Staff Reporter

A SOUTH African diamond miner has committed suicide by putting a stick of dynamite in his mouth and lighting it with a match. Police said Mogakalodi Thetswe, 30, killed himself in his bedroom at his parents’ house in Ganyesa in the North West province. The family thought they heard a gunshot and rushed to the […]

SOMALI Prime Minister Ali Khalif Galaydh has announced the formation of his government, the first in the strife-torn Horn of Africa country for nearly a decade. The cabinet consists of 25 ministers drawn from different clans and sub-clans. Galaydh’s authority has not been recognised by the warlords who have carved up the country, which has […]

SWIFT action to fight the Ebola outbreak in Uganda has resulted in a much lower mortality rate than earlier cases of the deadly virus, and raised hopes of a speedy drop-off in infections, health experts said. The hemorrhagic fever caused by the virus usually kills between 50 and 90% of the people it infects, but […]

Health activists are concerned about a vigorous advertising campaign to recruit more women smokers, particularly in developing countries Khadija Magardie Latest statistics from the World Health Organisation (WHO) indicate there are about a billion smokers worldwide – less than 12% of which are women. But, women’s health activists say, this figure is expected to mushroom […]

The Egyptian Coptic Church sticks to ancient traditions in spiritual and material service to its congregation and the community, writes Osita Nwajah ‘In the beginning, God created Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve.” That is Father Hedra Eshak Bisada’s simple answer to the question on where the Coptic Church stands on homosexuality. That position […]

South Africa’s economic decline is the main reason for the president’s fall in popularity, suggests a recent survey Howard Barrell President Thabo Mbeki’s standing among South Africans has plummeted in recent months, according to the results of a wide-ranging public opinion poll released on Thursday. Only one in two South Africans (50,2%) approves of the […]

virus International effort has been mobilised as the death toll mounts in Uganda Anna Borzello and Sarah Boseley Ugandan officials this week threatened to use force to prevent anyone leaving three areas of the country stricken by an outbreak of deadly Ebola haemorrhagic fever as an international effort was mobilised to contain the epidemic. As […]

It’s not just the oil price that makes off- shore investing a slippery business Neil Thomas Trying to take a view on world investment markets right now, particularly equity markets, entails an intricate egg dance. And it’s a curate’s egg you have to dance on. It’s been a long time since international markets have looked […]

Unlike the Yugoslavs, the Zimbabweans have yet to develop an effective culture of mass protest Iden Wetherell It has been called “the Milosevic effect”. But comparisons with Yugoslav leader Slobodan Milosevic’s fall from power may be premature. Zimbabwe’s capital, Harare, was this week the scene of riots over food prices. Bread has gone up by […]

process Gregory Mthembu-Salter The surprise summit in Maputo on October 16 of all the heads of state whose countries are at war in the Democratic Republic of Congo, barring Angolan President Eduardo dos Santos, marked the start of South Africa’s best opportunity yet to end the two-year conflict. Presidential advisers hope a positive outcome will […]

Robert Mattes a second look South Africans could be forgiven if they have become a little arrogant about their new democracy. After all, who could blame them? They negotiated a “miracle” transition, steering from probable terrible conflict to non- racial peace in a few short years. They engineered a state-of-the-art Constitution replete with innovations like […]

innovations Samsung has created a spectacularly fast Graphics Memory Chip: a 128MB DDR-SDRAM. That’s a bigger memory than most PCs have in the form of conventional memory. The new chip runs at 500 megabits a second (mbps), and will allow gamers especially to experience far higher resolution and clarity of image. Samsung claim the chips […]

Roshila Pillay Joseph Mashiloae always knew he was a man – until he tried obtaining proper banking facilities. He has been turned down by five different banks on the grounds that he is posing as a female. The reason for his rejection is simple – Mashiloae’s identity document classifies him incorrectly as a female. Seven […]

Chris Dunton Home and Exile by Chinua Achebe (Oxford University Press) Novels such as Things Fall Apart and A Man of the People have been so successful worldwide they have tended to overshadow Chinua Achebe’s non-fictional works. For over 30 years, though, the Nigerian has been demonstrating he is a master essayist. His new book, […]

He’s got it all – fame, money and talent. But there’s more to David Beckham than that. He talks to Ian Ridley about fatherhood, Fergie – and how terrace taunts brought him to the brink When the camera is trained on him, he goes immediately, automatically, into that famous and familiar moody, brooding look. You […]

Marina Cantacuzino Body Language Some people can identify a defining moment in their childhood – an incident that brings an idea to mind which is then indelibly fixed in the psyche. For Gelding – an adopted alias for the American Internet guru to all wannabe eunuchs – that moment came when he was 12 years […]

Belinda Beresford The fight between Aids activists and the government intensified this week when an NGO that helps rape survivors in Mpumalanga issued court papers against the provincial health MEC after being banned from state hospitals. The MEC for Health, Sibongile Manana, also accused the NGO, the Greater Nelspruit Rape Intervention Project (Grip), of illegally […]

head Khadija Magardie Minister of Justice and Constitutional Development Penuell Maduna this week threw his weight behind Constitutional Court president Arthur Chaskalson as his choice to lead a new super court. Maduna endorsed Chaskalson as the country’s top judicial officers gave the thumbs-up to a merger of the two highest courts in the land – […]

Is the expiry of the benchmark RSA encryption patent an Internet watershed? Karlin Lillington At a large security software conference held recently in Florida, United States, the most popular T-shirt among the 1 000 delegates was the one you could get for free from the exhibition stand for a company called RSA Security. On the […]

Class will out in the Currie Cup and the top sides have made it through to this weekend’s semifinals Andy Capostagno The rugby season that began on Friday February 25 is almost over. Those players who do not make Harry Viljoen’s Springbok touring squad of 40 can look forward to at least two months that […]

Paul Kirk Pension officials in KwaZulu- Natal are in hot water after an ageing pensioner was called a baboon while waiting in a pension queue and the official representative for Prince Gideon Zulu, Mike Gumede, claimed that pensioners enjoyed queuing in the hot sun as it gave them a chance to gossip with their friends. […]

Stuart Jeffries T he surprise winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature sat on the edge of a friend’s bed in Paris and reflected on the journey that had brought him from China to France, from the obscurity of being a playwright and novelist known only to a small number of critics and intellectuals to […]

up Evidence wa ka Ngobeni A principal at a North West school has admitted to beating students for failing to contribute towards the salary of another teacher at the school. LS Thwane, headmaster at Montshioa Memorial Middle School near Mmabatho, made his startling admission to the Mail & Guardian this week after students and teachers […]

A RURAL traditional healer has been arrested on allegations that he kidnapped and kept a teenager as a sex slave for five days in Northern Province. The 43-year-old man was arrested after the 14-year-old girl’s family members, who were afraid to fetch her, reported the matter to police doing patrols in the area. She told […]

Thebe Mabanga in your ear The battle for the hearts and minds of South Africa’s 28-million adults has spawned an industry that in 1999 attracted advertising worth R4,3-billion. According to a report by PriceWaterhouseCoopers, between 1995 and 1999 returns on capital invested in the entertainment and media declined by 34%. But taken at face value, […]

Guy Willoughby Collaborations 2000, a month-long season of new South African plays jointly presented by the Cape Town Theatre Laboratory and Artscape, opened at the Nico Arena last week with Bheki Mkhwane and Grieg Coetzee’s riveting one-man play Solomon’s Pride – an extraordinary piece of performance art that deserves much more than its brief five- […]

Steven Friedman worm’s eye view Redistribution is not only a matter of what you do, but how you do it. Until this week, anyone who suggested that we could find a way of getting the affluent to contribute to the needs of the poor that would attract support from the government and official opposition would […]

Police members have very little in the way of psychological support despite frequent brushes with death and horrifying incidents Tracey Farren Captain Clifford Wyethe of Kirstenhof police station near Cape Town ticks off his experiences of the past three days. On Wednesday a prison warder was knocked down on the N3 – it was his […]

DUMISANE LUBISI and OWN CORRESPONDENT, Pietersburg | Friday A PIETERSBURG brother and sister’s 20-year incestuous relationship – which produced two children – has been exposed after their younger brother spilled the beans after a blazing family row. Police say the man is in his early 40s and his sister in her late 30s. They have […]

John Barker Despite the heady trillion-dollar predictions for e-commerce, the reality is that life is hard for dot.com companies. The promise of great riches has produced hordes of wannabe sites, often grossly over-funded but run by inexperienced people. Even worse, the bricks and mortar outlets are starting to fight back. In this situation you can […]

Glenda Daniels African men work a longer week than any other South Africans, while white women work the shortest number of hours – almost a day a week less, according to statistics released this week by the Department of Labour. When the department released its report on the feasibility of achieving a 40-hour week – […]

real deal The bout between Mike Tyson and Andrew Golota could be more mayhem than Marquess of Queensbury Harry Pearson A century-and-a-half ago the great English showman Wombwell organised a fight between a pack of English mastiffs and one of the lions from his travelling menagerie. Ticket sales were brisk. On the night of the […]