Staff Reporter

Channel vision Now that the recent surfeit of rugby is behind us, perhaps it is time to reflect on the surfeit of television advertising that accompanied it. And surfeit, overabundance, glut it most certainly was. If nothing else the coverage of the Rugby World Cup once again emphasised the urgent necessity for a strict rewriting […]

By Peter Dickson The Eastern Cape Department of Health, its hospital care services threatened with financial collapse within five years by an overload of Aids patients and its budget facing over-expenditure of R225- million this year as it struggles with a near billion-rand shortfall, went public this week on plans to rationalise state hospitals and […]

Will a virtual currency, transferred over the Internet, make hard cash redundant? Charlotte Denny investigates He is the darling of Wall Street, credited with engineering America’s longest post-war economic expansion. But the man who holds the future of the world economy in his hands, Alan Greenspan, the head of the United States Federal Reserve, is […]

Howard Barrell WHO IS … EMEKA ANYAOKU? Someone as convinced of his own gravity as he is of his sincerity is probably best suited to leading a pack of boy scouts or to another, similarly worthy cause. We could be forgiven for thinking such a man unlikely to be much good at politics. For, whereas […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Cape Town | Thursday 6.30pm THE Constitutional Court on Thursday ruled that the Liquor Bill, passed by Parliament in November 1998, is unconstitutional. This comes after then president Nelson Mandela referred the Bill to the Concourt with questions over its constitutionality. Mandela said he had reservations about the constitutionality of the Bill as […]

aspirations Dr Eddy Maloka CROSSFIRE South Africa’s geopolitical position within the region and xenophobia were raised sharply in articles that have appeared in the Mail & Guardian recently. These critical issues are raised against the background of our country’s call for the “African renaissance” which has failed to bring on board the old debate about […]

The Mail & Guardian apologises to its readers in the Northern Province who did not receive a copy of the November 5 to 11 edition of the newspaper. Unfortunately, the guide and driver of Allied Distibutors were involved in motor vehicle accident en route to Pietersburg, from where the M&G was to be distributed. The […]

Untiring, unrepentant and unscathed, ‘Teflon Don’ is boxing on, writes Donald McRae ‘See you in Paris, baby,” Don King had promised as the diamond-studded crucifix swung gently from his massive neck. And so, big Don being a man of his word, it came to pass. A day later we walked through Paris together. His cross […]

Adrian Searle Aaargh! Tracey’s menstrual knickers. Not that I’ve got a problem with Tracey Emin’s undies as such, but it’s such a Tracey thing to put them on show at the Tate Gallery in London. Emin’s Bed is the first thing you see, right there in the centre of the gallery in her Turner prize […]

AN outbreak of Lassa fever in eastern Sierra Leone has killed at least 80 people, while about 100 more are in an extremely serious condition in Segbwema Town, a doctor said. Dr Ibrahim Turay said: “The outbreak has been prevalent for some 10 months now since we took over Segbwema,” 255km east of Freetown. He […]

Khadija Magardie Mention the word “witch” and the imagination is likely to conjure up a host of images, ranging from black-shrouded spinsters bent over cauldrons to New Age hippies dancing naked in the moonlight. Few will expect them to be a group of rather pleasant-looking women and men, lounging around a garden patio with a […]

Barry Streek Despite pending gun control legislation, more than one million applications for firearm licences have been approved in the democratic South Africa, “but the rate of stolen” firearms is lower this year than the previous two years. This was revealed by Minister of Safety and Security Steve Tshwete when he replied to a question […]

receive their rewards Awhopping R700 000 is on offer for organisations which deliver innovative poverty reduction programmes, writes Barry Streek A programme to recognise and reward innovative poverty reduction projects for government delivery programmes with R700 000 to 15 different projects has provoked huge interest from both the government and NGOs. In a rush to […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Pretoria | Friday 12.45pm THE Department of Finance said on Friday that inland revenue and customs and excise receipts of R17,51-billion were collected in October, which was 1,2% less than the same month last year. The ministry said in its monthly report on the progress of the budget that total revenue in the […]

Robyn Hofmeyr was part of a small team which set out to make a film about women in war. They visited four regions: South Africa, Uganda, Israel and Palestine, and Bosnia. These are the survivors’ stories Our journey began in the Nkomanzi district of Mpumalanga where we heard the stories of displaced Mozambican women and […]

Donna Block SHARE WORLD I’ve come to the conclusion that having kids drives you a bit mad. I realized this when a friend in New York called to tell me that Nasdaq, the United States’s electronic share trading exchange, is going to set up shop in Europe and wants to create a strategy for 24-hour […]

Heather Hogan >From the dawn of Christianity there have been accounts of “witches” and “fortune- tellers” being stoned to death or burnt at the stake. At times churches even considered playing cards the devil’s tools and tarot card readers his disciples. Following this week’s launch of the SoulTidings Truth Cards, tarot cards based on the […]

FOSSIL remains of two new types of herbivorous dinosaur dating back more than 100-million years have been discovered in Niger, nearly intact. The largest of the two dinosaurs, named Jobaria tiguidensis, unknown until its recent discovery by an international team, is 17 meters long and had spatula-like teeth which enabled it to munch on small […]

what in the ministries Presidency President: Thabo Mbeki Deputy president: Jacob Zuma Minister: Essop Pahad Advisers to Mbeki: Mojanku Gumbi (legal), Titus Mafolo (political), Vusi Mavimbela (security and intelligence – on his way to head the National Intelligence Agency [NIA]), Moss Ngoasheng (economic), Charles Nqakula (parliamentary) Advisers to Zuma: John Jeffrey (parliamentary), Jabulani Mzaliya (special) […]

eleven Bob Woolmer FROM THE PAVILION Malcolm Marshall was an icon. He was comfortably the best bowler of the Eighties and Nineties. His peer influence in Natal brought through such players as Shaun Pollock and Lance Klusener. His death is a tragedy for all who played with him, against him and who watched him. My […]

Andy Capostagno Rugby World Cup Having matched Australia tackle for tackle in a brutally physical semi-final the Springboks now know that they could have won the World Cup. For the Wallabies did nothing in their final triumph against France to suggest that they had hidden reserves of stamina or freshly opened mines of ideas. The […]

They wear Orange sashes, they go on Orange marches – and they’re based in Ghana. Chris McGreal meets the Protestants who don’t have a problem with Catholics Divine Fred Gregorio-de Souza – Most Worshipful Brother and former Grand Master – popped the question almost immediately after telling me to call him Fred. “Do you lean […]

Stephen Gray Review of the week Although the last grim episode in the life of the “Breaker” takes place during the mopping up operations of that Anglo- Boer South African War of atrocities, we locals have never become as steamed up about it as his fellow Australians. When the Breaker Morant stageplay of 1979 was […]

radio David Shapshak In a South African Internet first, the United Cricket Board (UCB) is trying to prevent an online sports “radio” from broadcasting commentary of the country’s cricket Tests, even though no one else is currently doing it. The usual broadcaster, the SABC, did not run live commentary of the historic first Test against […]

Much of government is hidden, with many officials inaccessible and unknown except to people within their own ministries and departments. Particularly because of the recent large turnover in the director generals of most departments, it has become even more difficult to establish which officials are influential. Many of these advisers have only been appointed since […]

White South African music is burgeoning, with more releases than ever before. Our critics listen to a host of recent CDs The Buckfever Underground: Jou Medemens Is Dood (Janus) A really clever concept which unfortunately comes off sounding pretentious as hell. Basically what you get here are six sparsely arranged acoustic guitar pieces with some […]

Howard Barrell OVER A BARREL Are the South African working classes about to get the kind of leadership they need? Yes, if we are not being misled. For the signs are there that the leadership of the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) may be giving up on bombast in favour of intelligent engagement […]

Cameron Duodu LETTER FROM THE NORTH In India, they called him “Marshall Law”. And with good reason. In a Test match at Kanpur in 1983, he took four wickets in each innings. And made 92 with the bat in an innings. An Indian cricket fan vividly remembers the two newspaper headlines that described the event […]

Marianne Merten A new report on moneylending in South Africa questions the effectiveness of the recently established Micro Finance Regulatory Council to regulate the R15- billion industry often accused of widespread malpractice. A Black Sash report says new measures have downscaled moneylending to a consumer issue which addresses neither the unwillingness of the formal banking […]

Howard Barrell The Commonwealth Summit in Durban is being dominated by a confidential internal report saying the organisation should increase its powers to act against member states for human rights abuses. The document would pave the way for action against the governments of countries like Cameroon, Kenya and Zimbabwe if they did not improve their […]

John Matshikiza WITH THE LID OFF ‘Her Majesty’s a pretty nice girl, but she doesn’t have a lot to say,” the late John Lennon once jingled on the subject of Britain’s Queen Elizabeth. This week we had the pleasure of Her Majesty’s company in our humble country for the second time in five years. Last […]

THE Congress of Traditional Leaders of SA on Wednesday defended the practise of paying the country’s unelected traditional leaders from the public purse, saying they provided valuable service to more than 18 million people. Those leaders which held public office “of a political type” were entitled to salaries, pensions, medical aid benefits, subsidised accommodation, and […]