Staff Reporter

Ann Eveleth A white Hartebeespoort landowner staged a hunger strike this week to force the conservative local council to kick-start low-cost housing for about 50 000 black residents of this picturesque getaway outside Pretoria. Broederstroom smallholder Roger Roman launched his lone hunger strike and sit- in in front of the Hartebeespoort council offices on Wednesday. […]

Robin McKie It is the Holy Grail of physics, and it has eluded scientists for the past 30 years. Now researchers believe they are on the threshold of detecting the most elusive force in the cosmos: gravity waves. But if they find the waves do not exist, that would still be significant: it would prove […]

go’ Chiara Carter A damning report on the conflict-ridden University of the Transkei (Unitra) recommends that its principal, Alfred Moleah, take early retirement and the university’s finances be investigated. The report by independent assessor Louis Skweyiya was requested by Minister of Education Sibusiso Bengu. Skweyiya found that the relationship between Moleah and the rest of […]

The once-staid centre of Pretoria is bursting with cultural life waiting to be released, writes Charl Blignaut It’s a very different Church Square that we approach on a sweltering Sunday morning – and it’s not just that the drag queen trippling on the grass is drawing more attention from the startled pigeons than from the […]

rampage Elias Chitenje Trigger-happy security officers have turned Zambia into a killing field while at the same time stripping civilians of their illegal weapons. Unofficial sources put the number of suspects gunned down in cold blood by police and other security officers in the past month at more than 20. The indiscriminate killings reached unprecedented […]

Despite the pretty lights and bells, there’ll be little Christmas cheer and ho ho ho-ing in the retail sector this year, writes Ferial Haffajee At Edgars, Christmas comes in July. The manager of the city store in Johannesburg begins planning for the summer high season in mid-winter. “The atmosphere, the look, the gift- wrapping corners. […]

Louise Viljoen VIR ‘N PERS HUIS by Karin Cronj (Human &Rousseau) Karin Cronj’s novel Vir ‘n Pers Huis starts with a scene in a supermarket. The narrator is overcome with disgust as she observes a woman who gorges herself on the Danish pastries she is loading into her shopping trolley, and cringes pathetically while selecting […]

`snub’ Mungo Soggot The Bar and the Bench were awash with speculation this week that Judge John Myburgh is to resign as president of the Labour Court and quit the judiciary after being snubbed for promotion by the Judicial Service Commission (JSC). It is understood that Judge Myburgh, one of South Africa’s most respected judges, […]

Review of the week Matthew Krouse Cross-cultural art concepts don’t always work. Take Japanese Kabuki theatre – three decades ago America’s high-performance hippies borrowed elements from that archaic, ritualised tradition. Anticipating the global age, many hailed the invention, now only remembered as a pretentious fad. Two decades later, artists confronting the Aids pandemic are finding […]

Former Zimbabwean president Canaan Banana skipped bail and fled to Botswana, days before the Harare High Court found him guilty on 11 sex charges. Banana was found guilty in absentia on Thursday on two charges of sodomy, seven of indecent assault and two of committing unnatural acts. Sentencing will take place on December 10, and […]

readership Johnny Masilela DIPHORORO TSA BOPHELO edited by MV Shai (Heinemann Mamela Afrika Series) In his foreword, the editor and compiler of this Sepedi language collection of short stories, MV Shai, goes to great pains to explain what protest literature is all about. Were contributing authors asked to come up with political stories? The first […]

Stewart Dalby Spending It Antique clocks belong to an area of collecting, like Impressionist paintings, coins and vintage cars, which crashed in the early Nineties. This was because they were bought for investment. Why grandfather and other clocks should have been sought for speculative purposes is curious. Antique clocks are quintessentially English. It was not […]

Keith Henderson Although raves have been milked dry by all and sundry out for a quick buck, an Ice party is a different animal altogether. Entertainment moguls Ice are once more stepping up to the plate with the Ice Playstation Fusion Festival on Saturday November 28 at the Nasrec Amphitheatre. Those who have experienced Ice […]

A degree of chaos was almost inevitable where the organisation of the 1999 elections is concerned. Its arrival is confirmed with the start of voter registration this weekend. The populace is now urged to rush out and register to vote in the district where they will be on election day. But, as election day has […]

SA Wally Mbhele An anti-apartheid hero who in 1979 pulled off a daring escape from the Pretoria Central Prison is fighting a new struggle – against bureaucrats in the democratic government. Alex Mombaris, a Greek national, visited South Africa last week to attempt to persuade the Department of Home Affairs to grant him permanent residence. […]

from the inquest courts Leading human rights lawyer George Bizos has written an account of inquests into the deaths of people who died in detention under apartheid. This is an edited extract from the book After its passage through Parliament in 1963, the detention without trial law soon claimed its first victim. On August 20 […]

Andrew Worsdale Movie of the week Is director Brian de Palma a sick puppy? I think not. Often vilified for his obsessive use of violence and his voyeuristic style of exploitation, he is nevertheless a master cinematic stylist. De Palma, whose latest film Snake Eyes opens next week, has directed 25 movies, all exquisitely visually […]

Saliem Fakir A Second Look There were great expectations about the appointment in March, by Minister of Environmental Affairs and Tourism Pallo Jordan, of a board of investigation into the management of nature conservation. The board was headed by Judge Mark Kumleben. It represented, symbolically at least, an avenue for conservationists both to chastise the […]

Cameron Duodu: LETTER FROM THE NORTH Who knows cricket who only cricket knows? This question, penned by the late West Indian writer CLR James, would not have made any sense to me when I first went to live in Britain in 1983. On previous sojourns in England, friends had tried to get me interested in […]

Angella Johnson VIEW FROM A BROAD There was something Monty Pythonesque about lunching with three clean-cut white men in their late 20s, watching them pour cups of strong coffee down their throats as if it were a drug, while regaling me with “war stories” of their narcotics abuse. I had wanted to spend time inside […]

Stuart Hess Next Tuesday millions of people will observe yet another World Aids Day in a bid to raise awareness about the epidemic ravaging African countries. In South Africa, as in many developing countries, efforts to combat the spread of HIV, the virus that causes Aids, have failed. South Africa is considered to have one […]

Maureen Barnes Down the tube David Attenborough seems to spend his working life these days doing voice- overs for the work of other naturalists, which presumably is supposed to lend some sort of intellectual credibility to a production. On a mediocre production this could be said to be misleading to the viewer, and on good […]

Mail & Guardian reporters Wally Mbhele and Mungo Soggot have won the prestigious Foreign Correspondents Association Press Award for their courageous investigative journalism. Plaques honouring their achievement were presented on Thursday to the reporters by President Nelson Mandela, who was the guest of honour at the ceremony. The award was established in 1995 to recognise, […]

Planning your retirement is your responsibility, writes Michael Metelits The dream of retirement is to spend your golden years savouring life and doing things you never had time to enjoy when working – the soft-focus approach favoured by advertising agencies. But a prerequisite is enough money, otherwise you can fall into a grim and grey […]

Five pairs of tickets can be won in the Mail & Guardian’s Bee Gees competition. All you have to do is answer this question: What are the Bee Gees first names? To respond call (011) 726-8098 between 6pm and 7pm on Friday November 27 for your tickets that will be valid for November 28.

Wonder Hlongwa A war of words has erupted between the head of Crawford College in Johannesburg and the Muslim parents of a suspended 14- year-old girl. Layla Cassim, a grade eight pupil at the mostly Jewish college, was suspended because of an essay her history teacher asked to her write about the conflict in the […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Friday 11.00am. HOME Affairs Minister Mangosuthu Buthelezi had an extremely close relationship with the notorious Bureau for State Security (Boss) during a decades-long collaboration with apartheid-era security structures, according to explosive in-camera testimony presented to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. This testimony “leaked to the Mail & Guardian this week” was […]

Nevanji Madanhire The farce goes on at Town House, seat of the Harare City Council, but the government is reluctant to fire executive mayor Solomon Tawengwa. The city is tottering on the brink of collapse and all fingers point to one man. Recently, half the city went without water for three weeks and a quarter […]

Hector Petersen’s name is synonymous with the 1976 riots, but what happened to the man carrying him in that famous picture? Andrew Worsdale reports Director Feizel Mamdoo’s startling documentary What Happened to Mbuyisa? is the first South African movie to be invited to participate in the Amsterdam International Documentary Film Festival, the most prestigious event […]

Andy Capostagno Golf The finest tribute that anyone could hand to the Nedbank Million Dollar Challenge is that since South Africa emerged from international isolation, it has got better. That is no small feat. Consider the crowds who used to flock to Newlands for the traditional festive season Currie Cup cricket match between Western Province […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Friday 7.15pm. COURTNEY WALSH swept past Malcolm Marshall’s record for most Test wickets by a West Indian when he produced a superb display of fast bowling on the second day of the first Test against South Africa at the Wanderers Friday. Walsh took four for 48 as South Africa reached 217/6 […]

Chiara Carter A campaign to fight xenophobia and raise awareness about refugees, asylum-seekers and migrants is to be launched next month. The campaign is part of a three-year strategy drawn up by a consultant commissioned by the United Nations High Commission on Refugees (UNHCR). It is being spearheaded by the National Consultative Forum on Refugee […]