John Matshikiza WITH THE LID OFF Bukavu, on the shores of Lake Kivu in Congo, is an idyllic tourist destination. But because of the war, which drags on despite the Lusaka peace accords, its charms are not availed of by many people. The locals don’t use the soft waters of the lake for much more […]
WL Webb If there is a reading posterity, there is no doubt about the place in it of Gnter Grass’s best work. With Gabriel Garca Mrquez and some of his contemporaries in Eastern Europe, Grass has surely been one of the great shapers of literary consciousness in the latter half of the 20th century. >From […]
THE official driver of Public Service and Administration Minister of Geraldine Fraser-Moleketi was found guilty of negligent driving in the Johannesburg Magistrates Court on Wednesday. Constable Johan Gert van Sevenster, (27) was reversing a BMW out of a parking bay in Raleigh Street, Yeoville, when he collided into a minibus taxi on August 26 last […]
Aaron Nicodemus The string of deadly bus accidents recently has placed an international spotlight on the safety of South African buses. Over the past two weeks accidents have killed 79 people and injured more than 250. In the most recent accident on October 4, a bus full of worshippers on their way home to the […]
Marianne Merten Okiep, an almost forgotten bleak former mining town in the Northern Cape. Every afternoon, music pounds from the cement- floored community hall as dozens of youngsters learn dance and movement – anything from jazz to kwaito. It’s a lifeline for youngsters such as Ilse Carroll (18) living in this desolate town, where streets […]
Mungo Soggot The Office of the Public Protector, one of the state’s main watchdogs against corruption and maladministration, has had a limited impact since its inception after the 1994 election. It has not exposed any significant instance of impropriety, and has at times allowed itself to be sidetracked by investigations of questionable importance. The office […]
ITALIAN coach Massimo Mascioletti has made seven changes to his starting line-up for their Rugby World Cup pool B wooden-spoon battle against Tonga on Sunday. Former Bradford Bulls rugby league winger Nick Zisti makes way for Fabio Roselli, whose centre partner is Alessandro Ceppolino. In the back row, Carlo Caione comes in for Orazio Arancio […]
Destitution, soccer and violence are the themes of this year’s Young Directors’ Festival, writes Thebe Mabanga Picture this: three guys are employed as delivery truck attendants. They watch the world go by from the back of a Coca-Cola truck. Their favourite destination is the Sandton Health & Racquet Club, for here, while the yuppies are […]
Stephen Friedman WORM’S EYE VIEW Left-wing sects are not known for their sense of humour. So they may not find it amusing that much of their spirit now lives within liberals on Africa’s southern tip. Graduates of student politics in the 1970s will be familiar with the key features of left-wing sects. They include an […]
Richard Calland A coach careers off a road and down a bank. Thirty die. The brakes failed, claims the driver. Maybe they did. What if he knew they were faulty? What if he knew they might be faulty because he knew they were poorly maintained by a company that won the contract through kickbacks? What […]
The news that Dudley Moore has a form of Parkinson’s disease has focused fresh attention on the illness. Here David Beresford, a veteran South African correspondent and an associate editor of the Mail & Guardian, gives an extraordinary account of his battle with the disease – and how it has given him access to a […]
IRELAND will be without two of their leading forwards, veteran prop Peter Clohessy and lock Jeremy Davidson, for Sunday’s World Cup match against Australia at Lansdowne Road on Sunday. Ireland coach Warren Gatland has decided not to risk the players, who have been carrying niggling back injuries following the 53-9 win over the USA in […]
Robert Kirby Channel Vision With the Rugby World Cup under way, it’s fairly certain where most television sets will be pointing these next six weeks. At this stage all that deserves comment is the lumbering opening ceremony of the tournament. Wales should hang its national head in shame – followed by the public lopping-off of […]
Former chief director of operations of the National Intelligence Service Maritz Spaarwater takes on a new role as researcher for the United Democratic Movement. Howard Barrell reports The apartheid superspook who set up the top-secret meetings with African National Congress leaders in Switzerland in 1989 that led to a negotiated settlement in South Africa has […]
Mail & Guardian reporter The ninth International Anti-Corruption Conference (IAAC) starts in Durban this weekend, bringing together world leaders and experts in the fight against corruption. The conferences are facilitated by Transparency International, which co- hosts this year’s event with the Department of Justice. The IACC was created in 1983 as networking forum for international […]
Louisa Young BODY LANGUAGE Product placement has never had it so good. According to underwear manufacturers Hanro, the Egyptian cotton camisole worn by Nicole Kidman in a scene from the Stanley Kubrick epic Eyes Wide Shut has been a hit all over the world. As the film opens in each country, sales of the skimpy […]
ENGLISH wingers Austin Healey and Dan Luger have been told there is only one way to stop New Zealand’s Jonah Lomu in the Group D showdown at Twickenham on Saturday – throw dung in his face. As right-wing, Healey, one of the smallest players in the competition, is in line to to play opposite the […]
THE United Kingdom and the United States have pledged to bolster the treatment of Tanzania’s former president, Mwalimu Julius Nyerere, who is critically ill at the Saint Thomas hospital in the UK, an official source in the Tanzanian capital Dar es Salaam said. Nyerere is suffering from chronic lymphocytic leukaemia. A medical report issued on […]
SOLID top order batting, ordinary bowling and a flat pitch conspired in Northerns’ favour on the opening day of their Supersport Series match against Easterns in Benoni on Thursday. The most important piece in the puzzle was a second-wicket partnership of 134 between Quentin Still and Neil McKenzie. That aside, it was a useful enough […]
MOBIL Oil South Africa on Wednesday announced the launch of a joint venture company in partnership with an empowerment company, Mlando Investment Holdings. The joint venture company, Sibuyile Petroleum, will operate from Durban providing the KwaZulu-Natal market with the full range of Mobil lubricants and Fluidlink fluid management services. Mlando Investments Holding will be the […]
DEON POTGIETER, Johannesburg | Wednesday 6.00pm. TWO of South Africa’s finest boxers have been offered big pay-day bouts. Following the impressive first defence of his International Boxing Federation (IBF) junior featherweight world title on September 25, Ledwaba has been approached to unify his title with that of World Boxing Organisation (WBO) junior featherweight kingpin Marco […]
A FRENCH judge on Wednesday opened an inquiry into allegations of Libyan leader Moammar Gadaffi involvement in the deadly 1989 bombing of a French airliner over Africa, judicial sources said. The sources said anti-terrorist magistrate Jean-Louis Bruguiere decided to open the inquiry following complaints filed by relatives of the 170 victims of the attack, who […]
MERCURIAL centre Jeremy Guscott is back in the England side for Saturday’s crucial Group B clash against New Zealand at Twickenham. England coach Clive Woodward has made one change from the side that demolished Italy 67-7 last weekend, recalling Guscott in place of fellow British Lion Will Greenwood. Guscott came on as a replacement against […]
ENERGY Africa said on Wednesday that it and its United States partner Triton Energy Ltd have made a rich oil discovery off the coast of Equatorial Guinea. “The result is as good as could have been expected,” the company said in a statement, adding that preliminary tests pointed to an initial production rate in excess […]
RUNS, runs and more runs. So it would seem after Griquas ground their way to what seems an imposing total in the making on the flattest of pitches, scoring 267/2 on the opening day of their Supersport Series match against Gauteng. Mickey Arthur and Martyn Gidley were so bored with what was supposed to be […]
DEFECTS in Botswana’s single largest development project have delayed the commissioning of the controversial 367km water pipeline until late November, a government spokesman said on Wednesday. The 1,2-billionpula pipeline is designed to supply water from the northern Okavango Swamps region to Botswana’s parched capital, Gaborone, in the south east. The pipeline was supposed to be […]
AN ancient skeleton, thought to be of the San people, has been found by an archaeologist at Melkbosstrand, on the Cape west coast, the Cape Times reported on Thursday. The skeleton, thought to be between 500 and 1000 years old, was found in an old sand dune due to be flattened for the development of […]
THE worst flooding in 30 years in northern Nigeria has affected at least 300000 people, submerging hundreds of villages and putting thousands of hectares of farmland under water, authorities said on Wednesday. Niger State appears to be the area the worst affected by the flooding which began several weeks ago following unusually heavy rains. The […]
WORLD Bank President James Wolfenson arrived in Nigeria early on Thursday for a two-day visit during which he is to meet President Olusegun Obasanjo and local leaders, officials said. Wolfenson is to make an address at an economic development conference on Thursday morning and then meet Obasanjo and key cabinet members for a working lunch. […]
CALL it early season nerves if you will, but time will tell if Free State’s first innings in their Supersport Series match against Boland will be enough. At close of play on the first day Thursday, the hosts were all out for 284 and Boland had resumed their first knock at 16 without loss after […]
THE latest Ugandan coffee season boasted a year-on-year rise in exports of 20,3% by weight and, because of a fall in prices, 2,1% by value, officials announced in Kampala on Wednesday. Exports totalled 3,65-million 60-kilo bags and $282,2-million, according to the regulatory Uganda Coffee Development Authority. The increase in exported volume was a result of […]
MICHAEL VLISMAS, Cape Town | Thursday 2.45pm. BRADFORD Vaughan will be aiming to become the first player to win back-to-back titles on the Vodacom Tour this year when the R200000 Vodacom Series: Western Cape tees off at the Rondebosch Golf Club on Friday. Vaughan claimed his first victory in two years when he won last […]