Staff Reporter

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 […]

Howard Barrell Serious political disputes in the Department of Arts, Culture, Science and Technology lay behind the resignation this week of its Director General, Roger Jardine. The rows pitted Jardine against one of his two deputies, Musa Xulu, and his minister, Lionel Mtshali, according to arts and science circles, as well as sources in the […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

Stuart Hess and Mukoni Rashitanga Peninsula Technikon (Pentech) has drawn a flurry of criticism following its extraordinary decision on Wednesday to expel student journalist Max Hamata. Hamata’s fallout with the institution comes in the wake of a report which was published in the Mail & Guardian and which this week led to him being booted […]

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 […]

Mungo Soggot Department of Trade and Industry department officials have been soliciting thousands of rands from the cream of South Africa’s exporters by demanding R10 000 cash cheques from companies keen to bring guests to a gala dinner. The November 26 banquet is supposed to be addressed by President Nelson Mandela, who is billed to […]

Friday night : Jean Barker `Big, bloody indie beats!” the flier promised. “Dress as your favourite victim and get in for R15 …” sounds just right for Friday 13. My imagination is aroused. I picture strange people, weird conversations, tribal dance, excessive make-up. Unfortunately, none of my friends are keen to go. So the evening […]

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 […]

site David Larsen Ndumo game reserve, on the border with Mozambique in northern KwaZulu-Natal, is the centre of a land-claim dispute that could set a precedent for numerous community land claims in game parks throughout the country. The KwaZulu-Natal MEC for Traditional and Environmental Affairs, Nyanga Ngubane, has agreed to temporarily allocate 10ha of land […]

Toby Walne Spending it Barbie is facing middle age. Next year she will celebrate her 40th birthday. Early Barbie fans who resisted the temptation to pull off her arms or legs can count themselves lucky: vintage first-edition Barbies sell for about R60 000. Action Man is hot on Barbie’s heels. Rejuvenated with extra muscles and […]

Swapna Prabhakaran It is common knowledge that South Africa has one of the highest rates of road death in the world. Less well known, however, is that much of the carnage is caused by trucks and could be prevented if heavy freight vehicle regulations were brought into line with world safety standards. South Africa has […]

Douglas Rushkoff online So, am I, like the last kid on the block to get my Hotline server up and running? It sure seems so. Not since I logged on to the Internet for the first time, back in 1988, and encountered the already-populated chat rooms, bulletin boards, and hacker groups, have I been so […]

Switching banks to get a better bond can be to your advantage, but watch out for hidden costs, warns Belinda Beresford You may not want, or be able, to move house, but it might be time to consider moving your home loan. After all, you’re encouraged to switch insurance companies to take advantage of lower […]

The Human Rights Commission’s (HRC) announcement that it would not proceed with its investigation into complaints of alleged racism at the Mail & Guardian and the Sunday Times – but was instead expanding the inquiry into racism in the media as a whole – was made as we were going to the printers last week. […]

The year 2000 may bring chaos to nuclear bases, writes John Eason As the fireworks burst in the sky, heralding the year 2000, could we see larger rockets taking to the air, bearing payloads of nuclear death and destruction? It sounds far-fetched. Surely the worst the millennium bug could do is close down cash machines […]

Andrew Worsdale : Movie of the week Joseph Ruben’s Return to Paradise is a remake of French director Pierre Jolivet’s Le Force Majeure (1989). The earlier version was not released on the local circuit, but some may have seen it at the French Film Festival in the early 1990s. The American remake is a gripping, […]

The Mail & Guardian has achieved a phenomenal growth in readership. Our readership has jumped to a total of 120 000 powerful readers every week. The latest All Media Product Survey (Amps) has found the M&G now enjoys the highest number of readers compared with other niche titles like Business Day and The Sunday Independent. […]

Sutracide Cameron Duodu : Letter from the North Nigeria’s political lexicography is one of the most colourful in the world. This is because Nigerian politicians delight in showing off during public speeches what they consider to be the English “grammar” they learned at school. But since this grammar was taught to them by people who […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Windhoek | Thursday 8.00pm. A BILL that will allow Namibian President Sam Nujoma to stand for a third term was approved by the second house of parliament on Thursday, and now only needs Nujoma’s own signature to become law. The controversial Namibian Constitution First Amendment Bill, passed in the National Council by 19 […]

Mandy Collins With money too tight to mention, it seems a shame to be burning it in unnecessary fuel costs. But there is plenty you can do to lessen the financial burden of fuel, says the Automobile Association (AA). Start by recording your fuel consumption – you won’t notice an improvement if you don’t know […]

Ferial Haffajee A senior SABC radio executive has resigned from a strategic elections committee amid staff fears of African National Congress interference at the broadcaster. Franz Kruger, the national news and current affairs editor, quit the elections team when a story he wrote which painted a picture of dwindling ANC support provoked a heated response […]

Chiara Carter A visit by President Nelson Mandela this weekend sets the tone for the African National Congress’s Western Cape election campaign which is likely to ignore the thorny issue of race. The party is adopting a different strategy to 1994 when it suffered a bruising defeat at the hands of the National Party in […]

One of the more surreal themes to emerge from Zimbabwe in recent weeks was that of Democratic Republic of Congo President Laurent Kabila being escorted into Harare by a 28-vehicle convoy while helicopter gunships hovered overhead. His motorcade, sirens wailing, carefully avoided the townships where tear gas hung in the rubble-strewn streets after police and […]

Wally Mbhele Former Transvaal attorney general Jan d’Oliviera – suspected of tampering with new evidence resulting from a trial he prosecuted – has started a battle to defend his reputation. D’Oliveira was the prosecutor in the trial in which three African National Congress members were convicted of the 1993 Eikenhof killings. The Pan Africanist Congress […]