Staff Reporter

Sarah Bullen Nerves of steel are no longer mandatory to fill in a medical aid application form if you are suffering from a chronic condition. Those polite questions inquiring about the state of your health can no longer serve as embedded red flags that will ensure your application lands neatly in the trash pile. The […]

THE cash-strapped government of Lesotho on Wednesday finalised the sale of 80% of its government vehicle pool to a South African company in the kingdom’s latest privatisation venture. The government’s R80-million deal with Imperial Fleet Services was signed in the kingdom’s capital Maseru. The sale includes the transfer of about 1200 vehicles which will now […]

Local markets should benefit this year from renewed international approval, writes Donna Block. Go along for the ride It requires a great deal of boldness and a great deal of caution to make a great fortune, and when you have it, it requires ten times as much skill to keep it. Ralph Waldo Emerson made […]

Web Watch At www.dogdoo.com you can send, anonymously of course, a box of dog turds to your worst enemy. It’s worth visiting just to read the thank-you letters and recommendations. Fan clubs, theatre troupes, football teams and similar groups can get organised on the Web using the free service at www.SmartGroups.com. Features include a message […]

The municipal demarcation process is being obfuscated by a misinformation campaign, writes Jubie Matlou The dispute that has erupted between the Municipal Demarcation Board and KwaZulu- Natal traditional leaders revolves around the role and powers of traditional leaders and the demarcation of traditional authority land under the municipal demarcation process. These two issues were the […]

DEMOCRATIC Party Chief Whip Douglas Gibson said on Friday that statements to the effect that the DP will support the draft Firearms Control Bill in its present form are unmandated and factually incorrect. It was reported earlier this week that the party had decided to support the legislation. Gibson said in a statement that the […]

Steven Friedman Worm’s Eye View Politicians can – and should – pass laws extending our rights. But only citizens can – and should – ensure that we use them. For some, the four Bills struggling their way through Parliament signal an ambitious government attempt to create a new society. They deal with core issues such […]

Andrew Muchineripi Soccer The first round of the African Cup of Nations delivered 21 goals, seven enjoyable matches, more highs and lows than normally found on a weather chart, and further proof that the only certainty in football is uncertainty. Ghana and Cameroon set a lively pace in the opening match and it has barely […]

Fight Club, starring Brad Pitt, is one of the most violent films ever made. It has shocked audiences, but director David Fincher feels misunderstood, writes Damon Wise There’s a scene in Fight Club where Tyler Durden, the evil genius played by Brad Pitt, is working as a projectionist in a downtown multiplex. He’s working frantically, […]

Mail & Guardian reporter Get those stories out of your bottom drawer – or start writing now! The South African Internet literary journal, LitNet, which has been a notable success in Afrikaans and is now expanding into English, is running an online creative writing workshop and is calling for stories. WriteAgain, sponsored by Penguin publishers […]

Eddie Webster and Glenn Adler A Second Look There is an increasingly widespread view in business circles and among conservative columnists in the press that trade unions are the main obstacle to job creation, foreign investment and a new growth path. Some even evoke the labour-repressive Chilean or South Korean options to clear the way […]

Sharon Gill Choosing a healthy bottom line and attacting new members has seen medical schemes develop some innovative products in the past few years. “We really changed the rules of the game. We structured a wellness programme called Vitality, because if people lead a healthy lifestyle, it will lead to reduced healthcare costs,” says Neville […]

Fiachra Gibbons Seamus Heaney, the Irish Nobel laureate, won the Whitbread book of the year award this week when his ancient warrior Beowulf slew the upstart young wizard Harry Potter. It is the fourth year in a row that a poet has won the 22E000 prize. Heaney’s translation of the ancient Anglo- Saxon epic poem […]

David Beresford Another Country South Africa is about to ban discrimination, which, considering this country’s track record in the 20th century and previously, seems a reasonable thing to do. In fact, it is to be outlawed from February 4 2000. This can be stated with the certainty of constitutional edict, the founding document of our […]

Channel vision Last week I was harping on about how television delivers up its little shock tactics. Some crafty incubus waits until the audience is deep in mindless acceptance mode, then slips in a dart so sharp as to horrify. Last Saturday this happened in the middle of an SABC3 news bulletin. The effect was […]

Deon Potgieter Boxing Acknowledged as one of the top 10 South African boxers of the past century, “Baby” Jake Matlala is intent on earmarking a place in the top 10 list of the new century as well. He meets the power-punching Hawk Makepula for the vacant World Boxing Organisation (WBO) junior flyweight title on February […]

Lucretia Stewart Body Language `Why can’t a woman be more like a man?” was Professor Higgins’s bewildered complaint in My Fair Lady, as Eliza Doolittle led him a merry dance. How times have changed. Now men want to be more like women, sometimes even to be women. Failing that, the question today seems to be: […]

In the week the SABC showed graphic footage of the carnage in Sierra Leone, a Port Elizabeth businessman has been accused of fuelling the civil war in that country. Peter Dickson reports A Canadian probe into the diamond trade in Sierra Leone has accused a controversial Port Elizabeth businessman of peddling weapons and mercenaries in […]

What’s new? The lovely Ananova will soon be reading the news on the Press Association’s website – and working 24 hours a day without any breaks for eating or sleeping or visiting the bathroom. She is a vactor (virtual actor) or “synthespian” created by Digital Animations, and she uses text-to-speech software from Lernout & Hauspie. […]

Tom Roach Yachting For this year’s millennium race the weather in the South Atlantic has not followed the expected pattern. Instead of spending days on end sailing downwind under huge spinnakers, crews found themselves battling fickle winds on their beam, or from ahead. Frequent sail changes, often several times an hour, kept them on their […]

Telford Vice looks at the shenanigans behind the resignation of United Cricket Board president Ray White The covers were peeled off South African cricket at the weekend, and the cracks in the exposed surface were more than superficial. On Saturday, Ray White bowed to pressure from within and resigned as president of the United Cricket […]

system? Serjeant at the bar Last week the British Home Secretary, Jack Straw, found himself under the political cosh. He introduced a Bill to restrict the right to trial by jury such that in a range of cases the choice of a jury trial would be given to the presiding magistrate. The Bill passed through […]

Bob Woolmer >From the Pavilion I really get upset when I hear and read bickering within my own game. I was going to use the words “petty bickering” to start, but when it gets to the level of the president of the United Cricket Board (UCB) resigning, then petty goes out of the window and […]

Andy Capostagno Golf It’s nearly February and the major golf tours around the world have shaken off their winter torpor and are heading towards full swing. But a few big names have stayed on in South Africa for this week’s Dimension Data Pro-Am at Sun City. Defending champion Scott Dunlap is absent, having earned his […]

Barry Streek The Minister of Education, Kader Asmal, has lodged a formal complaint with the Public Protector, Selby Baqwa, about endemic inertia in the government and suggested “massive tutoring” of state officials to make them more efficient. “Generally, my feeling is that there is a pervasive culture of delay in the government, largely inherited from […]

We can only estimate, but we think the slaves may number 100E000. We have freed 20E000 so far. Some slave masters have hundreds of slaves – chattel slaves. They are kept like cattle. Others are kept in what the government euphemistically calls peace camps. International aid organisations are aware of these camps. They send food […]

The ordinary citizen will soon have the right of access to information held by public or private bodies, writes Barry Streek A massive breakthrough for human rights and accountability to the public was achieved in Parliament this week with the adoption of four Bills, which in terms of the Constitution must be signed by President […]

The public protector’s report into former minerals and energy minister Penuell Maduna’s claim that the auditor general covered up the theft of R170-million of oil could turn into a classic text of how conspiracy theory is arrived at: find some “facts”, develop a thesis and then ignore anything that contradicts it. It is worth reminding […]

The ever shifting sands of the Namib desert have provided infinite inspiration for a Swiss photographer, writes Valentine Cascarino Eboh In the Namib desert there are forces constantly at war, some of them constructive and others destructive. The more dominant ones have the capability to change the nature of the place, transforming it randomly into […]

TANZANIAN Defence Minister Edgar Majogo left Dar es Salaam on Friday for talks in the Burundian capital Saturday on border security, Radio Tanzania reported in a broadcast monitored in Nairobi. The radio said Majogo was accompanied by top government and military officials. The team is also expected to discuss the ongoing conflict in Burundi between […]

Jack Schofield Science has finally solved the problem of the old shoebox in the cupboard under the stairs stuffed with half-forgotten photographs. Now you can put your prize snaps on the Web where friends and family will be able to look at them immediately, no matter where in the world they are. There are already […]

Director Henion Han’s intimate documentary, A Letter to My Cousin in China, provides insight into life as second-class citizens under apartheid, writes Andrew Worsdale Henion Han’s production company is called Spook-asem, which gives you some indication of the mix of humour and spirituality which imbues his work. To catch part of Han’s intense, self- effacing […]