Madeleine Wackernagel : Taking Stock I hate to be the bearer of bad tidings, especially at this time of year, but spare a thought for the growing numbers of unemployed for whom this is definitely not the season of joy. News from the Central Statistical Service this week was glum: employment in the mining and […]

Robert Kirby : Loose cannon I would like to be among the first to rocket to the rescue of the reputation of Witwatersrand deputy judge president, HCJ Flemming. Talk about an irresponsible, a flagitious press, radio and television – never mind Raymond Louw. This last week or so poor Monas Flemming has had more scorn […]

The `great white Bushman’ was a storyteller whose gift was to create romantic tales, particularly about himself, writes Dea Birkett It’s a crisp autumnal afternoon in October 1996, and the view from the Chelsea penthouse flat is fine. On the shelves behind me, prominently displayed, are a year-old Christmas card from Prince Charles, snapshots of […]

Ellen Bartlett looks at the significance of the discovery of the bones of two children near Sterkfontein The question that probably will never be answered is how the bodies of two children ended up in a cave on the farm called Drimolen. Perhaps they died there, of cold, disease, starvation. Perhaps they died nearby, and […]

Lucy Hannan in Nairobi Surrounded by filth and terrorised by crime, residents of the suburb of Korogocho routinely refer to themselves as the “forgotten ones”. But even their misery could be ignored when a cholera epidemic took grip in Nairobi’s slums as a nurses’ strike entered its third week. Government hospitals have remained deserted since […]

Mungo Soggot : A Second Look Judge Monas Flemming bestowed on Allan Greenblo the honour of becoming the new South Africa’s first banned author when he turned the clock back on the country’s media law in the Johannesburg High Court last week. His decision to ban Greenblo’s biography of Sol Kerzner was all the more […]

There are grounds for thanksgiving, perhaps, that Nelson Mandela’s sudden taste for loquaciousness did not lead him to challenge Chief Mangosuthu Buthelezi’s record of 11 days as the world’s longest speech. But South Africa has little else to be grateful for where the president’s five- hour “Enemies of Change” address to the African National Congress […]

Howard W French In a cavernous hall that once served as the VIP bar of an overthrown dictator’s ruling party, several dozen shabbily dressed children shout out the refrain “Jesus Christ lives!” as they are led through prayers by an evangelist preacher. Just five months ago, nearly all these children lived on the filthy streets […]

Africa Marcellus Chuene writes a cautionary message to Pallo Jordan and the new elite I am responding to an article by Pallo Jordan that appeared in the Mail & Guardian of November 28 to December 4 1997 entitled “ANC must cultivate the new elite”. I am not opposed to the views of the minister about […]

FRIDAY, 5.30PM: FUTURES trades hijacked the Johannesburg Stock Exchange on Friday during the last two hours of trade as the December ’97 contracts closed out leading most of the major indices to be knocked lower as the derivatives market sold scrip, dealers said. At the close the all gold index had gained 4,8 points to […]