Staff Reporter

Jessica Piombo crossfire Over the past few weeks a debate has emerged in the pages of the Mail & Guardian over what people who fail to see a viable alternative to the African National Congress should do with their votes in the upcoming local elections. Glenda Daniels, describing the dilemma of voters disillusioned with the […]

Legal advice offices will again face crisis if the government does not take the initiative Piers Pigou Poverty is arguably the greatest challenge facing South Africa, and the urgent need to address the inequities of South Africa’s racial economy was clearly recognised by the drafters of the Constitution through specific provisions for a range of […]

Sammy Moretsi An Inkatha Freedom Party local election candidate appeared in court this week for allegedly stabbing and killing an IFP comrade at a squatter camp in Bekkersdal township. Victor Roliyathe (32), who is in jail, remains on the party’s candidate list at Westonaria Independent Electoral Council. He appeared in the Westonaria regional court on […]

Neal Collins soccer Charlton Athletic are set to sign a second South African in their bid to keep the unfashionable South London club riding high in the Premiership. Manager Alan Curbishley is on the verge of luring Bafana Bafana striker Shaun Bartlett from Swiss club FC Zurich. Curbishley, the highly rated Latics boss who was […]

Deon Potgieter boxing Despite losing a week’s training because of the rantings of Glen “The cry baby” Catley, Dingaan Thobela says he is approaching readiness for the first defence of his World Boxing Council (WBC) super- middleweight world title on December 15. Thobela had to fly to Paris last week to defend himself at a […]

Police have long suspected Russel Ngubo of involvement in a string of bloody murders in KwaZulu-Natal Paul Kirk In less than two weeks Russel Ngubo, a top correctional services official in Pietermaritzburg, has severely assaulted his boss for not processing his leave forms in time and been implicated in the murder of a 15-year-old child. […]

With diamonds sponsoring guns in West and Central Africa, Nechama Brodie explores the options for girls (and guys) in need of a new best friend. Are diamonds the new ivory? Cut, colour, clarity and carat. Words to set any girl’s pulse racing. But the famous four “Cs”, used to judge the quality of a diamond, […]

Ntuthuko Maphumulo soccer Banyana Banyana will be hoping to emulate the South African men’s team, Bafana Bafana, by winning the African Nations Cup in front of their home fans but Lady Luck might not be on Banyana’s side. In 1996 the Super Eagles of Nigeria did not defend their men’s African Cup of Nations title […]

Thebe Mabanga There was a time when television dramas used to be a source of fascination for millions of viewers. Whether your fare was dished from a neighbour’s set or a battery-operated set in your lounge with neighbours’ children congregating in front of the set many dramas were a decent combination of mesmerising acting and […]

Without a website, you’re just a physical presence. The South African Web design industry is happily changing that Sheree Russouw The whistling sounds of budgies and cockatiels resonate through the corridors of Randburg-based Web design company Webpaint Designs. Music is blaring from the decibel-cranking radio, interspersing with the birdsong. There’s a veritable jungle of plants […]

Neil Williams One Step Behind Mandela by Rory Steyn and Deborah Patta (Zebra) One Step Behind Mandela is the story of the journey Rory Steyn made from being an apartheid supporter to being responsible for the protection of Nelson Mandela’s life between 1990 and 1994. Steyn, who had served with pride in the security branch, […]

Duncan Mackay olympics ‘Don’t worry about the delays back home, mate,” said the Greek taxi driver in London. “Things are always done in Greece at the last minute. Why should the Olympics be any different?” It is true that appears to be pretty much standard operating procedure in Athens but not one that the members […]

Jim Beam: Smoother than some, it carries a bouquet of smoky spice given it by the oak barrels in which it is matured and has a full sweet flavour of burnt caramel and oaky vanilla. Wild Turkey (left): This whiskey is aged for eight years in charred oak barrels to give it a full woody […]

Pule waga Mabe Chaos erupted at an election meeting in Seshego, near Pietersburg, last weekend, as pensioners refused to be addressed by their councillors and staged a walkout during the proceedings. The pensioners had just been told that the new council, which will kick in after the local government elections, will make them pay for […]

Jeremy Rifkin In the years ahead, the planet’s shrinking gene pool is going to become a source of increasing monetary value. Multinational corporations are already scouting the continents to locate microbes, plants, animals and humans with rare genetic traits that might have market potential. After locating the desired traits, biotech companies are modifying them and […]

Jubie Matlou Paramount Chief Kgagudi Kenneth Sekhukhune of Bapedi-ba-Marota in the Northern Province walked slowly into a hall packed with chiefs from all corners of his kingdom to listen to deliberations regarding the role of traditional leaders after the December 5 local government elections. The blind monarch, firmly clenching his walking stick, was flanked by […]

An easy enough way of giving the ideal present is to add to somebody’s collection Everyone collects something: stamps (unlikely today), koi (ag, no, please), gloves (mmmm). Snoop around your friends’ abodes and you’ll spot a collection of something or other. Then you’ll know what to get whether it’s fairly easy to come by, like […]

Anne Emslie obituary Koos Malgas, best known as the sculptor of the statues at the Owl House, died this week in Graaff Reinet of a stroke. Situated in Nieu Bethesda in the Eastern Cape, the Owl House was the brainchild of artist Helen Martins. Now a popular tourist destination, it is an example of what […]

Ntuthuko Maphumulo Joanne “Shibobo” Solomon (25) is Banyana Banyana’s top goal scorer with 19 goals. She has so far scored two goals in the African Championship for Women’s Football, but hopes to score more in their final match against Nigeria on Saturday. Her nickname comes from her ability to pass the ball through opponents’ legs […]

FINAL year pupils at a leading Swaziland school failed their English literature exams this week because teachers taught them the wrong syllabus. Siphocosini High School in the capital Mbabane confirmed that pupils were unable to answer 66 percent of their final literature exam because the school used an outdated syllabus and prescribed incorrect setwork books. […]

KENYA has banned trawler fishing in its Indian Ocean waters, after brawls between foreign and local fishermen and amid concern for the environment and breeding grounds, officials said. Trawling within five nautical miles on the Kenyan north coast has led to deaths of hundreds of turtles, marine biologists said. The three-month ban was implemented by […]

SWAZILAND’S feared Makhundu 60-day detention-without-trial law is illegal and cannot be used to arrest political dissidents as threatened, the kingdom’s Attorney General Phesheya Dlamini said this week. The law was repealed by King Mswati III in September 1993 and would first have to be officially reinstated and gazetted before it could be used again. Swaziland […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Pretoria | Thursday A FORMER Military Intelligence agent has revealed a bizarre scheme to kill an ANC spy with mamba poison to cover up the SA Defence Force’s role in the execution of five Mozambican resistance fighters. Testifying in the trial of apartheid chemical warfare expert Wouter Basson, former MI commander Cornelius Johannes […]

BRENDAN BOYLE, Pretoria | Thursday MIXED reactions have greeted a decision by a Pretoria court to grant bail to the six white police officers alleged to have set dogs on illegal job-seekers. While demonstrators outside the court shouted “one settler, one bullet” and demanded the six be jailed, the accused’s delighted families said they would […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Pretoria | Thursday A SOUTH African farmers’ union has urged its members to improve their markmanship to counter continuing attacks by criminals. “We are encouraging farmers unequivocally to behave as if a national state of emergency is in place,” the Transvaal Agricultural Union said in a statement. Latest statistics show that 88 South […]

EMSIE FERREIRA, Johannesburg | Thursday CHILD sex trafficking – with children as young as four – is on the rise in South Africa, driven by deepening poverty that sometimes sees a family force a child into prostitution as its only source of income, says a report released this week. The report says there are an […]

FLIES and black cockroaches, possibly attracted by corpses of victims of Angola’s civil war, are invading the central Angolan town of Cuito, state-run radio reported. Health authorities fear residents who have survived the warfare could suffer new problems caused by the insects, the report said. A group of experts has launched a study into the […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Pretoria | Thursday THE Denel group this week an agreement in Kuala Lumpur with the government of Malaysia for the supply of artillery systems to the Malaysian armed forces. The contract, valued at $50m, provides for delivery of 22 units of the South African-developed 155mm 45-calibre G5 Mark 3 towed artillery system, along […]

RESEARCHERS say they have discovered traces of cocaine in 4000-year-old Egyptian mummies, which they call evidence of contact with American cultures centuries before Christopher Columbus. The decade-long study languished “under pressure from people with obscure interests who don’t accept changes in the interpretation of history,” researcher Svetlana Balabanova said from Frankfurt, Germany. Cocaine is synthesized […]

THREE men cut off an aspirant sangoma’s testicle and left him lying in agony in the veld for three nights. Chuchi Ronald Maluleke, 32, was undergoing training as a sangoma in the Northern Province when he was attacked when he went to relieve himself on Friday night. Two held him down while the third cut […]

AT least 95 people have died of yellow fever in an epidemic that broke out in central Guinea last month. The epidemic is centred in Mamou, 280km east of the capital Conakry, and has spread to Labe and Koubia in the same region, the relief agency Hopital Sans Frontiere (Hospital Without a Border) said. Yellow […]

FIFTY people have been killed and several injured in a clash in central Chad over a land dispute, sources in the Chadian capital N’Djamena said. The clash occurred this week between two ethnic groups in Djedda, some 350km northeast of the capital in Batha Province. A source close to the interior ministry said the dispute […]