M&G Reporter The National Arts Council Bill has finally been passed by parliament after drafters quietly ditched the controversial clause that could have enabled the national arts and culture department to hijack the council. Clause 13 which was seen as a major threat to the councils independence has been replaced with a clause that says […]

FRIDAY, 3.30PM WINNIE MADIKIZELA-MANDELA appeared reluctantly before the Truth and Reconciliation Commission on Friday, her 64th birthday. Subpoenaed to a closed hearing to answer questions relating to her alleged links to 18 gross human rights violations, Madikizela-Mandela requested the inquiry to be public so that “the matter can be dealt with once and for all”. […]

In the week of this years gay pride march, we look at the significance of queer icon Oscar Wilde, and debate the problems surrounding the Johannesburg parade Peter Conrad Ignominy effaced Oscar Wilde as soon as he was hauled off to prison in 1895. His name was summarily blacked out on theatre marquees in Londons […]

Following a spate of murders, 70 officers have been deployed to the troubled Cape Flats, reports Andy Duffy Mogammat Dharsey had little reason to feel threatened. The 55-year-old doctor had worked in Valhalla Park on the Cape Flats for years. He knew it was a region overrun by gangsters he had several on his books […]

Wally Mbhele The Reverend Frank Chikane emerged this week as the new favourite to replace Gauteng MEC for Health Amos Masondo in challenging the leading candidate, advocate Mathole Motshekga, for the provincial chairmanship of the African National Congress. While another powerful, nominated candidate, Murphy Morobe, was still making political calculations before taking a final decision […]

The Nazis final solution had a dress rehearsal in Namibia, writes Delroy Constantine-Simms At a time when the fight for justice for Jewish Holocaust victims makes front-page news, few people know that a significant number of black people suffered, too, under Nazi rule. Revelations about their experiences are made in a documentary, to be screened […]

Olivia Strange The sisterhood is going to be happy. Cosmopolitans gone a step further than just debating the image of women debate. The magazine which has a circulation of 105 000 is running a big girl campaign and will now more regularly feature normal- sized women on its pages. Writer Roald Dahls granddaughter, the curvaceous […]

Marion Edmunds President Nelson Mandela has instructed all African National Congress parliamentarians to tell him, in face-to-face interviews, what constituency work they do. Mandela?s interest, announced at a recent ANC caucus meeting, is provoked by concern that MPs are neglecting their constituency work and failing to disseminate information to the people about the government?s progress. […]

Madikizela-Mandela could face prosecution for three more murders, reports Peta Thornycroft Kuki Mosocu bled to death in the open veld opposite the Orlando railway station two days after her 23rd birthday. Mosocu was a long way from her mother in the Transkei when she died, unknown and unmourned, in Soweto. Back home she was known […]

Melvyn Minnaar potable pleasures Since the great gates to wealth from world- wide wine sales opened, former vineyard bywoners and enriched company directors alike jumped on to the South African brand wagon for their sip of the market. The result has been a plethora of new trade titles for wine. A number of the recently […]