Staff Reporter

Chiara Carter The Pan Africanist Congress is spelt “Pat” in several townships and platteland towns in the Western Cape. PAC MP Patricia de Lille’s involvement in bread-and-butter issues is helping the party make inroads into coloured communities in the Western Cape – and attract a handful of white members. This weekend the PAC will launch […]

The United Nations last week called for urgent action to raise the living standards of the world’s poor after disclosing that a billion people have been left out of the consumption boom of the past two decades. In its annual Human Development Report, the UN said gross inequalities between rich and poor countries were getting […]

There was occasion for thanksgiving this week, on the release from Mozambique’s Machave prison of Robert McBride, although there is something of a puzzle as to who should be thanked. Not the African National Congress, few members of which turned up at Johannesburg International airport to welcome him home and thereby claim the credit. Under […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Cape Town | Friday7.00am. WESTERN Cape attorney-general Frank Kahn on Friday indicated he would not accept assault charges laid by either of the two MPs involved in Thursday evening’s punch-up in Parliament, because he has no jurisdiction over the institution. Speaker Dr Frene Ginwala has full jurisdiction over any offence committed in Parliament, […]

Mail &Guardian reporter Spatial Development Initiatives (SDI’s) have created 518 investment opportunities valued at R115,4 billion – with the potential to create 118 000 new jobs – across South Africa. By June this year, 144 of these projects, with an investment value of around R31- billion and the potential to create more than 32 000 […]

Alex Dodd : CD of the week If, like me, you’re the kind of person who likes drifting into the realm of nod to strains of sweet music conjuring images of women in fuschia muslin and marble palaces on Indian lakes, Deepak Ram is the maestro you’ve been looking for. A pupil of the great […]

Max Hamata and Thokozani Mtshali The flesh trade has found a niche on campuses across South Africa, but not because students are impoverished and battling to pay fees. Peer pressure to wear the latest brand of clothing and carry the smallest cellphone has prompted many young women into selling their bodies. A 23-year-old third-year business […]

Richard Cornwell and Jakkie Potgieter Propaganda claims to the contrary, there appears to be a relative lull in the fighting in the Democratic Republic of Congo, as the various forces regroup and resupply, while the deteriorating weather makes the large-scale movement of mechanised troops increasingly difficult. This provides a breathing space in which the region’s […]

Demutualisation hopes have lost their shine in the wake of turmoil in the financial markets, writes Belinda Beresford You could be forgiven for confusing the huff and puff over demutualisation with the sound of the gravy train pulling in for a lucky few. Since last year, the financial world has been talking up the conversion […]

Howard Barrell : Over a Barrel One of our stranger habits as South Africans is to imagine the rest of the world owes us a living. It is not a feeling many readily admit to. It is more an underlying conviction which governs much of our political and economic behaviour. We did once represent a […]

Angella Johnson : VIEW FROM A BROAD `Isn’t it great how you can get just about anything on the Internet these days,” says Gail Bentel cheerfully. We’re not talking about ordering a pizza. Bentel has run a cat-breeding business, made friends around the world, bought a house and found her dream man while surfing the […]

It is as much of a pleasure to talk to Julian Joseph as it is to listen to his music, writes Charles Leonard There must be a factory where they make guys like young British jazz pianist, Julian Joseph. He is the third bright young(ish) thing I’ve interviewed on visits to South Africa facilitated by […]

Marthali Brand : First Person `That’s incredible. I would never be able to do that.” That’s the first thing most people say when they hear that I am a volunteer at a care centre for children with Aids. The second thing is: “Isn’t it tough to know that those children are going to die?” I […]

After hundreds of years of research, the molecular spark that triggered life still puzzles scientists, writes Paul Davies In Mary Shelley’s novel Frankenstein, the monster is brought to life by a bolt of electricity. This procedure fitted in with the 19th-century view that living matter is somehow distinct from non-living matter, and that an organism […]

Peter Frost In a union which typifies the new reality of economic pressure on the arts as well as calls for broadening of artistic horizons, members of Gauteng’s State Theatre Ballet and the Cape Town City Ballet (CTCB) will join forces on Saturday night at the Nico Opera House for the first time. Dancers from […]

Ferial Haffajee Emigration lawyer Hilliard Kassel is laughing all the way to the bank. He jokes that the only reason he stays in South Africa is because his skill in helping people to leave is in such demand. Based in Johannesburg’s northern suburbs, the bespectacled lawyer is at the cutting edge of the migratory wave […]

More disillusioned MPs are expected to defect to the Democratic Party, writes Howard Barrell As the Democratic Party increasingly assumes the mantle of unofficial leader of the opposition in Parliament from the ailing National Party, a number of MPs from other opposition parties are expected to jump ship in coming weeks. Only the timing of […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Kuala Lumpur | Thursday 8.30pm. SOUTH Africa will play a confident Australia in the cricket final at the Commonwealth Games, after the Australian team disposed of New Zealand in a crushing defeat in the semi-final on Thursday. Steve Waugh’s Australians warmed up for Saturday’s final with an emphatic nine-wicket win that was completed […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Kuala Lumpur | Thursday 7.30pm. FREESTYLE artist Ryk Neethling picked up South Africa’s second Commonwealth Games swimming medal when he finished second in the men’s 1500m event in 15 minutes 02,88 seconds in Kuala Lumpur on Thursday night. He broke both a South African and African record for the event. Although he beat […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Kuala Lumpur | Thursday 10.00am. BRENDON Dedekind has won South Africa’s first medal for swimming in the Commonwealth Games at Kuala Lumpur. He picked up silver in the 50m freestyle, in 22,70 to touch just behind Mark Foster of England who set a Commonwealth record of 22,58. Multiple World Championship medal winner Michael […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Cape Town | Thursday 9.00pm. A SAFETY system is needed that will warn of possible rockfalls and mudslides on Cape Town’s most scenic coastal drive, an engineering geologist told the Cape Town High Court on Thurday. Fredrick Stapelberg testified in a civil claim of more than R4- million against the Cape Metropolitan Council […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Thursday 10.00pm. REBELS from the Democratic Republic of Congo have accused the Southern African Development Community of “legitimising” President Laurent Kabila. In a propaganda war that is growing heated on all sides, the Congolese Democratic Coalition said in a press briefing in Midrand, near Johannesburg: “Granting legitimacy to the Kabila regime […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Cape Town | Thursday 9.00pm. AMENDMENTS to the Electoral Bill allowing voters who are not in possession of a green, bar-coded ID book to use a temporary certificate to register for next year’s general election were approved by the National Assembly on Thursday. However, temporary certificat holders will still have to be issued […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Thursday 4.00pm. DEMOCRATIC Republic of Congo President Laurent Kabila on Wednesday said he wants to hold elections in the country in April 1999 , but first must “boot out” invading troops. “We want to go to elections. It was set for April. For that we will have to boot the aggressor […]

SARAH BULLEN,Johannesburg | Thursday 9.45am. SYNTHETIC fuel group Sasol on Wednesday reported a 18,6% fall in attributable profit to R2-billion for the year to June — its first fall in profits in a decade. The fall was despite a weaker rand to dollar exchange rate, R500-million in synthetic fuel subsidies and a R100-million transfer from […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Harare | Thursday 4.00pm. THE Zimbabwean central bank on Thursday produced a damning report on black banker Roger Boka, and blames the government of bending banking licensing procedures to allow his underfunded bank to operate in the first place. The report into the collapse of Boka’s “indigenous” United Merchant Bank accuses Boka of […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Kuala Lumpur | Thursday 7.30pm. THE South African women’s hockey team suffered a crushing defeat at the hands of New Zealand at the Pantai Stadium on Thursday night. South Africa needed to score a draw, if not a win, in this crucial match to advance to the semifinals against Australia. Instead they conceded […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Maseru | Wednesday 11.30am. SOUTH Africa’s announcement that the Langa Commission report on alleged electoral fraud in Lesotho will be released on Thursday has been met with threats that the report will be rejected by Lesotho opposition parties. Frank Chikane, secretary-general in the office of the deputy president, announced Johannesburg on Wednesday evening […]

JUSTIN ARENSTEIN, Nelspruit | Tuesday 4.00pm. MPUMALANGA Premier Mathews Phosa has scheduled a special provincial executive meeting at his Nelspruit home on Wednesday to deliberate an urgent recommendation for the suspension of the province’s parks chief, Alan Gray. The political fate of the province’s finance MEC, Jacques Modipane, is also expected to be discussed at […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Wednesday 10.00pm. THE Democratic Republic of Congo government has denied that Sudanese troops have arrived in the forward military base of Kindu to assist forces loyal to President Laurent Kabila. The DRC rebels fighting to topple Kabila claimed on Wednesday that Libya bankrolled the deployment of some 2,000 Sudanese and ex-Zairean […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Wednesday 8.30pm. MOZAMBICAN attorney-general Antonio Namburete said on Wednesday that more arrests could follow in connection with the gun-running and espionage charges levelled against foreign affairs official Robert McBride. Namburete spoke in Pretoria, after addressing a crime conference, saying the case against McBride must still be solved: “The suspects still have […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Arusha | Wednesday 10.00pm. A FORMER Rwandan prefect, defending himself against genocide charges, has told the United Nations war crimes tribunal in Arusha that he has “a peaceful conscience”. Clement Kayishema, a Hutu who has pleaded innocent to 25 counts of genocide, crimes against humanity and murder, said during his eight days of […]