The head of Edupark, a private company launched by the University of the North, has slammed a R2-million inquiry commissioned by the university as being little more than a smear campaign against the former vice-chancellor Njabulo Ndebele. Moss Leoka, the chair of Edupark, told the Mail & Guardian this week that […]