Unlike their counterparts in 1976, the ‘African renaissance’ youth need to grapple with problems posed by, among others, wars, child soldiers, child labour, drug abuse and trafficking, and globalisation Sifiso Ndlovu Writing about the history of the Soweto uprising and the present represents coming to terms with a traumatic past. This process of remembering against […]
SOME 600 elephants from Mozambique have trooped into a Malawi national park, doubling the elephant population. Aggrey Dzimbiri, manager of Liwonde national park in southern Machinga district, bordering Mozambique, said he suspects the elephants were fleeing from Mozambique because the vegetation there had been destroyed by the recent floods. Dzimbiri, who looks after the 538-square-kilometre […]
The apartheid state used diplomatic bags to smuggle sensitive and often dangerous equipment rather than classified documents Stefaans Brmmer Department of Foreign Affairs documents suggest diplomatic bag facilities were regularly abused to smuggle arms components during apartheid – endangering the lives of airline passengers. A file in possession of the Mail & Guardian shows how […]
Valentine Cascarino Iboh ART Painting in watercolour is frowned upon – the victim of a disturbing myth, mostly harboured by critical modernists who believed watercolour is Victorian and amateurish. Those critics don’t even consider the fact that painting in watercolour presents a direct link to the development of romantic painting in the 19th century. Neither […]
Merryman Kunene SOCCER After many unsuccessful attempts to get a friendly game against Bafana Bafana, Swaziland will finally test their might against their more celebrated neighbours in a Cosafa Cup quarterfinal on Sunday in Witbank. Swaziland’s national team, popularly known as Sihlangu Semnikati (The King’s Spear) have longed to engage Bafana Bafana. However, they might […]
Jubie Matlou previews issues to be tabled before the SADC Economic Summit next week If Southern African Development Community (SADC) countries were to go to war, it would be over a piece of a fabric. Belligerents would consist of South Africa and its Southern African Customs Union (SACU) partners of Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia and Swaziland […]
THE country’s mining fatalities and injuries fell sharply in 1999 as mine safety legislation took effect, the Chamber of Mines said on Wednesday. Only one accident was reported in 1999, when 19 miners were killed at the Mponeng Mine in an underground gas explosion, compared with an average of over eight major accidents a year […]
Thebe Mabanga IN YOUR EAR The community radio sector has received an impressive boost with the launch of the Coca-Cola Enjoy hour. The project was started in February as a six-week pilot project on Alex FM. The project then became national, incorporating a selection of drive-time presenters, including Alex FM and Voice of Soweto in […]
Gregory Mthembu-Salter meets Rwandan leader Paul Kagame, whose message for his hostile neighbour is ‘loud and clear’ Major General Paul Kagame has been President of Rwanda for 56 days, following the resignation in March of former leader Pasteur Bizimungu for “personal reasons”. When the Mail & Guardian interviewed Kagame in Kigali on June 10, Rwandan […]
Tim Adams ANIL’S GHOST by Michael Ondaatje (Bloomsbury) It has been seven years since Michael Ondaatje published The English Patient. Prior to that book, prior to the Booker Prize and to Ralph Fiennes and the seven Oscars, Ondaatje had written two other novels, as well as a critically successful memoir and 10 volumes of poetry, […]
SOUTH African pet lovers have started an air bridge for cats and dogs caught up in the violence in neighbouring Zimbabwe. Spurred by television footage in April of farm pets being beaten to death or maimed by war veterans invading white-owned farms, the Johannesburg-based Wet Nose Animal Rescue Centre stepped in. The centre’s spokeswoman, Elmine […]
Kit Peel Don’t be fooled by the stoepville houses, the laid-back feel, the picture-book tranquillity. The fact that it was mostly Afrikaans civil servants until the 1970s and thereafter arty eccentrics. The oh-so- carefully maintained fib that says: “We’re this alternative little lamb in the commercial beast city of Africa.” The old Melville crowd will […]
NEWS IN BRIEF The most overworked and understaffed jurisdiction in the country, the Transvaal Provincial Division (TPD), looks set for a major shake-up, with the creation of 10 permanent posts on the Bench. Officials say the new posts will incorporate positions that have been occupied by acting judges. Advocates expect the Judicial Service Commission, the […]
rights Khadija Magardie A SECOND LOOK The constitutionally entrenched right to gender equality faces subordination to the provisions of customary law. And unless the issue of balance between entrenched rights and respect for traditions and customs is seriously addressed, South African women, particularly rural black women, will be emancipated on paper only. The Supreme Court […]
OWN CORRESPONDENT, Cape Town | Thursday 1.45pm. SACKED South African cricket captain Hansie Cronje told the King Commission into match-fixing that former Indian captain Mohammed Azharuddin introduced him to a bookmaker who offered him money for losing a Test in 1996. Cronje said Azharuddin arranged a meeting with the bookmaker known as MK in at […]
The dominance of black athletes is one of the most explosive issues in modern sport. Everyone is aware of it, but no one mentions it. Now, a controversial new book attempts to wrestle with the most taboo subject in world sport Andrew Anthony At the Olympics in September there will be few racing certainties. The […]
The scenery in the Pilanesberg is exquisite: a mix of undulating granite hills and broad plains Angus Begg I’ve had an itch to go camping again for a good while now, thinking I might take my five-year-old nephew, Tadeu, away to one of the bigger game reserves, where he can have his first glimpse of […]
Austrian artist Gottfried Helnwein’s most important influences are Donald Duck and Jesus Christ Kate Connolly Walking along Cork Street in central London, trying to locate the Robert Sandelson Gallery, I do a double-take on seeing Mick Jagger standing at number 5a, gazing through its paneless window. He has the 1970s hairstyle, carved cheeks and angular […]
The cricketing world is waiting for Hansie Cronje’s testimony Mail & Guardian reporters When Hansie Cronje takes the stand he will reveal the tragic story of his extraordinary double life as South Africa’s captain – a life that finally brought him crashing down in a flurry of death threats to him and his family. In […]
FORMER Indian captain Mohammad Azharuddin has denied claims by Hansie Cronje that he introduced the disgraced South African skipper to a bookie who offered money to throw a 1996 Test match. “It’s all rubbish. Cronje has no credibilty left with him. I don’t know the person he is talking about,” Azharuddin said. “I will be […]
again Tony Harrison CRICKET Allan Donald, arguably the fastest white bowler in the world, can’t wait to get back to action for his English county side Warwickshire. The South African pace ace is recovering from an accident at Hove when he fell backwards on to an advertising board while attempting to make a catch off […]
Evidence wa ka Ngobeni The South African Association of Youth Clubs (SAAYC), the national youth organisation that boasts four-million- strong membership, has refocused its course again – this time it is working on changing the attitudes of millions of young people and motivating them to take charge of their fortune. “Gone are the times of […]
Maggie Davey CD OFTHEWEEK Whisper to the Wild Water (Universal) has enough harmony, harps and harpsichords to ensure Maire Brennan’s safe passage to heaven. Maire Brennan is from the magnificently talented Brennan family from Donegal, Ireland, who went on to form Clannad, a band which arguably produced their finest work before they became famous. Their […]
Belinda Beresford The government will fight them in the gardens, it will fight them in the garden centres and it will fight them in the streets and parks – unless of course they’ve got special permission to be there. The Department of Agriculture is about to outlaw trading in a number of invading alien plants, […]
DAVID SHAPSHAK, Cape Town | Thursday 11.00am. DISGRACED cricket captain Hansie Cronje has admitted he was first approached by bookmakers in 1995 and took his first cash payment on the tour to India in 1996, but denied he ever threw a match or influenced the outcome. A humble Cronje dropped numerous bombshells admitting that during […]
Ivor Powell went in search of some of the ogres of the past to find out what they’re up to in the new South Africa The extension of amnesty to “superspy” Craig Williamson for the remote- controlled murders of Ruth First, Jeanette Schoon and her daughter Katryn, put into sharp focus the extent to which […]
Brenda Atkinson MARKETING THROUGH MUD AND DUST by Muzi Kuzwayo (Ink Inc) One would think that the advertising industry in South Africa would be at the frontier of research into selling products to black South Africans, the so- called “emerging market” of the post- apartheid era. But a pervasive cultural ignorance lingers and plays out, […]
cards Glenda Daniels About 400 businesses, involving approximately 400 000 workers, have applied for exemptions from the Basic Conditions of Employment Act (BCEA). This includes South African Airways (SAA), the South African Chamber of Mines, Eskom, and welfare institutions and small businesses. About 21 000 workers are affected at the Chamber of Mines, more than […]
Mail & Guardian reporter The Cape High Court has dealt a severe blow to press freedom by ruling that the reputation of an institution outweighed a reporter’s right to freedom of expression. The Freedom of Expression Institute (FXI) and the Mail & Guardian are considering appealing against the decision, which upheld the expulsion of a […]
FORMER two-time junior lightweight world champion Brian Mitchell has moved up in weight and will be taking on former heavyweight world title contender Pierre Coetzer on Friday. Most pundits give Mitchell the edge of pulling off a win over the bigger and heavier Coetzer. The two popular ex-boxers will however not be donning gloves for […]
Henry Gee looks at the surprising secrets of one of nature’s stickiest surfaces – the gecko’s atom-powered feet Robert Full’s laboratory is more than usually full of gizmos, even for a modern biologist. Full is a biological engineer. Like an industrial espionage outfit, he and colleagues at the University of California, Berkeley, look at nature […]
Soundtracks are an integral part of movies and their promotion. Scott Hughes traces their track record They’d never done it before. But, with a screening of some rough footage, and, no doubt, a big white grin, Tom Cruise managed to persuade United States rock giants Metallica – for the first time in their two-decade career […]