Staff Reporter

Nawaal Deane and Ntuthuko Maphumulo The first in-depth investigation into the efficacy of South Africa’s Aids awareness campaigns on the country’s youth shows that while the information is getting through, few believe it applies to them. The survey, conducted by the Beyond Awareness Campaign, reveals that most young people see HIV as a threat to […]

Rose Dingaan Thobela takes on Glenn Catley in a world title bout this weekend. But the Rose of Soweto’s opponent is not your average pugilist Gavin Evans When you see Glenn Catley in the ring you might decide this is the kind of fellow who expects you to drop your eyes when you pass him […]

Shaun de Waal WE FEAR NAUGHT BUT GOD: THE STORY OF THE SOUTH AFRICAN SPECIAL FORCES, “THE RECCES” by Paul Els (Covos Day) There must be many fascinating stories to tell of the men who were the elite troops of the apartheid military machine, and many lessons to be drawn from their history. A rivetingly […]

Underperformance in public education has been blamed for tertiary institutions’ failure to produce enough black professionals Glenda Daniels, David Macfarlane and Thebe Mabanga The number of black professionals graduating in South Africa has remained alarmingly static since the mid-Nineties, with experts identifying the poor level of mathematics and science teaching in schools as a major […]

Barry Streek A Cape Town-based NGO, Ikamva Labantu, which services more than 1 000 community-based projects, was saved from imminent collapse by the business community following years of government bureaucratic bungling in processing its funding applications. Ikamva needs about R150000 a month to operate, but is getting R8 500 a month from the government to […]

Cape Flats residents who were left homeless after last year’s tornado feel that the municipality has not done enough to provide new housing Marianne Merten A year to the day after her daughter Ghaironisah Moosa was killed when a tornado hit Manenberg on the Cape Flats, Maraldia Ajam died. The elderly woman lived for much […]

Fiona Macleod Southern Africa’s most newly endangered species on the verge of extinction is the winter impala lily, a plant used by traditional healers to treat stomach ailments. Conservationists warn that agriculture and development have virtually wiped out the plant in the wild and unless drastic steps are taken it will soon be extinct. Mpumalanga […]

Belinda Beresford It’s all in the packaging! That, at least, is the hope of the Department of Health, which has decided that colour counts in the battle against Aids. In an attempt to make condoms more popular among the majority population, government-sponsored Condom Cans could soon be stocked with brown condoms as well as the […]

The Rand Daily Mail fought a lonely battle on the ‘slippery slope’ of opposition to the National Party government in the 1960s. In his memoir, War of Words, Benjamin Pogrund recalls what it was like to be part of this publication The telephone on my desk in the Rand Daily Mail newsroom rang. I picked […]

Tim Radford Scientists claim this week to be on the track of a “universal” cancer vaccine. They have targeted a natural protein that makes tumour cells immortal and therefore lethal. The scientists have isolated part of the protein and used it to trigger immune system cells into killing both mouse and human cancer cells in […]

Jaspreet Kindra The acting Minister of Intelligence, Penuell Maduna, has denied the existence of an investigation into an alleged plot to replace President Thabo Mbeki with Cyril Ramaphosa, the former secretary general of the African National Congress. In a separate comment, the Inspector General of Intelligence, Fazel Randera, questioned whether it would have been appropriate […]

nnovations Standard Bank has come up with a new Internet credit card. Beans, schmeans. Even if you don’t give a toss for e-commerce, this one’s worth it just for the exceptionally competitive interest rates on their Mastercard-linked credit card. If you have an ordinary Standard Bank credit card, you have to have R100000 in your […]

Thuli Nhlapo The Free State town of Sasolburg was stunned this week by a horrific incident in which a black man was allegedly dragged to his death behind his white employer’s bakkie. Pieter Odendaal, the owner of a construction company, allegedly killed his employee, Mosoko Rampuru, apparently after the two had been drinking. A post-mortem […]

Playwright and former exile Anthony Akerman’s career is symptomatic of the ruptures apartheid visited on us all Guy Willoughby Anthony Akerman’s latest play, Comrades Arms – a racy farce about an ex-leftie political exile reduced to running a bed- and-breakfast on the Garden Route – opens at the Wits Theatre this week after a rousing […]

Howard Barrell Thabo Mbeki has led the African National Congress away from its past non-racist principles towards a narrow Africanism to hold the ruling party together, according to a Democratic Party analysis of ANC thinking on race. “Mbeki’s vision of ‘racial transformation’ [represents] a decisive break with the non-racial tradition of the party, as articulated […]

Injuries, bans and retirements have caused a high turnover of personnel, but the new Proteas have blossomed Peter Robinson A few years ago BC (Before Cellphones), cricketers would take themselves off to the golf course for a few hours to get away from it all. For better or worse, this is no longer the case. […]

Nawaal Deane and Ntuthuko Maphumulo Sexually active youth in Gauteng are the most responsible when it comes to preventing the spread of HIV, while the youth in the Eastern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal are the country’s most promiscuous and ill-informed about the pandemic. The Beyond Awareness Campaign investigation shows a high percentage of Gauteng youth recognise […]

Neil Williams MADUMO: A MAN BEWITCHED by Adam Ashforth (David Philip) Madumo: A Man Bewitched is a true story. This well-written book streamlines the experiences gained by Adam Ashforth when he lived in Soweto. Ashforth, a Princeton professor, has stayed in Mapetla, Soweto, intermittently since 1990. He has been accepted by the people there. One […]

Hansie Cronje cashes in and lenient sentences for Gibbs and Williams anger cricket world Peter Robinson Amid mounting speculation that South Africa faces suspension from the International Cricket Council (ICC) for its handling of the match-fixing scandal, it emerged this week that Hansie Cronje pocketed about R1-million for his exclusive interview with South African pay-TV […]

Robert Kirby CHANNELVISION Soft guitar music, sub-aural mutterings, slithery overlays of the loveable smile and at last the title scrolls: Hansie: Fallen Idol. We are into the first of a three-part interview with The Big C. It is hard to decide what M-Net and SuperSport were trying to achieve with this wretched exercise. I tried […]

Nawaal Deane, Pule waga Mabe, Ntuthuko Maphumulo and Roshila Pillay A young woman with a box full of condoms is having fun on the rocky streets of Soshanguve, north of Pretoria, handing out free condoms to passers-by. It is Saturday morning, and most people are still suffering from their Friday hangovers. As the woman enters […]

Ebrahim Harvey LEFTFIELD While some of its research and recommendations are useful, the report on the investigation into racism in the media, released last week by the Human Rights Commission, is in its theoretical, methodological and analytical approach badly flawed. However, the recommendation for legislation to govern the media will be a veritable legal, moral, […]

Emma Brockes Body Language At Club Sirius, the dating agency for “single, well-educated and articulate people”, success isn’t measured by the number of members who marry, but by the number who recommend the service to a friend. By recommending it, members are seen by the club’s management to have faced out a powerful taboo. That […]

Duvall Pettway Fashion It’s that time of the year again, when the South African fashion industry comes out to see what the country’s top designers have on offer, for spring and summer. This year the 4th annual South African Fashion Week (SAFW) is accompanied by the first South African Fashion Exhibition. Both are taking place […]

A CLOTHING store manager and a staff member have appeared in a Northern Province court for allegedly painting a 14-year-old girl white after accusing her of shoplifting. Thelma Strydom, who manages Pep Stores in Louis Trichardt, and employee Julia Munyai were not asked to plead on charges of assault, theft and crimen injuria. A male […]

OWN CORRESPONDENTS, Cape Town | Thursday THE gathering of intelligence is to be stepped up significantly as national and provincial government deploys massive resources to combat the wave of bomb attacks on the Cape Peninsula, says provincial community safety minister Hennie Bester. Bester told a news conference that traffic police would also have to be […]

ABOUT three-quarters of South Africans are positive the future would be happy for all citizens – but decreasing numbers of minority groups say they are “confident or positive” in a national poll conducted by market researchers Markinor. In its biannual survey, which coincides with the South African Human Rights Commission’s four-day conference on racism in […]

BRENDAN BOYLE, Johannesburg | Thursday FORMER South African President FW de Klerk has broken a long silence to warn that the racial harmony that marked the transition from apartheid to democracy is starting to crumble. De Klerk, the white Afrikaner who handed power to Nelson Mandela in 1994, said in a statement that whites, mixed-race […]

ZELDA Ingrid Williams, the sister of convicted thief and former cabinet minister Abe Williams, has appeared briefly in the Paarl Magistrate’s Court on fraud charges involving R56 740. Williams, 35, was not asked to plead. With her in the dock was Theuns Blom, 30, who faces similar charges. Both face 25 counts of fraud. The […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Harare | Thursday ZIMBABWE’S opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) has threatened to “take to the streets” to force President Robert Mugabe to halt his country’s involvement in the war in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) – which the government has admitted has cost it US$200m. The admissions, by Finance Minister Simba […]

TELLUMAT, a South African communications and defence electronics company, has been awarded a contract by Thomson-CSF NCS France to provide integrated identification systems for the South African Navy. The integrated identification friend or foe (IFF) systems will be fitted to four MEKO A-200 patrol corvettes that the navy is to acquire as part of the […]

THREE Northern Province teenagers have appeared in court in connection with taking turns to rape one of their girlfriends. Jabu Javas Mahlangu and Sam Masemola, both 18, as well as a 17-year-old minor, are from Rondtebos village in Nebo and were arrested they allegedly lured the minor’s girlfriend into mountains and raped her. Police said […]