Staff Reporter

Stefaans Brmmer South African and Italian police documents in the Mail &Guardian’s possession reveal shocking details of “mafia kingpin” Vito Palazzolo’s chequered career. Palazzolo, arrested last week for “lying” in his 1994 South African citizenship application, has been branded one of seven top Sicilian mafia leaders worldwide by the United States FBI. He is wanted […]

Not quite movie of the week It’s that old adultery theme again. It has become as much of a clich and a formula as most of the rest of Hollywood’s stock-in- trade, predictably playing out the conflict between the demands of family and the lure of freedom (or just excitement). And, as if influenced by […]

Dylan Evans ALMOST LIKE A WHALE: THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES UPDATED by Steve Jones (Doubleday) Steve Jones, the lovable professor of genetics at University College, London, has re-written On the Origin of Species. His new book, Almost Like a Whale, has the same format as Darwin’s great work, right down to the chapter titles and […]

Wally Mbhele and Paul Kirk A senior National Intelligence Agency (NIA) official was arrested on Monday in Durban for the alleged rape of a Department of Foreign Affairs official. Both were assigned duties at the high-powered Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting (CHOGM). The matter was kept under wraps as government officials believed it would “embarrass” […]

MORE than 2500 people employed by chiefs in the Northern Provicne have been on strike for 18 days, demanding to become public servants, but the provincial administration is not budging. The strikers are members of the Trade Union of South African Authorities(Tusaa), represented in 780 tribal authorities. They are demanding to be registered as public […]

Cameron Duodu LETTER FROM THE NORTH I remember an immigration officer at Jan Smuts airport once asking me, “Is Ghana in the Commonwealth?” “Yes,” I said. He waved me through. But a Nigerian, whose country was also in the Commonwealth, was held up for several minutes. When he finally emerged to join me in the […]

Laurie Anderson has a new take on Moby Dick. She tells Renaud Machart all about it I caught up with Laurie Anderson in Charleston, South Carolina, in June. She was having breakfast at the hotel where she and her entourage were staying during the Spoleto Festival, an event that the Italian-American composer Gian Carlo Menotti […]

Heather Hogan Johannesburg police officer Lourentius Alberts appeared in court this week on charges of indecently assaulting a neighbour’s 11-year-old daughter. The girl’s mother said in her statement to the police: “I had some friends over for the afternoon and my daughter was playing outside. That evening I was standing washing dishes when she came […]

CABINET on Wednesday approved the licensing of two additional national mobile cellular telecommunication networks, details of which will be announced by Telecoms Minister Jay Naidoo on Thursday. The licensing of two new networks was recommended by the South African Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (Satra) two months ago, despite the opposition of the two existing networks, Vodacom […]

Shaun Harris TAKING STOCK Well, it seems the niceties are over. Despite what Nedcor says about a “friendly” merger, its bid for control of Standard Bank Investment Corporation (Stanbic) has effectively turned hostile. Up to now, this has been the stuff of boardroom drama, a clash of banking titans that makes good copy in the […]

Ann Eveleth Minister of Education Kader Asmal is considering expanding his planned national literacy campaign to include a focus on the lack of reading by South Africans – and plans to ask Minister of Finance Trevor Manuel for more money for learning support materials. Asmal’s adviser, Allan Taylor, told a reading sector meeting this week […]

Heather Hogan Leandro de Beer, a security officer in Potchefstroom, arrested three armed robbers by tricking them into thinking he was a police dog. The employee of Mooi Rivier Protection was patrolling the area when he spotted three men attempting to break into a shop. He shouted at them and they fled. De Beer chased […]

ORLANDO Pirates and Kaizer Chiefs fans will be ale to flaunt their support in an unusual way when cellular company Vodacom introduces branded cellular packs specially tailored for fans of the two soccer giants. The packs will include a state-of-the-art cellphone with an interchangeable Pirates or Chiefs front panel and a prepaid cellular card and […]

David Robbins All public universities and technikons are partially funded by the state via a formula which calculates individual institutional funding according to a set of established criteria. In a tertiary sector in considerable flux, a deal of dissatisfaction has been expressed about the formula currently in use. There’s also talk of using a modified […]

Mercedes Sayagues This week, the Mozambican government revoked the controversial concession of 236 000ha granted in 1996 to American James Ulysses Blanchard III, who died in March this year. Officially, Blanchard paid nothing for the land stretching south of Maputo to KwaZulu-Natal. The area is likely to be declared a World Heritage Site for its […]

Peter Dickson The Eastern Cape government’s sorry saga of in-house corruption and “creative bookkeeping” amid a legacy of poverty and neglect has been the butt of post- apartheid political satire for much of the last five years. This week, for the first time since 1994 and amid growing public outrage and open scorn at Bisho’s […]

THE R7,6-million defamation lawsuit brought against United Cricket Board managing director Ali Bacher by former Pakistani player Younis Ahmed was postponed indefinitely on Wednesday. etv news reported that Ahmed asked the Johannesburg High Court to postpone the case as he is not ready to proceed. He brought the lawsuit after Bacher faxed a document, apparently […]

things to come Are universities in turmoil or in ferment? Are they collapsing, or merely in flux? David Robbins looks at the tertiary sector The troubles afflicting South African universities and technikons are many, and dramatic: campus protests, lecture boycotts, revelations of institutional collapse, widespread financial investigations, crippling amounts outstanding from unpaid student fees, rumours […]

Dignitaries were impressed, but ordinary people were puzzled or unaffected by the monarch’s visit last week. Katy Bauer went to gawk at the queen To live, not as a human being, but as a symbol, is the terrible fate of the British monarch. Fortunately for Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II, this state of affairs seems […]

Among other things, the new Firearms Control Bill will deny people guilty of crimes of violence the right to own a firearm. Barry Streek reports Gun-free zones, such as bars and casinos, are to be created in terms of the new Firearms Control Bill, and ordinary people will not be allowed to carry firearms there. […]

A JOHANNESBURG man who allegedly killed his wife and hid her body in a freezer for more than two weeks at their home will be arrested as soon as he has recovered from a self-inflicted stab wound. The suspect stabbed himself in the throat when police arrived at his house to question him in connection […]

A new photo exhibition takes the mask as its inspiration. Wayne Robbins investigates It’s a late Saturday afternoon in 1996. Corner of Rissik and Wolmarans streets, Johannesburg. A boy finds a paper mask in a bin, puts it on. African kid in a discarded European mask. Graeme Williams takes a picture. For Williams, photography is […]

Public works programmes in the Western Cape have proved to be an effective method of poverty relief, reports Barry Streek Public works programmes in the Western Cape have, in general, been successful and more cost-effective in transferring benefits to the poor using direct cash grants. Researchers at the University of Cape Town’s Southern African labour […]

Gavin Evans Boxing Now that he holds the long-overdue honour of being undisputed heavyweight champion of the world, Lennox Claudius Lewis will be the man to beat in the premier division. The 34-year-old Jamaican-Canadian- Englishman has opted to spend the next two years cashing in on his titles and status. Of course he will have […]

in court Marianne Merten Despite seven successful asset and cash forfeitures across the country recently, the asset forfeiture unit will be in court next Monday to defend its seizure of the homes, businesses, luxury cars, jewellery and cash of alleged Cape Town drug dealer Gavin Carolus. Last week, it seized a Cape Flats tavern operated […]

REFEREE Falla Ndoye of Senegal and assistant referee Ali Tomusange of Uganda will represent Africa at the first world club championships from January 5-14 in Brazil, the organisers said on Wednesday. Corinthians and Vasco da Gama of Brazil, Manchester United of England, Real Madrid of Spain, Al-Nasr of Saudi Arabia, Nexaca of Mexico, South Melbourne […]

South African soccer desperately needs a memorable encounter between Chiefs and Pirates to rescue its tarnished reputation, writes Andrew Muchineripi A classic league encounter between Kaizer Chiefs and Orlando Pirates at FNB Stadium on Saturday is not so much a wish as a necessity. South African soccer is ailing and desperately needs a blood transfusion. […]

out on racism Marianne Merten A Cape soldier is being court-martialled this week on charges dating back to events three years ago when he and a colleague spoke out about racism in the South African National Defence Force (SANDF). Staff Sergeant Herman Pheiffer is charged with four counts of being absent without leave (Awol) between […]

Sue Williamson Obituary One of South Africa’s best known and most accessible and inventive ceramic artists, Bonnie Ntshalintshali, was lost to Aids this month, at the age of 32. In 1985 when Fee Halsted-Berning started a ceramic studio at Ardmore, a farm in the central Drakensberg of KwaZulu-Natal, Ntshalintshali became her first pupil, and then […]

David Robbins At the last annual general meeting of the South African Universities Vice- Chancellors’ Association (Sauvca), outgoing chair Dr Mamphela Ramphele declared that the various transformations within the association added up to “an amazing achievement”. Ramphele also remarked that CEO Piyushi Kotecha, a driving force behind much of the transformation processes, had inherited a […]

Evidence wa ka Ngobeni Vista University is facing court action by a student for irregularities and unfair treatment. According to law student Magoshi Mamaila, officials at Vista’s Mamelodi campus unlawfully charge a R30 fee for student cards, although university regulations say students are supposed to be issued with them at no extra cost. Mamaila’s lawyer, […]

courts be merged? SERGEANT AT THE BAR This column raised the issue of relationship between the Constitutional Court and the Supreme Court of Appeal during the watch of Dullah Omar over the Ministry of Justice. Now, as appeared from a report in last week’s Mail & Guardian, the new minister, Penuell Maduna is treating the […]