Staff Reporter

TWELVE more people have died in northern Mozambique from violent demonstrations over the results of last year’s general election, bringing the death toll to 38, Radio Mozambique reported on Saturday. The latest deaths occurred in the northern town of Montepuez, 1 650km north of Maputo, where about 500 armed supporters of the RENAMO opposition party […]

AFP, OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Saturday A SOUTH African judge has sentenced a black soldier to 25 years in jail for killing his white commander but warned that the country’s politicians were too quick to blame race for crimes across the colour line, it was reported on the weekend. Lieutenant Harry Ntoagae gunned down Major […]

A 76-year old father and his 32-year-old daughter were this week given partially suspended sentences in the Belfast Magistrate’s Court after they had admitted to having had an incestuous relationship. Louis Johannes Volschenk will spend part of an effective one year in prison before being released into the care of an old age home. Anne […]

ANGOLA’S ruling party this week renewed an offer of pardon to rebels it has been fighting for the last 25 years, ahead of independence celebrations at the weekend. The president of the Angolan parliament, Roberto de Almeida, said the pardon would come if members of Jonas Savimbi’s National Union for the Total Independence of Angola […]

MORE than a million people have fled their homes in the parts of the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) under rebel control, a UN official said this week. Rebels backed by Rwanda and Uganda have been fighting the government of President Laurent Kabila since 1998 and now control vast swathes of territory […]

THE government could soon dig into the balance of the R300m it previously set aside for urgent reparations to victims of apartheid identified by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. Government representative Joel Netshitenzhe hinted that the full R300m – set aside in a previous Budget for interim reparations – might finally be disbursed. Only R50m […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Pretoria | Friday PEOPLE’S Poet Mzwakhe Mbuli, who says his conviction for bank robbery and the illegal possession of a handgrenade was part of a conspiracy against him and that evidence had been “planted”, will know on Friday whether his appeal was successful. Mbuli appealed against his conviction and 13-year prison sentence after […]

TARA TURKINGTON, Johannesburg | Friday THE interim CEO of the cash-strapped South African Heritage Resources Agency (Sahra) has been spending a large part of a fund set up to transform the organisation on fancy hotels and personal travel. New CEO Pumla Madiba, who takes office in January, will have to sort out a difficult inheritance: […]

TWENTY-two people, including six police officers, died and over 100 others were wounded after police in Mozambique used force to break up violent demonstrations staged against the outcome of last December’s general election, President Joachim Chissano said. Speaking on national radio, Chissano described the demonstrations as “illegal and anti-democratic,” and called on people not to […]

Neal Collins soccer Three goals in his past four games; 12 in 15 this season. The man is a middle-aged miracle. He’s 34 and Teddy Sheringham can’t seem to stop scoring vital goals. On Wednesday night SuperTed shot Manchester United into the last 16 of the Champions League while Leeds, with their oldest player eight […]

apartheid-era methods Khadija Magardie In July this year at Steelpoort Diesel Garage in Burgersfort, Mpumalanga, a South African Police Service (SAPS) inspector, with five civilians, overpowered Benjamin Mabelane and handcuffed him to a steel door. They switched on a nearby welding machine and turned it on Mabelane’s genitals. He died from his injuries. In Septembe, […]

settlements Barry Streek The government has swiftly settled substantial land claims in the Southern Cape in the wake of threats by local residents to carry out land invasions. On Saturday Minister of Agriculture and Land Affairs Thoko Didiza will restore land to 1 100 coloured and black households in Knysna at a cost of about […]

With Internet fraud on the increase more measures are being put in place to protect consumers Rupert Jones and Phillip Inman Credit-card companies are privately slapping hefty fines on rogue websites for misusing people’s card details amid a big jump in complaints about Internet fraud. Much of the problem centres on “adult” websites and other […]

Samoa’s David Tua has put poverty behind him to become a true contender John Rawling in Las Vegas Those passionless arbiters of sporting probability, the Las Vegas odds makers, may claim that the chances of Lennox Lewis losing his world heavyweight title on Saturday night are slim, but two nations beg to differ. New Zealand […]

Ted Leggett As of November 3, the substance Gamma- hydroxy butyrate (GHB) was banned, largely due to its alleged use as a date-rape drug. This is despite the fact that of the more than 50 000 cases of rape reported each year, not one has ever been linked to GHB in South Africa. If preventing […]

Sechaba ka’Nkosi On the surface, Swaziland is a peaceful country blessed with natural beauty. In recent weeks, however, its tranquillity has been shattered by protests and the brutality of its police exposed. My colleague Ruth Motau and I attended a demonstration in Mbabane on Tuesday to cover the story. We became a story in the […]

Delivering services free is not the best way to achieve sustainable access. Derek Hazelton discusses the requirements for universal access to water In its local government elections manifesto the African National Congress promises to provide all with a free basic amount of water, electricity and other municipal services. Those who use more than the basic […]

Mail &Guardian reporter Minister of Safety and Security Steve Tshwete has not shied away from tough talk that militates against a human rights culture in the police. Policing experts say the restraint promoted by former minister of safety and security, Sydney Mufamadi, has been replaced by Tshwete’s more gung ho approach to his portfolio. Some […]

Stephanie Theobald Body Language The French have always been good at sex as art. Like the best food, carnality is invested with intimations of the “au-del…” or the transcendental. Buggery, for instance, isn’t just buggery. Done in the correct poetic framework it becomes Faur”s requiem, Renoir’s umbrellas, the Versailles Hall of Mirrors, Last Tango in […]

The Hurricane has blown out and a new biography gives the reasons Clive Everton Alex Higgins has gone missing. Three months have passed since his last public sighting at the Crucible during the summer; not at the game’s most famous venue, however, but the snooker club of that name which stands in the shadow of […]

Peter Dickson The African National Congress in the Eastern Cape and its former ally, the South African National Civics Organisation (Sanco), are now officially locked in a bitter power struggle for control of the new Nelson Mandela metropole. Last weekend, in outright defiance of the ANC, Sanco’s leaders from Port Elizabeth, Uitenhage and Despatch – […]

Incidents of police brutality have not declined since 1994 – the numbers have even risen Khadija Magardie and Glenda Daniels As South Africa reeled from the graphic Special Assignment footage of police using humans as bait in a dog-training exercise, human rights experts this week said the incident was only the tip of the iceberg. […]

Carol McDaid finds a hideaway island a few miles from Zanzibar that trades on raw nature rather than spice On Zanzibar, the local TV station has been known to set up a camera on a street corner and leave it there for hours, broadcasting live: fragments of conversation; the odd car; women walking past in […]

Deon Potgieter boxing Musibele “Hawk” Makepula may have bitten off more than he can chew when he climbs into the ring against Irene Pacheco on Friday night in the United States. Makepula, who recently relinquished his World Boxing Union junior-flyweight world title, will be challenging the Columbian for the International Boxing Federation flyweight world title. […]

Aventis, which has been denied entry of its products into Europe by the EU, has applied to grow its genetically modified crop in South Africa Fiona Macleod A company that has had to remove about 300 food products from United States supermarket shelves because they contain a genetically engineered maize that may cause human allergies […]

Cedric Mayson Spirit Level South African religion needs a revolution. Many who seek a united country are still inhibited from playing a positive role in transformation by relics of divisive colonial theology which leap to the front in conversations about Israel and Palestine, the conflicts in India or unity in our own country. Religious attitudes […]

Neal Collins rugby We can safely say South Africa’s Rugby League World Cup campaign was not a resounding triumph. Played three, lost three, 24 points for, 138 points against. They leave the tournament with only Russia (who conceded 224 points in three games, despite their seven Australian-based players) having a worse 10 days in flooded, […]

Ebrahim Harvey left field Rising poverty and joblessness, water and electricity cut-offs, the decimating HIV/Aids pandemic and the privatisation of basic social services, of which poor people are deprived if they cannot afford to pay, make the December local government elections a critical event for communities. It also strengthens the fight for democratic and accountable […]

Well known for his diverse collaborative work, Pops Mohamed says he wouldn’t be averse to adding a new genre to his repertoire MC Sparky Pops Mohamed is preserving the sound of ancient instruments in a modern world and hints at a kwaito collaboration. “Music is the only art form that brings people together at any […]

Shaun de Waal obituary Sinclair Beiles, who died on November 3 at the age of 70 in Johannesburg hospital, was one of South Africa’s more unusual and often underrated poets. He was the first winner of the Ingrid Jonker Memorial Prize for poetry in 1970, but in later years was reduced to photocopying his poetry […]

Bongani Diako and Theunis Roux a second look The recent settlement of the Chatha claim has been hailed as “one of the most important moments in the six-year history of the restitution programme” (“Land reform for the poorest”, Mail & Guardian October 13 to 19). In the same article, the resolution of betterment claims through […]

Peter Dickson Hundreds of Eastern Cape Muslims are heading for the West Bank to help fight Israel. The Eastern Cape residents have banded together under the banner of a recruitment body formed by six local Muslim community organisations called Friends of Palestine, which says it is prepared for the men to sacrifice their lives in […]