Staff Reporter

Khadija Magardie Honeymoon in Purdah: An Iranian Journey by Alison Wearing (Macmillan) The picture of a black-eyed, veiled woman on the cover of Canadian journalist Alison Wearing’s new book would suggest yet another “us versus them” book on the stereotypical exoticism of the Middle East. It is a disappointment that, three chapters into the book, […]

David Beresford Another Country As a student I turned up at my favourite pub one evening to find myself banned from the premises for having danced on the tables the night before. I had not been there the night before and I had not danced on the tables (although I subsequently made a point of […]

Marianne Merten Taxi warlord turned local government candidate, Victor Sam, died this week the way he had lived – by the gun. But his death has left many wondering what hat Sam was wearing when he was gunned down in Crossroads in his car. The controversial taxi boss, township businessman and community figure was brought […]

John Matshikiza with the lid off My old friend Moji from exile days came running wildly up Rockey Street the other day and seemed relieved to see a friendly face. He sat down without even saying hello after all these years. He had a heavy situation on his mind. “I just paid R10 for a […]

Art aside, the touring Marc Chagall extravaganza is a defining moment in South Africa’s emergence from cultural isolation Kathryn Smith When a major Marc Chagall exhibition was announced at a rather lavish reception at Standard Bank headquarters earlier this year, my first impulsive thoughts were, why Chagall? If the French wanted to showcase their cultural […]

Economists are concerned that declining technology stocks will lead slowing economies into recession Donna Block in New York After 10 years of a bull market – which some thought would never quit – the bears have finally busted out and are mauling Wall Street. The question is: will the New Economy’s technology boom, which drove […]

David Le Page The rand was pummelled to fresh lows against the dollar and the pound this week, dropping below R7,70 to the dollar late on Wednesday amid increasing investor concern about Southern Africa and emerging markets in general. Ever since May, when the currency first began to tumble, economists have been overflowing with reassurances […]

David Le Page AFRICANFRONTIERS The downside is, South Africa is one of the world’s top 20 polluters. At least 93,5% of South African electricity is coal-fired. Eskom is the world’s single largest producer of carbon dioxide. Acid rain created by power stations causes fences near Bethel to disintegrate in just three years. The upside? Southern […]

lie’ Marten du Plessis crossfire Mail & Guardian reporter Belinda Beresford has had the rash impudence to suggest that noseweek (“a venerable organ”) has “maliciously distorted the facts” about Professor Malegapuru Makgoba’s presentation on Aids mortality to the Presidential Advisory Panel on Aids (“Lies, damned lies and noseweek”, October 6 to 12). Ja well, but […]

Two years after taking to the stage in his first one-man show, Marc Lottering is the most popular performer on Cape Town’s burgeoning stand-up comedyscene RyanFortune It’s an unseasonably cool Thursday evening in Cape Town, but On Broadway in Green Point is packed to capacity for Marc Lottering, the lank-limbed, bushy-haired comedian who seems unstoppable […]

South African banking groups are using the Internet to put a new spin on loyalty schemes and encourage online shopping David Le Page Banks want more business. Internet vendors want more business. Both want fewer hassles with online credit card transactions. These are the three major imperatives behind eBucks and bluebean.com, the new Internet initiatives […]

Humphrey Tyler crossfire South Africa is in serious danger of being sidetracked into a blind alley by the current “debate” on racism, quite apart from the fact that it is wasting a lot of money giving some people highly paid, totally useless jobs, maybe for life. Having kicked out the National Party because of its […]

poachers James Hall Swazis’ cultural antipathy toward snakes has prompted the Swaziland Senate to rally to the defence of three poachers who were arrested for killing a 3m-long python. Senator Simeon Simelane raised a motion last week calling for the minister of justice to release the suspects. Other senators in their submissions depicted the poachers […]

Belinda Beresford It may be a sunny Christmas this year, but it’s unlikely to be that cheery for retailers who rely on the shopping frenzy, aided by 13th cheques, to provide a hefty chunk of their annual sales. Brooding over the shoulders of shoppers will be the South African Reserve Bank, eager to ensure that […]

Barry Streek The government’s ability to deliver on its local government election promise of 6E000 litres of free water to poor people every month is being questioned by the Rural Development Services Network (RDSN). RDSN has been researching the provision of 50 litres a person a day for two years. It says: “About 40E000 children […]

Andy Capostagno golf If the fourth edition of the President’s Cup follows anything like the pattern of the last one, held in Australia in 1998, by the time you read this the international team captained by South Africa’s Ernie Els should already have wrapped it up. For it was in Melbourne two years ago that […]

MINING magnate Harry Oppenheimer, whose fortune was estimated at R30bn, has left a will that refers to wealth of only R307m, The Star newspaper reported. Further vast wealth is believed to have been left in trust before he died. The former chairman of the Anglo American Corporation and De Beers died in August aged 92. […]

SOUTH Africa and China have signed an agreement on the exchange of medical and public health expertise during a visit by Chinese Public Health Minister Zhang Wenkang. Zhang and his South African counterpart Manto Tshabalala-Msimang endorsed the cooperation pact, which encompasses primary health care, training and family and traditional medicines. South Africa and China reestablished […]

OWN CORRESPONDENTS and REUTERS, Johannesburg | Thursday SOUTH African farms will descend into chaos unless the government speeds up its process of land reform to satisfy the demands of landless blacks, lobby groups and lawyers have warned. Andile Mngxitama of the National Land Committee (NLC), a group of civil organisations working for land rights, said […]

MOZAMBIQUE has urged the United States to release $55m it pledged last May to rebuild an important railway that was damaged by devastating floods, the Mozambican transport minister said this week. “It is very important that those funds are released as quickly as possible,” Transport and Communications Minister Tomas Salomao told a press conference. The […]

THE Nigerian government has banned the militant group blamed for three days of bloody ethnic violence in Lagos and ordered its leaders to be arrested. Information Minister Jerry Gana told television that law enforcement agencies had been told to detain the leaders of the Odua Peoples Congress (OPC) over the killings of more than 100 […]

REUTERS, Lome | Thursday THE Organisation of African Unity (OAU) has followed the lead of the United Nations in withdrawing all monitors and observers from Ivory Coast’s presidential election this weekend in protest at the exclusion of most major candidates. Critics both in Ivory Coast and abroad say the poll is unrepresentative after the supreme […]

Own Correspondent, Cape Town | Wednesday A DEFIANT Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) has thrown down the gauntlet to “profiteering pharmaceutical companies” by smuggling a cut-price consignment of generic drugs into the country to treat HIV/Aids-related diseases, saying affordable drugs could save thousands of lives. TAC chairman Zackie Achmat said the group has imported 5000 Biozole […]

PEOPLE have taken to barricading themselves into their homes in fear of panthers in the remote northeast of Gabon. In two villages in Mekambo province, “people had taken to barricading themselves inside their houses” following attacks on domestic animals and livestock, the news agency AGP said. The panthers’ unusual conduct has “certain superstitious types believing […]

A NORTHWEST couple convicted of abusing and prostituting their three daughters for as little as R5 over a five-year period will be sentenced in the Pretoria Regional Court on October 30. The 41-year-old woman and the girls’ 31-year-old stepfather were convicted in August of abusing the 19-year-old and 16-year-old daughters, and of being party to […]

NIGERIAN authorities have ordered troops onto the streets of Lagos to restore order after three days of ethnic violence left more than 100 dead. Thousands of terrified residents sought protection in police and army barracks as Yoruba youths hunted down Hausa rivals in the worst ethnic violence to shake the city in almost a year. […]

REUTERS AND OWN CORRESPONDENT, Abuja | Wednesday NIGERIAN President Olusegun Obasanjo has pledged his government’s support to improve business confidence in the oil-producing country at the urging of industry leaders. “We have to improve confidence. I agree absolutely with that,” Obasanjo told the concluding session of this year’s Nigerian Economic Summit. Nigeria’s industry leaders and […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Cape Town | Wednessday A SOUTH African group of grappa distillers is spearheading an alliance to strike back at the European Union’s (EU) move to secure Italy’s position as the world’s only producer of “real” grappa. The SA Grappa and Distillation Association, which represents three distillers, wants all producers outside the EU to […]

A MONTH of Egyptian legislative elections has started without the participation of what political observers call the country’s largest opposition force – the Muslim Brotherhood. Egypt’s Islamists, who are prevented by law from evoking religion in their politics, have accused the government of “rigging the elections in advance” by arresting members of the banned Brotherhood, […]

THE World Bank and the International Monetary Fund are to back a debt relief package for the west African state of Cameroon worth a total of $2bn. The agreement makes Cameroon immediately eligible for an annual $100m in debt relief over the next three years, freeing up money that can be allocated to health care, […]

AFP and OWN CORRESPONDENT, Cape Town | Wednesday A BOMB exploded on Wednesday outside a restaurant in Cape Town’s Kenilworth suburb, just south of the city centre, injuring four people, police and rescue sources said. The bomb exploded around 9:00am in front of the Something Fishy eatery, which was not open for business, on the […]

ANGOLA’S lawmakers have extended their own mandate for the third time because of the ongoing civil war, the deputy speaker of parliament Juliao Paulo Mateus said. While the constitution gives lawmakers a four-year term, the parliament formed after elections in 1992 have twice extended their mandates. Mateus did not say how long the new mandate […]