Staff Reporter

Mail & Guardian reporter Contemporary Western horror of eating people could be an aberration, and has a lot to answer for in the world of anthropology, which is a Western creation. Evidence for cannibalism abounds – even if circumstantial – both from the modern world and throughout history, but academic anthropology has found itself in […]

This is an extract from the debate in Parliament last week where President Thabo Mbeki responded to questions from MPs Malusi Gigaba (African National Congress) asked President Thabo Mbeki whether the government had a strategy for dealing with racism and the continuing racial divides in the country and, if this was the case, “how does […]

David Beresford Another Country During my peregrinations in search of a diagnosis – for the cramped handwriting and touch-typing blunders that were eventually diagnosed as Parkinson’s – I consulted an orthopaedic specialist. After tapping various joints and peering at me suspiciously, he pronounced the problem to be “writer’s cramp”. I asked him whether it was […]

Ebrahim Harvey Left field President Thabo Mbeki is finding it difficult to manage the crisis in relations between his African National Congress-led government and its alliance partner, the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu). Forced to strike a balancing act between the two, Mbeki has to draw on all his resources to try and […]

Rosanne Buchanan Food Gautengers can indulge and revel during Wine and Dine week, from October 1 to 8, when a network of about 70 restaurants will be offering fine fare at discounted prices. Inspired by the South African Chefs’ Association (Saca), the event is aimed at encouraging Gauteng residents to eat out more often and […]

Thebe Mabanga Another week of living in hope and eternal optimism has gone by for South Africa. Without fail, our Olympians have raised our hopes only to bring them crashing down. When the games end on Sunday, not only might we have failed to reach our Atlanta medal tally of five medals, we will also […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT and REUTERS, Paros, Greece | Thursday AT least six South Africans are known to have survived the Greek ferry disaster near the Aegean Sea island of Paros, in which the death toll has risen to 62 as rescuers continue to pull bodies from the water. They are Charlene Cooper, Louis van Wyk, Pieter […]

PETER CUNLIFFE-JONES, Abuja | Thursday ONCE rivals, South Africa and Nigeria are now partners in economic development, with South Africans leading the new foreign investors in Nigeria’s almost untapped non-oil economy, officials say. “There is a consensus in South Africa that there is a tremendous potential in Nigeria. It is still uncharted waters, but the […]

JUSTIN ARENSTEIN, Nelspruit | Thursday MPUMALANGA’S “obscene” R800m budget for a lavish new legislature complex – including 350 imported executive chairs at R12_ 000 each – could instead have been used to repair all flood damaged roads in the province, says Democratic Alliance leader Tony Leon. Leon said it was obscene that “people living less […]

ADE OBISESAN, Lagos | Thursday NIGERIAN President Olusegun Obasanjo, who has come under fire for failing to back his anti-corruption talk with action, will this week take his first major step to repair his country’s battered reputation by inaugurating an anti-graft commission. Many Nigerians, including human rights activists and local journalists, have criticised Obasanjo for […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Cape Town | Thursday CONVICTED killer Ferdi Barnard has confessed to murdering anti-apartheid lawyer David Webster outside his Johannesburg home in 1989 on orders from the shadowy Civil Co-operation Bureau (CCB). Barnard told a Truth and Reconciliation Commission amnesty hearing that he conducted the assassination with the help of colleague Calla Botha on […]

FOUR southern African countries have joined forces against an international syndicate of smugglers that is costing their formal economies millions of rands every year. Customs officials from Swaziland, South Africa, Mozambique and Zimbabwe have agreed to work together to smash the syndicate, which smuggles a range of goods for sale at deflated prices in the […]

A HOME science experiment ended tragically when a teenage girl was electrocuted by a garden fence in Northern Province. Elizabeth Zitha, 14, of Giyani, touched the fence without knowing that it was wired to a wall plug in the house. A powerful electric current threw Zitha a few metres through the air and she was […]

THE former Sierra Leone rebel leader Foday Sankoh has been diagnosed with prostate cancer, a prison official said. Sankoh, who has been in custody since May, reportedly took ill some three weeks ago and his condition has been described as “critical”. Sankoh, who is believed to be around 70 years old, launched a bush war […]

ESKOM is to become a fully fledged company in the first quarter of next year in terms of a draft Bill debated in Parliament recently. Stakeholders have long been aware that Eskom will be converted from a commission to a company, but enabling legislation has been delayed because of union opposition based on fear of […]

Own Correspondent, Johannesburg | Thursday IN a ruling which could have major repercussions on labour policies, the Constitutional Court has ordered that a man denied employment by South African Airways because he was HIV positive be offered the job as a cabin attendant with immediate effect. Judge Sandile Ngcobo, who read extracts of the judgment, […]

DIMENSION Data Plc is to take over US information technology group TimeBridge Technologies in a R972m cash deal in its fourth takeover in the US this year, business daily Sake-Beeld reported. The group says it will invest another R108m in TimeBridge to redeem R35m of debt and boost operating capital. Didata will pay R484.65m initially […]

POLICE have arrested a 39-year-old shopkeeper accused of setting alight four young boys, one of whom died from his injuries, after accusing them of stealing sweets. The man, who is also an advisor to the provincial education department, apparently fetched the boys from school and took them to his shop, where he locked them up […]

REUTERS, Abidjan | Thursday IVORY Coast’s military ruler, General Robert Guei, has completed a cabinet reshuffle prompted by an alleged assassination attempt, promoting loyalists and sacking those marked as opponents. Guei’s move came as his military junta agreed to study a series of proposals put forward by African leaders to resolve the country’s political crisis, […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Thursday YOU’RE not even safe from the taxman’s prying fingers in cyberspace. For the first time, tax returns will require full disclosure of sales and purchases made over the Internet. The SA Revenue Service has moved to close a loophole that may have seen billions of rands slip out of country, […]

LUNGA MASUKU AND OWN CORRESPONDENT, Manzini | Thursday SWAZILANDS’S police have threatened to use force when workers embark on a crippling nationwide strike to protest against a controversial industrial relations law. The Swaziland Federation of Trade Unions (SFTU) called for a work stoppage on September 28 after the government failed to meet a deadline to […]

THE Sandton woman who drugged her two sons before setting their home alight has walked free after a court found she was psychotic when the crime was committed and could not appreciate the wrongfulness of her act. Dr Manuela Costa was found “not guilty due to mental illness” after she set alight her Morningside Manor […]

AFP, New York | Wednesday THE UN refugee agency has been slated for failing to do enough for victims in refugee camps after investigations by a human rights organisation revealed rampant sexual and domestic brutality against Burundian women in camps in Tanzania. “Widespread sexual and domestic abuse have left many of these women physically battered, […]

A 20-YEAR-old man has been was arrested for murdering his mother, their gardener and the family’s poodles with a garden fork. Johannesburg police said the dogs appeared to have been killed first and left in the garden. The 60-year-old gardener was then killed in the garage, and neighbours watched helplessly as the mother was attacked […]

SA HEALTH and fitness group LeisureNet says it has signed a letter of intent to dispose of all of the assets of its offshore operations to US-based Fitness Holdings Worldwide. The announcement signals a sudden reversal of strategy for LeisureNet, which last month said it was thinking of seeking an overseas listing to help consolidate […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, AFP and AP, Johannesburg | Wednesday SECURITY guards at the Johannesburg offices of mining giant Anglo American sprayed about 150 demonstrators with pepper spray as they arrived to protest IMF and World Bank policies. Their protest came as several hundred like-minded demonstrators clashed violently with police in Prague as the two financial institutions […]

A 67-year-old Dundee farmer has been found guilty of hiring a professional assassin to murder a State witness scheduled to testify against his son. Cooks Henning showed little emotion when Dundee Magistrate Barney Visagie found him guilty of conspiracy to murder. Magistrate Visagie said the evidence confirmed that Henning hired Sasolburg hitman Gerard Opperman to […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Pretoria | Wednesday CONTROVERSIAL South African arms manufacturer Denel, which has undergone a major transformation in recent years, has “turned the corner” and expects to start realising profits next year, says acting chief executive Flip Botha. Releasing Denel’s results, Botha said the company’s gross revenue increased by 20% in the past financial year, […]

AN 18-year-old matric pupil died in a bizarre accident in KwaZulu-Natal when he fell asleep under a school bus and it drove over his head. The pupil was on a school trip from Ntshisekelo High School in Inanda to the Newcastle Farmers’ Hall. KwaZulu-Natal road traffic inspectorate spokesman Vijen Murugan said the accident happened when […]

THE man arrested two months ago for allegedly having sex with his sister for 16 years and producing two children has been granted bail. Robert Jan Fedder, 40, was released on R600 bail in the Delmas Magistrate’s Court. He has been in custody since he, his sister and parents were arrested on July 26 after […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Durban | Wednesday THE South African National Defence Force has been called in to help cope with an antibiotic-resistant outbreak of cholera in KwaZulu-Natal that has killed 13 people and infected more than 1_ 000 others. Authorities say the disease appears to be spreading after new cases were reported in Eshowe last week. […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Kimberley | Wednesday SPECIAL agents have smashed a massive arms smuggling ring operating at a South African National Defence Force ammunition depot at Jankempdorp in the Northern Cape, arresting seven people and seizing weapons, nearly 200kg of explosives and thousands of rounds of ammunition. Chris Louw, deputy director of public prosecutions in the […]