Staff Reporter

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 Policing experts say the restraint promoted by former minister of safety and security, Sydney Mufamadi, has been replaced by Tshwete’s more gung ho approach to his portfolio.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 […]

divide In a bid to win votes, parties in KwaZulu- Natal are fielding candidates in areas other than their traditional strongholds Jaspreet Kindra Political parties in KwaZulu-Natal are taking special steps to increase their appeal beyond their customary, often racially designated, support bases to bag as many seats as possible on the proportional representation list. […]

Ntuthuko Maphumulo soccer Banyana Banyana top scorer Jo-Anne “Shibobo” Solomon, credited with 19 goals, promises local soccer lovers that “the title will remain here”, when the African Women’s Football Championships kick off in Vosloorus on Saturday. The early rounds will be played at Vosloorus and the Makhulong stadium in Tembisa, with all later matches at […]

David Le Page The government this week abruptly backed down from ruling on the R1,5-billion oil trading deal made by the Strategic Fuel Fund (SFF) with the Bahamas-based High Beam/Trafigura joint venture. Despite having already conducted its own internal investigation, the Department of Mineral and Energy Affairs is now to appoint senior counsel to investigate […]

The password trick: A crook running a rogue website takes a customer’s credit-card number and password to go shopping at major online retailers that might also have been visited by that person. Many people use the same password for all their online shopping, so the crook will go to sites that only need a password […]

Claire Bezuidenhout It’s a blistering Sunday morning and the sun is sapping any chance of physical comfort as we drive into the MTN Sundome in Randburg. We’re greeted by an array of about 300 kids dressed in the oversized clobber of this generation, consisting of hoodies, three-quarter pants, trainers and awkwardly positioned skater caps. As […]

Rob Kitson rugby It is not quite a case of “Will the last rugby player out of Sydney please turn off the lights” but right now it feels that way. When the Australian rugby union squad flew into Britain this week to join their Kang-aroo counterparts already there for the league World Cup, customs officers […]

Dolina Dowling A second look The speculation and furore that has arisen about the ultimate cause of the death of Parks Mankahlana raises some interesting questions. No one doubts that the explanation given by his wife that he had acute anaemia, which brought about a massive heart attack, is correct. Why he had acute anaemia […]

Richard Jago in Stuttgart tennis Wayne Ferreira, one of the game’s great under-achievers and most volatile talents, achieved the best success of his career last week in the longest final of the year. Ferreira, the old-stager alleged to be temperamentally unsound but who has always believed in his mental toughness, beat Lleyton Hewitt in the […]

John Matshikiza with the lid off I had been living on the Senegalese island of Gor’e all through August. The day I was due to leave, another dramatic thunderstorm had come raging up from the south-west, with such force this time that even the islanders, accustomed to all the changing moods of the winds and […]

Olive baboons are being ‘kidnapped’ for experimental xenotransplantation in the West Gregory Mthembu-Salter The British Union for the Abolition of Vivisection (BUAV) has uncovered a grim trade in baboons from Tanzania. BUAV investigators in Tanzania have found that Olive baboons (Papio anubis) are being “kidnapped” in traps and sold for about R90 each to primate […]

The disparity in two libraries 2km apart has reemphasised the great divide between rich and poor that still exists in South Africa, writes Glenda Daniels Adorned with statues, paintings, cushions, couches, even rag dolls, the state-of-the- art Sandton library is spotlessly clean and air-conned, with colourful furniture, carpets and pot-plants galore. The soothing sounds of […]

Tara Turkington 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: a much slimmer […]

Nawaal Deane In the week that Angola prepares to celebrate its 25th anniversary of independence, Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) has published a blunt account of the horrendous mutilation and terror suffered by civilians during the country’s lengthy civil war. Contrary to the claims of the Angolan government that the situation has stabilised, the MSF says […]