Andy Duffy Psychiatric patients treated and released by Western Cape health authorities have killed seven people over the past 18 months, including two children, amid an apparent collapse in the system set up to monitor them. The former patients, all from the high- security forensic unit at Cape Town’s Valkenberg hospital, represent a small proportion […]
Wally Lambert If you’re thinking about trying your hand at the stock-market game – we’re not talking unit trusts here – you’ll be pleased to know it’s getting easier and cheaper for the man in the street to buy shares. Unlike shopping for bread in the supermarket, buying shares on the stock exchange requires the […]
Hitler had two dreams. One, to take over the world. Two, to create the ‘people’s car’. Thankfully, the first failed, but the second lived on to escape its Nazi enslavement. Jonathan Glancey looks back on the social history of the Volkswagen Beetle When in January 1945 Adolf Hitler returned to Berlin from the Wolf’s Lair […]
A US-linked consultant offered to advise on the premier’s security, writes Stefaans Brmmer A private security adviser this year made a bizarre proposal to spy on be- half of Gauteng Premier Mathole Motshekga. The Mail & Guardian is in possession of a draft contract between the premier’s office and security consultant Bob Power – composed […]
Andrew Worsdale and Phillip Kakaza Announcing at the Cannes Film Festival this week that he would begin shooting the film of Nelson Mandela’s autobiography in October, South African producer Anant Singh said he was still searching for the right man to play the lead role. He said he hoped to find an African for that […]
Wonder Hlongwa The offices of three southern Cape newspapers have been burnt to the ground in an apparent revenge attack for reporting on the activities of gangs in the Hangklip area. The offices of the Hangklip Herald, Hermanus Herald and Gansbaai Herald were set alight in the early hours of last Monday morning. A petrol […]
Ferial Haffajee ‘Steady as he goes.” The seafarer’s motto has served Don Ncube well, and next month this captain of industry steers his ship into new seas. In June he will list Real Africa Durolink, an investment bank of which he owns 37%. These banks are all the rage in this age of mergers, acquisitions […]
academics investigated The allegedly outlandish perks of the University of the Western Cape’s rector have sparked a probe into top academics’ salaries, reports Andy Duffy A staff memo that values University of the Western Cape (UWC) rector Cecil Abrahams’s pay and perks at close to R1-million a year has helped trigger a government probe into […]
Charlene Smith The National Party continued its string of humiliating local government by-election defeats this week, polling a paltry 22 votes in the mixed coloured and African council ward of Bloekombos in the Western Cape. And an NP councillor, Bill Schibbe, who defected to the Democratic Party on Thursday said it was time for the […]
If you’re looking for a new car, it’s a buyers’ market, writes Charlene Smith Buying a car is one of the most expensive investment decisions many of us make, but with car sales plummeting, now may be the time to bag a good deal. John Cuming, Delta Motor Corporation’s director of sales and marketing, says […]