Staff Reporter

Coenraad Visser Opera as unashamed extravaganza. That is what the audience can expect when Operama’s production of Verdi’s Aida is presented at the Minolta Loftus Superstadium on Saturday night. Verdi’s moving love triangle is set in ancient Egypt. It tells the simple story of the love of Aida, daughter of the Ethiopian king and prisoner […]

The proposed national lottery is likely to prove hugely popular with South Africans and could benefit NGOs. Evidence wa ka Ngobeni reports Millions of people, and needy organisations, could soon benefit from the first South African national lottery, which is expected to contribute hundreds of rands to government budgets, as well as generating billions of […]

Sifiso Nkabinde ordered a hit on his own mother, writes a Mail & Guardian reporter The Mail & Guardian is in possession of two statements by former members of slain United Democratic Movement secretary general Sifiso Nkabinde’s Richmond self- defence unit alleging that in late 1989 Nkabinde ordered the assassination of his mother and one […]

Mail & Guardian correspondents report on how the Olympic rings have been tarnished The Olympic flag fluttered above the new lakeside sports museum in Lausanne, Switzerland. Inside, the activity was frantic as journalists tried to absorb the bewildering array of fresh scandals surrounding the world’s biggest sporting event. The choice of the museum as the […]

Friday night: Ferial Haffajee It’s neither the hood nor high society. But a Friday night in Johannesburg’s suburbs of Mayfair and Fordsburg is an evening in a community. At the Fordsburg Square entire families are out at play. There is no strict age policy. The very old and the very young mingle with teens out […]

Review of the week: Brenda Atkinson The Goodman Gallery’s new year triple billing is headed by Mimmo Paladino’s Carte Siciliane, a set of 12 new works etched on handmade paper. Paladino first came to the attention of Europe’s artworld in the late Seventies with a series of drawings, after which he moved on to painting […]

Mark Tran in New York John Meriwether, the head of stricken hedge fund Long Term Capital Management, recently accused big Wall Street firms of preying on his company when it lost millions last year, in the hope of buying up his firm on the cheap. He was speaking in public for the first time since […]

Cuban music’s local cult status is soaring with the re-release of some legendary jam sessions by Cuba’s greatest musos, writes Peter Makurube Born of a country in which politics and passion are the order of the day, Cuban music has always enjoyed cult status in South Africa. But its following grew to massive proportions last […]

Motel Jonathan Romney There have been a few changes round the homestead. There’s a new neon sign out front, and the poky old fruit cellar has been refurbished as a place where you could get down to some serious taxidermy. They’ve even replaced the shower curtain in Cabin 1. Otherwise, life is much as it […]

George Hazeldon believes his proposed self-sufficient community will solve South Africa’s crime problem … for some. Chris McGreal went behind the electric fence George Hazeldon likens his vision to Mont St Michel, the ancient French monastery and fortress. Detractors dismiss the British property developer’s scheme as a fool’s paradise. Either way, the contracts are rolling […]

Stephen Bierley Tennis The last thing Anna Kournikova, the Madonna of the world’s tennis courts, ever seemed likely to suffer from was a crisis of confidence. The 17-year-old Muscovite, who when not on the road lives most of her high- dollar life in the sunshine state of Florida, has been the epitome of audacity and […]

Marianne Merten and Chiara Carter Police and politicians anticipate that the audacious bomb blast which hit Cape Town on Thursday will provide impetus to calls to provide police with additional powers to combat urban terrorism in the Western Cape. The blast has made a mockery of Operation Good Hope which was launched this week – […]

Wally Mbhele Embattled Mpumalanga Premier Mathews Phosa is set to be discharged of his duties next month as premier and African National Congress provincial chair when the party meets to finalise its list of parliamentary candidates. The ANC committee investigating the causes of infighting among ANC heavyweights in Mpumalanga – which is scheduled to complete […]

The collapse of Tollgate, the Cape- based conglomerate of which Julian Askin was chair and principal shareholder, and the subsequent examination into its failure have produced one of the most torrid, unpleasant and seamy corporate chapters in South Africa’s history. Formerly a South African resident, Askin mixed a career as a journalist with occasional stockbroking. […]

world stage Belinda Beresford Reminiscent of a blonde Benoni bombshell, Old Mutual is to export itself on to the international stage and have an image overhaul. Whether the change from a South African mutual society to an internationally listed company brings it the same success that moving to Hollywood has done for Charlize Theron remains […]

Duncan Mackay Juan Antonio Samaranch used to dream of winning the Nobel Peace Prize for his work as president of the International Olympic Committee (IOC). He pointed proudly to having eliminated the hypocrisy of “shamateurism”, put the games on a firm financial footing and, through diplomacy and globe- trotting, ended the political boycotts of the […]

Cameron Duodu:LETTER FROM THE NORTH Nigeria is a country that never ceases to amaze me. Only seven months ago, there was so much tension in the country it could be cut with a knife. General Sani Abacha was still alive and all was on course to transform him from a military dictator to an “elected” […]

PRESIDENT Nelson Mandela’s wife, Graa Machel, received an award on Thursday from the Council of Europe’s North-South Centre in recognition of the role she has played in protecting human rights and democracy. The 1998 North-South Prize was to be handed over at a ceremony in Strasbourg, France, during the Council of Europe’s parliamentary session. Machel […]

The winner of the Mail & Guardian and Madam& Eve: It’s a Jungle out There competition is Georgina Pickett of Pretoria, who wins an original full- size Madam & Eve cartoon and a signed copy of their new book, It’s a Jungle out There. The 10 runners up are: Dan Naidu of Scottburgh, Tsholanang Thekiso […]

Andy Capostagno Cricket There was a time when umpires were like good little children – they were seen and not heard. In the good old days there were 13 people on the field, two of them made the decisions and if those decisions were wrong the only people who knew were the 13 in the […]

THE Democratic Party scooped the municipal by-election at the former National Party stronghold of Kraaifontein in the Western Cape on Thursday. DP candidate Fanie Jacobs stormed in 531 votes ahead of independent candidate Deon Basson with 364. The New National Party candidate Wilfred Hambly came in a distant third with 250 votes.

The family of Scottish immigrants who set up jiu-jitsu in Brazil still dominate the world’s toughest fighting art, writes Alex Bellos >From Robert the Bruce to Trainspotting’s Frank Begbie, the Scots have earned a reputation for their terrier-like fierceness. So it comes as a comforting proof of the stereotype that the man who created the […]

As the West Indies wind up their humiliating cricket tour of South Africa, they have very little hope of regaining their lost grandeur of the Eighties, argues Cameron Duodo No one will feel as devastated by the 5-0 whitewash of the West Indies by South Africa more than Windies captain Brian Lara. Lara ran into […]

DEPUTY President Thabo Mbeki on Thursday officially launched a revised government website from the State Theatre in Pretoria, saying it will help government communications. It carries legislation, records of parliamentary proceedings, speeches, press releases and background on members of the government, national and provincial. Most of it works.

AN Wilson FAYED: THE UNAUTHORISED BIOGRAPHY by Tom Bower (Macmillan) One of the most richly enjoyable incidents in this extraordinary story occurs in September 1964. Papa Doc, the Haitian tyrant, has engaged a young but illustrious Kuwaiti sheikh to rebuild the harbour in Port-au-Prince. The sheikh tries to persuade some British oil experts that there […]

THE DAVID GLEASON COLUMN My word, some bunk has been written in recent weeks about the so-called sins of insider trading, ever since the new Act (no 135 of 1998) became effective – and by commentators who should know better. It seems everyone is in agreement with the general premise that once the phrase “insider […]

of UDM official Chiara Carter United Democratic Movement official Michael Matiyase was gunned down in a Cape Town transit camp on Sunday against a backdrop of intrigue about the allocation of housing sites. The bitter animosity between two rival organisations at the Samora Machel camp is yet another chapter in the long history of Byzantine […]

Dan Wylie TERRIFIC MAJESTY: THE POWERS OF SHAKA ZULU AND THE LIMITS OF HISTORICAL INVENTION by Carolyn Hamilton (David Philip) The fact is, we know almost nothing certain about Shaka – not even what he looked like: one Zulu informant, from our most extensive oral-history source, the James Stuart archive, claims he was short and […]

Two weeks ago, having served an 18- month ban for biting a lump out of Evander Holyfield’s ear, Mike Tyson won his comeback fight with a single blow that shattered the hopes of all `right- thinking’ boxing fans. But whatever his crimes, and however unbalanced he may be, there are those who feel he is […]

Howard Barrell:OVER A BARREL The disintegration of a once great political party can be one of life’s less dignified sights. Old friends inexplicably become bitter enemies, and once deadly foes strangely firm friends. What once seemed like high political principle for party members is suddenly exposed as having been mere convenience. Political reputations that sparkled […]

SOUTH African golfer Ernie Els got off to a good start in the Heineken Classic in Perth, Australia, on Thursday. He shot a first-round, seven-under-par 65 to share second spot with Briton Roger Winchester. Early leader Swede Jarmo Sandelin is one shot ahead on 64.

WESTERN diplomats on Friday formally protested the illegal detention and torture of two Zimbabwean journalists by military police. Envoys from the European Union — which includes Britain, the country’s former colonial power — Australia, Canada, Japan and the United States delivered a protest note to acting Foreign Minister Nathan Shamuyarira. The statement called on the […]