Staff Reporter

A BULL elephant that escaped from the Kruger National Park has been shot dead along the N4 highway at Hectorspruit because it was disrupting traffic. The animal had to be shot when it didn’t respond to attempts to chase it back into the bush. The Mpumalanga Parks Board alerted when Hectorspruit residents reported one or […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Saturday MORE than one billion rand ($125m) will be invested in rebuilding Alexandra, Johannesburg’s most overcrowded township as part of government’s urban renewal plan, a housing official announced on Friday. The development of the township, scene of violence last week linked to forced removals of squatters, is already underway, Gauteng provincial […]

Former president Nelson Mandela received the Life Time Award from the first Soweto Awards in Johannesburg on Saturday night.

THE White House lashed out against the media Saturday, arguing that those who deride US President George W. Bush’s most recent verbal gaffes were “discordant with the American people”. “They don’t care what you think about his grammar, they care about what he’s going to do that affects their lives,” White House counsellor Mary Matalin […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Mozambique | Sunday THE Mozambican government has granted a concession to a South African firm to promote conservation and tourism in a wetlands and coastal region, including part of the ocean, the company involved said on Sunday. Christine Donaldson, representative for the Vilanculos Coastal Wildlife Sanctuary development, said the 30_000-hectare sanctuary lay within […]

TWO Danish investigators are due to visit Eritrea to look into accusations that Danish peacekeepers serving there sexually abused a 13-year-old girl. A group of soldiers, belonging to a UN force protecting the buffer zone between Ethiopia and Eritrea, are accused of “inappropriate behaviour towards the clients of a hotel,” the Danish army said, without […]

Own Correspondent, Wellington | Saturday SCIENTISTS have discovered penguin chicks fouled with what appeared to be oil close to an abandoned US Antarctic research station. The oiled Adelie penguin chicks were found at Cape Hallett on a recent mission close to the abandoned US research station, Emma Waterhouse, a scientist with the research group Antarctic […]

THERE was little instant gratification for the average revenue-drained citizen in this year?s national budget, unless you happen to be in the lower tax brackets targeted most strongly for tax relief. As is usual, taxes on luxuries and vices such as alcohol and tobacco were marginally increased. The petrol price will be increased by 4,5c […]

THE UN Security Council is considering a commission’s recommendation that sanctions be imposed on countries found to be intentionally violating the UN embargo against Angola’s UNITA rebels. The commission’s recommendation – one of several made at the end of December – is aimed at blocking UNITA from trading diamonds mined from areas it controls for […]

AN artist can continue using Barbie dolls in his photographic renderings, some of which depict dolls posed in sexual positions, a federal appeals court has ruled. The 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a decision denying a request by toymaker Mattel Inc to bar Tom Forsythe from using the doll in his photographs and […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, AFP, Maputo | Saturday THE South African Air Force could embark on a rescue mission to Mozambique, where more than 40 people have died and 77_000 have lost their homes, a year after the country was ravaged by floods, the Saturday Star reports. Foreign Affairs Director-General Sipho Pityana said: There is no question […]

WARDERS at Cape Town’s Pollsmoor prison are to embark on a go-slow in protest against cutbacks in staff numbers at weekends. They say the reductions will endanger the safety of both members and inmates in the seriously overcrowded prison. A shop steward for the Police and Prisons Civil Rights Union (Popcru) said this meant prisoners […]

FOUR Liberian journalists arrested on espionage charges over an article criticising the government have been denied bail. The prosecution argued that espionage was a “capital offence and is therefore not bailable”. The four were arrested for an article which said the government had spent $50 000 to repair three military helicopters at time when civil […]

In Hillbrow a dispute between two groups claiming ownership of a building has left residents uncertain of their future. Nawaal Deane reports ‘Who should I pay?” This is the question most tenants are asking at the BG Alexander Building in Hillbrow, Johannesburg. Gladys Ndlovu stands outside the building with her tattered mattress up against a […]

Tracy Steward The Mail & Guardian is among South Africa’s fastest-growing weekly newspapers. Our year-on-year sales, according to Audit Bureau of Circulation figures released late last week, have increased by 13,4%. The M&G’s circulation figure for the period July to December 2000 was 37 456, against 33 031 for the same period in 1999. Since […]

Joan Smith Body Language A device to produce female orgasms? Excuse me, but I think we’ve been here before, and I’m not talking about the penis whose value in this context has long been the subject of debate or the kind of battery- driven vibrator you can buy in sex shops. It was mooted as […]

MALAWIS former education minister Cassim Chilumpha has been arrested and charged with corruption over his alleged involvement in awarding contracts for schools which were never built, a court official said. Chilumpha refused to plead guilty or not guilty, saying: “I am confused by the charges”. Chilumpha – who was sacked by President Bakili Muluzi last […]

The assistant director of the Health Department lab allegedly milked medical schemes of nearly R2-million Nawaal Deane A senior national Health Department official, Joel Mokonoto, appeared in court this month on charges of fraudulently milking the state’s medical aid scheme of R1,9-million. The assistant director at the tuberculosis (TB) laboratory in the Health Department is […]

Mail & Guardian reporter Mercedes Sayagues, the Mail & Guardian’s Zimbabwe correspondent, flew into Johannesburg on Thursday afternoon after being expelled by the Robert Mugabe regime. Before her departure from Harare airport, Sayagues, accompanied by her nine-year-old daughter Esmerelda, was told she would not be allowed to leave unless she signed an acknowledgement of receipt […]

whipping boy Murphy’s law if something can go wrong, it will applies to horseracing more than any other sport. So when an animal named All Will Be Well heads what seems to be a reasonable list of “good things” this weekend, one naturally gets suspicious. All Will Be Well takes on nine rivals in the […]

Lauren Shantall The book is dead! Long live the cyber book! Right now, this is merely the kind of conjecture that Web entrepreneurs cling to as they try and convince us that the Internet will revolutionise everything and anything including, in this case, literature. Will the cyber book really reign supreme in the not-too-distant future? […]

Alta Folscher Spending on health, education, social welfare and housing will not keep up with population growth over the next three years, according to government projections. After several years of real growth in social spending, this change reflects the government’s view that existing funds should be disbursed more effectively. Spending on these areas is critical […]

Barbara Ludman Housing policy analyst Mary Tomlinson has spent 15 years looking at innovative ways to house people who can’t walk into a formal lending institution, like a bank, and walk out with a conventional bond. As senior researcher at the Centre for Policy Studies, she monitored the implementation of the country’s new housing policy, […]

Grant Shimmin athletics When one considers the man behind the newest national record in South African athletics, Burger Lambrechts, the clich “it couldn’t have happened to a nicer guy” just seems to slip out. Not that one’s first sight of this bull of a man he was a Craven Week lock at school who tips […]

David April review OFTHEWEEK The FNB Vita Dance Umbrella has been a lifeline for South African performers and choreographers. It has grown to such an extent that a third Stepping Stones programme had to be added this year to cope with the increased number of entries. The first two Stepping Stones presenting works from youth/ […]

Khadija Magardie Eons ago the Prince of Denmark delivered his stinging pieces of prose to his once lady love; and, generations later, people are still debating what Hamlet meant by his infamous utterance “Get thee to a nunnery!” to Ophelia. Thanks to Shakespearean innuendo, nobody really knows, even today, whether the words were advice born […]

Peter Leon admits he has no local government skills, so why, experts wonder, was he appointed to oversee the area? Jaspreet Kindra Three months after Peter Leon, the former Democratic Party leader in Gauteng, was approached by Minister of Provincial and Local Government Sydney Mufamadi to head the ministerial task team on local government transition, […]

Dylan Evans Managing the Human Animal by Nigel Nicholson (Texere) In the past few years, evolutionary psychology (or EP, as it is known) has given the chattering classes a lot to chatter about, but hasn’t had much impact in the world of business. That, however, may be about to change. A new book by Nigel […]

Ntuthuko Maphumulo soccer The gloom that characterised the past year for the South African soccer fraternity might finally be lifting. Last year the under-23 squad failed to lift Olympic gold; we lost the World Cup bid; lost the African women’s nation cup in a final marred by spectator violence in Vosloorus; and just 5 000 […]

Johnny Masilela A collection of short stories by 21 South African writers has just been published in Denmark. Entitled Opbrud, it is published in Danish by the Centre for Literature from Africa, Asia, Latin America and Oceania (Aloa). Its publication was made possible by a generous grant from South Africa Contact (SAC), formerly the Danish […]

Niki Moore There have been more than 100 deaths. There have been more than 52 000 reported cases. Cholera is cutting huge swathes through the rural populations of KwaZulu-Natal and it appears no one has a plan yet. The regional councils of Ugu and Uthungulu, who were given the task of establishing structures to combat […]

The Canterbury Crusaders are probably favourites for a fourth consecutive title, but all South African eyes will be on the local contenders as the Super 12 kicks off Andy Capostagno The sixth season of Super 12 may be the last, with pressure from above to expand the format and take up even more space in […]