Staff Reporter

Wonder Hlongwa A Jewish extremist group has threatened to “take action” against a Johannesburg Muslim family because of what a 14-year-old wrote in a history assignment. Last week, the Jewish Defence League (JDL) wrote a letter to Hassan Cassim, father of Layla, a grade eight pupil at Crawford College, demanding that she retract the contents […]

Neil Tovey It would come as no surprise if many members of the local soccer media look rather rotund these days, given the huge weekly helpings of humble pie they have to digest. The man responsible for the unhealthy diet is Neil Tovey, former captain of the national team, holder of a record 52 international […]

SARAH BULLEN, Johannesburg | Thursday 5.45pm. THURSDAY brought a pleasant change to the directionless few days on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange, with all indices ending in positive territory. Dealers said the market responded well on news of a 0,1 percentage point drop in the Consumer Price Index to 9%, pleasantly surprising the market which had […]

Chiara Carter The about-face of the state’s star witness in the embezzlement trial of anti-apartheid hero Allan Boesak might mean that the court has to grapple more with questions about “struggle accounting” and lax management than personal dishonesty. Until this week, former Foundation for Peace and Justice (FPJ) bookkeeper Freddie Steenkamp was the key accuser […]

Marianne Merton and Chiara Carter Cape police bungled a raid on the home of alleged People against Gangsterism and Drugs (Pagad) member Ebrahim Jeneker, who was arrested this week in connection with a charge of hijacking. Police raided Jeneker’s home on Monday and seized clothes and belongings for forensic testing in connection with violence on […]

Ferial Haffajee : A Second Look I wrote this while bound in leg braces – so steadfast was the determination not to be knee-jerk. It is, therefore, a much considered and chewed-upon view that the Human Rights Commission’s proposed inquiry into the media is the worst news possible. It is a view not coloured by […]

Mungo Soggot and Sechaba ka ‘Nkosi The Public Protector, Selby Baqwa, has tried to silence the Mail & Guardian, warning that it broke the law by writing about his role in the affairs of the Vaal Technikon. Baqwa has reported the M&G to the press ombudsman for the article and has referred the newspaper to […]

Head out of Cape Town toward the West Coast and the pulse of the nation slows. Time seems to pass more leisurely, and when you get deep west to the Wupperthal mission station, it is almost at a standstill. In this idyl nesting in the valley of the Cedarberg mountains, politics is less pressing, the […]

Donna Block : Share World International markets. Global markets. Sounds pretty awesome, huh? “Sure,” you say, “but I live in Bloemfontein or Johannesburg or Cape Town. What in the name of Nelson Mandela’s undershorts does all this have to do with me?” Good question. Ever since South Africa began relaxing exchange controls it has been […]

Review of the week : Miles Keylock There are several reasons why Janet Jackson’s Cape Town performance on her Velvet Rope Tour was the massive success it was. It’s been close on a decade since she emerged from brother Michael’s shadow and the Nineties has seen her constantly re(de)fining her musical and stage personae. In […]

Howard Barrell : Over a Barrel If ever a government feels the need to waste a large amount of money it can usually rely on its generals to show it how to do so. For there are few items as unproductive as military hardware or as ugly as rows of hangars, bunkers and huts scarring […]

drama Chris Gordon The leader of a London-based mercenary recruitment group has been liaising between the British Foreign Office and DiamondWorks over the recent attack on the company’s Yetwene mine in Angola, according to a senior official in the Foreign Office. Colonel Tim Spicer, the head of Sandline International, is acting as DiamondWorks’s representative in […]

She writes textbooks for a living and composes poems about Sea Point. Karen Press speaks to Jane Rosenthal Poet Karen Press, who currently writes science and maths textbooks for a living, has lived in Sea Point for much of her life. Characteristically, she has had some dialogue with herself on what most folk would just […]

With a host of new releases, kwaito looks to be the holiday soundtrack this year, writes Phillip Kakaza Jingle Bells might be blaring through the malls, but this season it’s the latest kwaito and d’gong releases that are getting party animals geared for the hot nights ahead. If you ask anyone, from producers to DJs […]

Ferial Haffajee The Independent Newspaper group’s golden boy, Shaun Johnson, has stepped down from his executive position to become a specialist writer for its 14 newspaper titles. Johnson’s move has come at the same time as unprecedented trouble at the Irish-owned media group, but he swears that the timing is coincidental. “There are some people […]

The David Gleason Column After a really dreadful year, what price De Beers, South Africa’s diamond giant and arbiter of the world’s rough diamond trade? Well, still not much – and the market underlines this view through the miserable price it continues to mark the counter. At a conservative estimate, De Beers’s net asset value […]

Sibusiso Bengu : Right to Reply The article in the Mail & Guardian (November 13 to 19 1998) by Mungo Soggot and Sechaba ka ‘Nkosi with the headline “Baqwa protected dirty professor” contained some factual mistakes leading to wrong conclusions and insinuations. The tone of the article creates the further impression that both myself and […]

diamond The managerial heirs to Tiny Rowland have inherited something of his fighting spirit, as they battle to maintain board control of the conglomerate’s newly demerged division, reports Laurie Laird The late Tiny Rowland was never a man to shy away from a battle – his feud with Mohamed al-Fayed, owner of Harrods, over control […]

a ‘snowplough’ a few millionths of a millimetre wide. Michael Brooks reports As your eyes move across this text, you are performing a task that remains beyond the understanding of modern science. The simple movement in the muscles that control your eyes is still a mystery; inside the muscles, tiny proteins called myosins are doing […]

Andy Capostagno Cricket The South African selectors must be breathing a sigh of relief. First Adam Bacher stuck his hand up and said, “Pick me”, by scoring a century and two 50s in successive SuperSport Series matches, then both Gary Kirsten and Mark Boucher made the three figure mark and finally Shaun Pollock got 30 […]

Belinda Beresford People have been boring themselves silly for decades spotting trains, hunting autographs or lurking in bushes in the pursuit of rare birds. If they’re looking for new excitement they can always join the ranks of the telametrists – phonecard collectors to you and I. These are people who find more than simple utility […]

Maureen Barnes : Down the tube Two of the most entertaining weekday series recently have been screened on e.tv. Dalziel and Pascoe is on Friday night at 9pm – a night which the other channels treat as thugs night in and over-excite their audiences by screening kung fu or Arnold Schwarzenegger movies. It’s a classic […]

Angella Johnson : View From a Broad They say that money can’t buy you love. Well, it can at least get you the body and face of your dreams. I had been considering cosmetic surgery for some time – nothing radical, mind you, just a little liposuction on the adipose tissue in my stomach. But […]

Africa’s Oscars : Andrew Worsdale Two days before the launch of South African cinema’s biggest schmooze-fest, Sithengi, the film and TV market, most local players were gathered in force with the continent’s counterparts at last Saturday’s M-Net All Africa Film Awards in Pretoria. The State Theatre is a bit monolithic but the seats are so […]

Belinda Beresford Internationally catalogue shopping is increasingly popular. There’s something seductive about buying this way – you can sit with your cup of tea, wander through the pages and shop to your heart’s content. There are catalogues for clothes, home accessories, tools, and gadgets – enough choice to stock a home and its wardrobes a […]

Shaun de Waal : First Person In last week’s First Person, the noted British feminist Joan Smith told us why women don’t cruise. But her answer seemed to have two parts: one explicit, one implicit. Danger, she said, is the main reason women don’t haunt parks and public toilets in search of sex. Underlying that, […]

Jack Schofield Two years after it was launched, the Universal Serial Bus (USB), a connector designed to replace serial and parallel printer ports on personal computers, should start to take off this Christmas. More than 100-million personal computers have been shipped with built-in USB ports, software support has been provided in Windows 98 and Mac […]

Niger is one of the poorest countries in the world, yet it’s desert was recently flooded with high-fashion. Adam Levin reports on a fabulous folly Alphadi mounts the podium. His trademark embroidered fez is askew as usual, his pupils alive with excitement. “This,” he announces, wringing his hands passionately, “is pure folly”. All around us, […]

The first Ashes Test begins this Friday. Former England captain Mike Brearley recalls this specific kind of cricket animal Vulture Street, Brisbane: an aptly-named location for the start of an England tour. Wherever one finds it, a hostile sporting crowd embodies the stuff of nightmares. Batting or bowling, the player does his best. And what […]

CD of the week : Peter Makurube The great bull of South African jazz, Winston Mankunku Ngozi, has released a new album, Molo Africa (Nkomo). This is Mankunku at his very best, on an album which introduces him as a multi- instrumentalist. But the tenor sax is still there, bellowing fiercely and with conviction. Not […]

Dan Wylie ECHO LOCATION by Karen Press (Gecko Poetry) With Snailpress bowing out, other small presses are lumbering in to fill the vacuum, and Durban’s Gecko Books has produced two substantial and handsome volumes. What a pleasure to encounter, in Karen Press’s latest collection, winsome fun balancing the intimate tragedies of ordinary folk. Echo Location […]

Kelwyn Sole It is unfashionable these days to admit to any intention in one’s poetry. Yet, as a critic and teacher as well as a poet, I find it impossible to imagine my poems without thinking about their generation in the broader context of South African literature and its history. They grow out of this […]