Belinda Beresford It has been vilified as the devil’s excrement and lusted after as black gold, but oil still continues to lubricate the world economy. Whatever you call it, oil has been nothing but bad news for Africa. Those who have it curse it. So do those who don’t. Countries without oil supplies believe their […]
OWN CORRESPONDENT, Gabarone | Thursday 6.00pm THE Southern African Development Community said on Thursday that it will back a bid by four members states to seek permission from world trade authority Cites to sell off stockpiles of ivory. The 14-nation SADC will support the requests of Botswana, Namibia, South Africa and Zimbabwe, the group’s executive […]
The participants in the annual Durban- Johannesburg Commemorative Run are there for the sheer joy of motorcycling Gavin Foster It’s hard to get an adrenalin rush riding a 65-year-old motorcycle for more than 600km at a speed of 60kph, but there are other compensations. You get to see more of the countryside, you get to […]
Paul Kirk Durban’s senior public prosecutor, Barend Groen, this week withdrew one of the criminal charges facing Piet Meyer, the disgraced former provincial commander of the organised crime unit, after the prosecution’s star witness was murdered. Groen withdrew criminal charges relating to the disappearance of a suspected drug dealer and a quantity of cocaine. Meyer, […]
A scientist says there is no longer such a thing as a purely natural weather event Mike Hulme With the immediate crisis in Mozambique gradually receding, now is the time to address the question I have been asked most frequently over these past two weeks by journalists, friends and acquaintances and even by my own […]
Thebe Mabanga The Windybrow Centre for the Arts in Hillbrow is currently hosting its Annual Arts Festival amidst threats of closure. Now celebrating its twentieth Anniversary, the festival could be the last if measures to rescue the Windybrow are not put in place urgently. “It would be a tragedy if we were to stand by […]
THE government is securing the release and return of 14 South African fishermen detained on their ship in a Moroccan port for over a month for alleged illegal fishing. “The Department of Foreign Affairs, through its embassy in Rabat, is assisting with arrangements for the return of the seamen,” the foreign and transport departments said. […]
Donald Trelford was on the brink of being sacked as Observer editor by tycoon Tiny Rowland after he exposed atrocities in Zimbabwe. Sixteen years later, he reveals the full story of the scandal that may yet end Robert Mugabe’s presidency It began in the parched earth of Matabeleland, among the cactus and the baobab trees, […]
After discovering that HIV/Aids is killing up to three truckers a day, the road freight industry launched a sex education project Khadija Magardie It is early evening and there are already more than 15 prostitutes standing around the rest area for truckers at Warden, along the N3 highway to Durban. With a deafening hoot and […]
Napoleon’ Ivor Powell A bad time for embattled Zimbabwean businessman Billy Rautenbach, the one-time “Napoleon of Africa”, got even worse this week with the issuing of a government decree in the Democratic Republic of Congo summarily revoking Rautenbach’s lucrative mining concessions in the country. Earlier this year, Rautenbach faced the liquidation of his Botswana-based Hyundai […]
Andrew Muchineripi SOCCER The World Cup inspection team came, saw and were very impressed. Sundowns and Orlando Pirates served up a six-goal feast, and the Amaglug-glug once again captured the hearts of the nation with a thrilling win over Ghana. All is well within the South African soccer kingdom, and there is a real chance […]
OWN CORRESPONDENT, Vadodara | Friday 9.00am. SOUTH Africa have posted a strong total of 282/5 in their alotted 50 overs in the fourth one-dayer against India at Vadodara. Jacques Kallis who was 81 not-out played superbly well, especially after he was responsible for the dismissal of Gary Kirsten (71). Kallis hit some towering sixes off […]
Cameron Duodu LETTER FROM THE NORTH Tuesday night saw two of the most outstanding African diplomats of our time – Kofi Annan, secretary general of the United Nations, and Emeka Anyaoku, secretary general of the Commonwealth – on the same podium in London. Annan, of course, will go down in history as the man whose […]
Grant Shimmin ATHLETICS The pre-event hype has understandably all been about Michael Johnson. After all, he is a double Olympic champion and dual world record holder, with two marks that look well nigh impregnable to his name, so it’s no more than he deserves. But in truth, the Engen Grand Prix Summer Series, which gets […]
Brian Williams CROSSFIRE In the Mail & Guardian of March 10 to 16, Mxolisi ka-Mankazana presents a thoughtful, reasoned analysis of HIV/Aids in South African and what is to be done. The article raises a number of important questions, many of which can be answered by drawing on the experience of the Mothusimpilo- Carletonville Project. […]
Howard Barrell OVERABARREL ‘Louis le Grange has approached a senior Argus executive, Howard, and demanded that the company’s newspapers no longer use your copy on the exiles.” It was about 1983, and Gerry L’Ange, my editor at the Argus Africa News Service was in Harare, where I was based, telling me of another threat against […]
ACT Brumbies captain Brett Robinson has been cleared to play in Saturday’s Super 12 clash against The Stormers in Cape Town despite injuring his knee in training. Robinson needed several stitches to the cut but has been passed fit as the Brumbies chase their first Super 12 win in South Africa. ACT coach Edddie Jones […]
The government has set stiff guidelines for non-profit organisations which hope to seek tax breaks Barry Streek Registered non-profit organisations (NPOs) are to be compelled to provide extensive information to the government on their activities if they want to retain their registration and qualify for tax incentives when these are extended to the non-profit sector. […]
The Time of the Writer festival in Durban offered a range of writers known and unknown Merle Colborne The writer from Iceland – the chap with the pale spiky hair – has his back to me. He is taking a leak; who cares that the ice- cream-stick figure on the lavatory door is wearing a […]
Robert Kitson RUGBY They seem hazily distant now, those nervous pre-World Cup days when a nation’s rugby hopes lay at the fingertips of faith healer Eileen Drewery. In retrospect England’s scrum- half does seem to have enjoyed a degree of celestial turbo-thrust; sadly for the psychic profession and Kyran Bracken fans the body thrillingly suffused […]
Marianne Merten After South Africa’s 2006 World Cup bid received the thumbs-up from the Federation of International Football Associations (Fifa) this week, officials now face a gruelling 16 weeks in the politics of international lobbying to bring the global soccer event to Africa. Crucial to strengthening South Africa’s chances is next week’s discussions with Brazilian […]
POLICE have launched a search for a woman who allegedly cut off her boyfriend’s penis during an argument, the Sowetan newspaper reported on Thursday. Vusimuzi Mkanise Mkhize, hospitalised after the attack and reduced to using a urine sack to pass water, told the newspaper that they had been in bed when the fight started. Neither […]
A new generation of adventure-holics has turned snowboarding into a mainstream sport Jean Spear James Bond has to be the greatest skier. From Siberia to Austria, 007 always manages to carve an elegant line while dodging bullets and saving beautiful women from nasty foreign agents at the same time. But if Bond is going to […]
tertiary education While some of South Africa’s tertiary institutions experience few interracial problems, others still can’t find solutions Heather Hogan, Nawaal Deane, Marianne Merten, Connie Selebogo and Paul Kirk Universities across the country are struggling to find ways to accommodate interracial strife in newly integrated residences. As the Mail & Guardian reported last month (February […]
Neil Manthorp CRICKET For those with an unquenchable thirst for one-day cricket, a reliable alarm clock and a subscription to M-Net today represents nirvana. With Hansie Cronje attempting to take the five-match series against India into a deciding fifth game from 5:30am and Gauteng attempting to reach their second final of the season, fans can […]
Shaun de Waal The M-Net Book Prize celebrates the 10th year of its existence this year. It has supplanted the CNAPrize, once South Africa’s leading literary award, in English at least (the Herzog Prize led the Afrikaans field), until it was discontinued by its sponsors. There was talk of its being revived in a new […]
ANDRIES Blaauw will replace Fanna Lambert at loosehead prop and Christo Smit makes way for Nico de Wet at right wing in the Namibian team that plays Griquas in a Vodacom Cup match in Windhoek on Saturday. Blaauw and De Wet were both substitutes in the Namibian side that were hammered 70-7 by North West […]
Throughout history super soaraway shares have defied gravity – for a while Ben Laurance With the benefit of hindsight, the grass skirt should have been a giveaway. It was the mid-1980s and the investors’ love affair with biotechnology companies was at its most passionate. Robert Swanson, a venture capitalist by training, was chief executive officer […]
Stephen Gray spoke to three of the authors who attended the Time of the Writer festival LIEWE JORIS How do you define travel-writing? Some like to go into the desert riding a camel … but that is not at all my type of travel. I’m not doing romantic things, having adventures. When I asked Ryszard […]
solution Khadija Magardie An average of two out of every 10 people in every workplace is likely to be HIV- positive, according to the Department of Health. Projections by Aids management consultants in various industries indicate that in the next 10 years, up to 25% of the population will be infected. The gloomy statistics paint […]
Matthew Krouse Anyone who was around in the Sixties couldn’t possibly forget the local variety stage show called Wait a Minim that played to packed houses at Johannesburg’s Intimate theatre before touring abroad. It kick- started a trend of self-serving pathos in indigenous white humour. One would be hard-pressed to find a South African over […]
NAKED Austrian men appear to be more offensive to Zimbabwe’s police than the torture of journalists or the invasion of farms by thousands of squatters. Zimbabwe Independent editor Trevor Ncube said police questioned him over the publication of a news agency picture showing “a group of naked Austrians in a stampede to take advantage of […]