Two German drug companies are selling a painkiller, banned in their own country, to South Africans, reports Ann Eveleth One of the world’s leading pharmaceutical manufacturers continues to sell substantial quantities of a painkiller in South Africa which has been banned in its home country – and which some critics estimate could kill up to […]

Julian Drew : Athletics Hendrick Ramaala is on a roll at the moment. He followed up his fourth place at the world half marathon championships and victories in the Great North Run and South African half marathon championships with a win in the Rennes 10km in France at the weekend. But while he appears to […]

Micro-lenders accuse government of ignoring recommendations for regulating the industry, writes Sechaba ka’Nkosi A row is brewing between a coalition of small-scale development lenders and the government for ignoring proposals that could save millions of consumers from rampant exploitation by money lenders. The Alliance of Micro-Enterprise Development Practitioners singles out the departments of trade and […]

Ann Eveleth The Johannesburg High Court battle over Transnet’s suspension of Joe Ndhlela ended this week in defeat for the executive director. Ndhlela’s bid to overturn his suspension was dismissed with costs. He faces an inquiry into charges of bugging, weapons possession and corruption. Ndhlela’s court bid made public the disciplinary charges Transnet had refused […]

The Angella Johnson Interview His name reminds me of the opening words of the national anthem Nkosi Sikelel’ iAfrika. “Snuki Zikalala Africa,” I find myself chanting hypnotically after each of his news reports for SABC television. Okay, I know that sounds really Eurocentric, but you’ve gotta admit, it does have a certain lilt. Zikalala, who […]

Marianne Thamm Until he attended a rehearsal of La Bohme: Noir, Hal Shaper’s reworking of Puccini’s tearjerker La Bohme which will premiere with an all-black cast in Cape Town in December, Brian Williams had never seen an opera. The former trade unionist and once- unskilled building worker, now provincial director of the Department of Labour […]

Pete Nichols : Basketball There are, it appears, two roads you can travel in basketball. You can go the way of Dennis Rodman (well, maybe not all the way) or you could follow the path Grant Hill treads. Common sense dictates the latter for, recently, the clean-cut forward with the Detroit Pistons signed the second […]

In the May 9 to 15 issue the Mail & Guardian reported that magistrate James van Wyk had granted bail to Dan Mabote, a man accused of raping a seven-year-old girl. The girl, Mamokgethi Malebana, had disappeared. An M&G reporter was informed by the clerk of the Germiston Regional Court that Van Wyk heard the […]

Dave Richardson (38) and Allan Donald (31) already share one South African Test match record. They are the most successful bowler/wicketkeeper combination in the nation’s history with over 40 shared dismissals. They are also bearing down on the individual records in their chosen departments of the game. Ironically, with Richardson just three scalps short of […]

A top Apla commander talks to the M&G to counter a `smear campaign’ against the PAC leader. Marion Edmunds reports The role of Pan Africanist Congress leader Bishop Stanley Mogoba as state witness in a terrorism trial nearly 10 years ago is being quietly touted as a key reason why he should not try for […]