Michael Grant is toned and in tune for his fight with Lennox Lewis Donald McRae ‘Hold on, baby,” a strange voice whispers down the phone, “the man is on his way. He’s runnin’ at ya …” I can hear him coming. Michael Grant is 2m tall, weighs over 115kg and slams across the floorboards in […]
Bryan Rostron Recently I sat for half an hour with a man from an NGO and hardly understood a word he said. The way his words washed over me, you might have thought we didn’t share a common language. In fact, he was English-speaking. But he talked in “NGOese”. It is striking that those who […]
Mabel Banda would like to take her child back to Malawi, but the nine-year-old’s South African guardians are applying for custody Heather Hogan A Rhema pastor is embroiled in a custody battle over a nine-year-old girl, left in his care by her mother, an illegal Malawian immigrant, who now wants her back. To complicate matters, […]
Cameron Duodu LETTER FROM THE NORTH The scene: Mid-morning at Stagnant Pool. Many insects are flapping about in the greenish-brown-black water, which smells badly. Some are fanning themselves on blades of grass. Male Anopheles mosquito:Whnnnnngggggg! [Translation] Hey, Mama, feel like a little fooling around? Nothing like a warm morning like this to make you remember […]
NIGERIA said the devastating toll from malaria and Aids in Africa called for a total writeoff of the continent’s foreign debt to free resources to combat the twin scourges. “The gravity of the malaria problem with all its ramifications, provides a strong case for the forgiveness of all African debts,” Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo told […]
Cosmo Landesman BODY LANGUAGE It used to be that the modern male, with his passion for hair gels, facial scrubs and designer suits, was dismissed as something of a Narcissus. That was a decade ago. Now the big news from the United States is that the modern male has moved on from designer suits to […]
Shaun de Waal MOVIE OFTHEWEEK It was Edward Said who, in his book Culture and Imperialism, pointed to an aspect of Jane Austen’s 1814 novel Mansfield Park that had not been much remarked upon. It was slavery. Such a heavy issue may seem at odds with the sequestered world of Jane Austen, who compared her […]
It may seem that unions’ days are numbered, but labour is devising new ways to deal with globalisation Glenda Daniels Trade unions locally and internationally are on the defensive. They appear to be faced with the challenge to submit or fight changes in the economy. In reality, something in between, a third way, is emerging […]
John Matshikiza WITH THE LID OFF Everybody’s an expert on racism these days. Even people of historically racist stock (HRS for short) have a born-again take on the subject. It was supposed to be an easy-going, late-night ramble in Lusaka. I was talking to Sakala, the Nyanja-speaking Danish Viking, about When We Were Kings, the […]
Ex-premier Mathews Phosa is the major shareholder in a company offering the public a ‘budget price’ legal service Khadija Magardie Mathews Phosa, the former premier of Mpumalanga and the head of the African National Congress’s legal department, has reinvented himself as “the people’s lawyer”, selling his legal services to the public – for R30 a […]
Ike Broslovski For most South Africans, the words Krushed’n’Sorted (K&S) are directly associated with their favourite pastime: a dope-induced suspension of reality that happens when the job is done and the toys have been scattered out to play. In Cape Town, however, those very same concepts have been given a new dimension by drum’n’bass DJ/producers […]
MANAGING Director of Boland PKS Riaan Stassen and its financial director Andre du Plessis have resigned, the Business Day reports. Their resignations are being linked to clashes between executives from Boland and from holding company BoE. According to the paper the differences relate to future stategies for Boland PKS and an enquiry by BoE into […]
Fiona Macleod When a dog has a cat up a tree, you hope that it either loses interest or its owner calls it to heel. But what do you do when neither intervention takes place? This is the dilemma facing one of two groups claiming title to the Friends of the Cat welfare organisation, based […]
Mercedes Sayagues Kariba, Tuesday mid-morning: A gang of 35 men kidnaps four supporters of the Zimbabwe opposition party, Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), from their homes, and one from his office at the public power utility. They are paraded through town and beaten up so badly that one dies on the spot and one aEwhile […]
David Beresford ANOTHER COUNTRY The image which comes to mind is of Ulysses binding himself to the mast of his ship so that he could hear the song of the sirens without being trapped forever in the land of the lotus eaters. Here I am, trapped on the shore watching him sail on by, trapped […]
suspects Neal Collins SOCCER So that’s it then. Both British titles wrapped up like bunnies in a sack by Easter. In England, Manchester United won the Premiership with four games to spare. In Scotland, Rangers romped it with six to play. Sky-TV executives must be in despair. They had billed St Johnstone vs Rangers at […]
No letting up for Newmarket farriers with over 50 classics to their credit Alan Smith Hitting the nail on the head is an absolute necessity for Mark and Simon Curtis. They have to get it right. The brothers are farriers and own Newmarket’s oldest- established company. Their late father Don established the business in 1949 […]
STARVING Angolans have been reduced to eating grass and worms in a desperate attempt to survive, according to a report compiled by the United Nations humanitarian office in Angola. The report, due for release in Luanda on Wednesday, describes Angola’s humanitarian situation as alarming, and in certain cases, on the brink of disaster. It is […]
Mercedes Sayagues The government of Zimbabwe has a peculiarly selective way of reading the press. Usually, the Mail & Guardian is lumped among the foreign media engaged in a conspiracy to tarnish Zimbabwe’s image and bring down President Robert Mugabe. The many speeches where Mugabe says so inflame his followers and account no doubt for […]
John O’Mahony gets a taste for browsing for food on the Net Back when the CD-ROM was being heralded as the saviour of the digital universe, someone presented me with a copy of United States television chef Julia Child’s multimedia cookbook, Home Cooking with Master Chefs. By any standard, this was a spectacular piece of […]
Andrew Worsdale Between 100 000 and 120 000 hits a day, and between 80 000 and 100 000 visitors a month makes Josephines at www.personals.co.za one of the most popular South African websites and without doubt the most popular dating service and adult “friend finder” in the country. You can meet people for coffee, make […]
man-made disaster? Jean-Baptiste Naudet Ethiopia has been fighting its neighbour, Eritrea, since May 1998. Two of the poorest countries in the world, they are now both calling on the international community to help them deal with a drought that could, they say, result in famine for millions. Is the disaster they face a natural one, […]
THE price of petrol is set to increase by 1c per litre on May 3, the Department of Minerals and Energy said on Wednesday. In a statement the department said the price of diesel will remain the same, while illuminating paraffin will increase by 3c per litre. The statement said the increase is attributed to […]
Blade Nzimande May Day 2000 takes place in the wake of continued job losses and against the background of unprecedented mass mobilisation and action by the workers to defend their jobs. Despite negative and silent coverage by the bosses’ media, the workers’ struggles have focused the attention of the country on the urgency to stem […]
Robert Kirby CHANNELVISION It needs a particular sort of arrogance to treat any language with contempt. Perhaps it’s just plain stupidity – some are just so plain dumb they will never know the difference? I know this is a favourite soapbox of mine, but then I happen to enjoy the English language when it is […]
Paul Kirk Anne Jones has lived in Wentworth all her life and she now wants out. Like her mother and sister, she suffers from asthma. As a nurse she knows the fumes she breathes in from the refinery did not give her the condition, but they do make it worse. “Sometimes, especially at night and […]
Glenda Daniels South Africa’s Skills Development Levy Act comes into effect on May 5 to kick off a process that would see the retraining of the country’s 10-million- strong workforce. However, more than 180E000 employers still have to register with the South Africa Revenue Service (SARS) to comply with the provisions of the new Act. […]
Alan Finlay Benefit and retirement funds for low-income earners – like domestic workers and taxi drivers – are catching on in South Africa. But while a group like Fedsure Life Assurance receives as many as 150 applications a day, others are battling to keep in the running. There are three main players in the industry […]
Howard Barrell OVER A BARREL The first secretary general of the United Nations, who had the rather unfortunate name Trygve Lie, once remarked that a “real diplomat is one who can cut his neighbour’s throat without having his neighbour notice it”. None of us is privy to what happened at the summit at Victoria Falls […]
Peter Dickson When he’s not an international peace mediator, former South African president Nelson Mandela is extending the olive branch back home in a revolutionary farming project designed to boost rural income opportunities and create jobs. Mandela’s home at Qunu in the Transkei is one of several pilot projects under way across the Eastern Cape […]
opposition’ Peter Dickson The Eastern Cape Legislature’s African National Congress-dominated rules committee has been sent back to the drawing board after a blazing row in the Bisho house over a controversial propo- sal to restrict press and public debate on government matters and information. The committee has proposed that “matters referred to, or information submitted […]
Hip-hop woman What? What? talks about her name and coming home this weekend to roost Ben Joseph A telephone rings in Manhattan. The answer service. Hang up. Try again. A tired, uncharacteristically small voice answers on the second ring. “Hello, this is What? What?” What? What?, who is now calling herself Jean Grae, but was […]