Staff Reporter

Chiara Carter Arefugee Bill about to be tabled in Parliament will provide for the processing of applications for asylum within three to six months. The Bill, which is being certified by the state law advisers, is based on a draft White Paper completed earlier this year. Migrants and refugees to South Africa have fallen under […]

Alex Sudheim On show in Durban Fifty years ago, the French photographer Henri Cartier-Bresson began pioneering the concept of photojournalism as an art form. With his spontaneous and sympathetic images of everyday life on the street, he removed photography from the stuffy confines of the studio and breathed into it the energy and immediacy of […]

Andy Capostagno Rugby The Currie Cup originated in Kimberley and there is every chance that this year it is going back there. For Griqualand West, under the coaching of Andre Markgraaff, have progressed this season from worthy underdogs to pedigree contenders; you might say that the rough diamonds have been cut and polished, although their […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Thursday 11.00pm. DELEGATES from the six countries discussing a ceasefire in the Democratic Republic of Congo have adjourned their meeting in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, saying they are expecting “other parties” to join the talks on Friday. Sources at the conference would not say who the “other parties” might be. The meeting […]

Proving the `moonshine conjecture’ won Professor Richard Borcherds the maths equivalent of the Nobel prize. He tells Simon Singh about the trials of living in a world few can enter There is a – probably – apocryphal explanation for why no Nobel prize has ever been awarded for mathematics. The story goes that Alfred Nobel’s […]

JUSTIN ARENSTEIN, Nelspruit | Friday 2.30pm. MPUMALANGA finance MEC Jacques Modipane on Friday again refused to explain why he failed to warn the Reserve Bank or any other government fiscal body about an illegal R500-million offshore loan deal entered into by the Mpumalanga Parks Board (MPB) last year. Modipane conceded that the International Bank of […]

Belinda Beresford gives a few handy tips on how to survive in a wild financial world You might have been getting by with a little help from your friendly bank manager, but now the world economy seems to be going for a walk on the wild side and the most immediate effect for many South […]

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission is, as we have observed before, a curious if admirable beast – a combination of attributes which were on display with particular effect this week. There is something wonderfully satisfying about the sight of the likes of General Johan Coetzee and Craig Williamson being subjected to aggressive questioning on their […]

Attacks on farms have soured relationships between farmers and their workers. Swapna Prabhakaran visited a farm where mistrust has grown `The attacks are happening with such regular monotony, I don’t think any fence will keep them out. I know they’ll come back and this time they might kill me or my family,” Colin Reddy says […]

Kitchener A Sudanese MP wants one of Britain’s most revered heroes to be classed as a war criminal. Ian Black reports Britain has no plans to apologise to Sudan for Lord Horatio Kitchener’s behaviour at the end of the 19th century – a demand Khartoum may be planning to lump together with one from Washington […]

Chris Gordon Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni has proposed a separate deal to Angola’s Jos Eduardo dos Santos to stand back from the conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo – a move that could tip the civil war in the favour of the Congolese rebels and pave the way for a new regional order in […]

Nicholas Dawes Live in Cape Town Amampondo leader Dizu Plaatjies is one of the more popular teachers at the University of Cape Town’s College of Music, where he teaches African instruments and dance. The role is not one he sheds easily, and when “Madiba’s favourite band” played at the Drum Cafe in Gardens last Saturday, […]

Martin Thorpe Soccer Arsenal and Manchester United stepped into line last week by agreeing to discontinue talks with the proposed Super League and seek change to Europe’s club competitions through official channels. All 20 Premiership clubs agreed the same rules after meeting to hear Gerhard Aigner, United European Football Association’s (Uefa) general secretary, assure them […]

for locals Evidence wa ka Ngobeni Competition for jobs and money lies at the heart of many black South Africans’ hatred of foreigners – particularly those who come here from other African countries. Easily two-thirds of people interviewed by the Mail & Guardian this week said they did not want the government to allow foreigners […]

of closet Anthony Kunda Gay men and lesbians in Zambia have formed an organisation to represent their interests, despite government threats to arrest them. Gershom Musonda, project manager of Lesbians, Gays, Bisexual and Transgender Persons Association (Legatra), says the country’s homosexuals face constant harassment and victimisation. “The Zambian gay community has suffered silently, living as […]

Winning eight Lions at the Cannes awards this year, the South African advertising industry has shown it has the talent for temptation. Alex Dodd reports I exit the cinema feeling a bit like a latter day Phineas Fogg. I’ve seen the world and it’s taken me a whole lot less than 80 days. In more […]

ARMED AND DANGEROUS: FROM UNDERCOVER STRUGGLE TO FREEDOM by Ronnie Kasrils (Mayibuye/Jonathan Ball ) When this autobiography of Deputy Defence Minister Ronnie Kasrils first appeared in 1993, it was a bestseller. Five years on, with a new section detailing the author’s experiences in government, the question is: will it repeat its resounding success? Kasrils’s life […]

Maureen Barnes Down the tube Money, the SABC is always telling us, is the problem which prevents us from watching top-quality television – a fact which we silly viewers just can’t get into our heads. There’s not enough money from the government; there’s not enough money from advertisers and there’s not enough money from us […]

Emma Durden Dance in Durban The Kwa-Suka Theatre, usually home to Durban’s experimental drama offerings, is currently awash with rich swirls of tangerine, pimento olive and deep wine. Camino Flamenco is an exuberant hour and a half of traditional Spanish dance put together by Linda Vargas of the Spanish Dance Company and her husband, the […]

Angella Johnson VIEW FROM A BROAD `I’m ready for my close-up, Mr DeMille.” These immortal words delivered by Gloria Swanson in the film classic, Sunset Boulevard, came flashing to my mind as I stood before a solitary camera in a poky but brightly lit back room of a Johannesburg theatre. The lights created a sweltering […]

Simon Segal and Andy Brown The chips are down for leading black empowerment companies in the wake of the stock market crash. There are fears that many will not be able to repay their loans because their stock prices have declined and they are being crippled by high interest rates. Rate hikes could also cripple […]

Sechaba ka’Nkosi The council of the Vaal Triangle Technikon was scrambling this week to stave off threats by Minister of Education Sibusiso Bengu to suspend its state grants and disband the council. Bengu sent a memo to the technikon last Friday, advising the council of his readiness to take such action if it does not […]

Donna Block Share World The wicked witch of the East is once again spoiling things in the land of Oz. The troubles plaguing Australia’s Asian neighbours has left the country’s stocks sagging and commodity prices hitting new lows. Australia and New Zealand are vulnerable to an economic downturn. Their stock markets are suffering not only […]

Andrew Muchineripi Soccer First-round action in the multimillion-rand Rothmans Cup continues this weekend with many of the eight second-leg matches delicately poised. While realising that there is no such thing as a certainty in cup football, the Muchineripi clan will publicly eat this page of your favourite newspaper should Kaizer Chiefs, Manning Rangers and Orlando […]

Andrew Worsdale `If I have to be really truthful, I can’t say a director can really know why he makes his pictures … On set, I prefer to go on like a blind man, following with the imagination of the picture to delude myself I am going in the right direction.” So said Italian film […]

A Sussex link to a `routine’ US child abuse inquiry has led to the exposure of a global ring using KGB codes to hide in cyberspace. Stuart Millar reports Even by the increasingly sophisticated standards of Internet child pornographers, the Wonderland club operated on a technological and organisational level which shocked investigating authorities around the […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Addis Ababa | Friday 6.30pm. A RIFT has developed in the Addis Ababa talks aimed at brokering a ceasefire in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Both Uganda and Rwanda, accused by DRC President Laurent Kabila of invading the DRC, have demanded that the rebel leaders be invited to the talks. The DRC delegation […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Friday 4.00PM. ZIMBABWEAN and Angolan troops are accused of killing dozens of unarmed civilians in the Democratic republic of Congo with “indiscriminate shelling of Kinshasa suburbs” in an Amnesty International open letter to Presidents Robert Mugabe and Nelson Mandela. Pierre San, the secretary general of Amnesty International, has written an open […]

MICHAEL METELITS, Johannesburg | Thursday 6.30pm. A plummeting Dow, and little help from overseas investors rocked the share and bond markets on Thursday. Traders suggested that bonds will only pick up if the rand breaks out of the R6,23 to the dollar range. The bright spot was the rising price of gold, which pushed gold […]

Forget Viagra. There’s a natural alternative that’s bound to keep you up all night, writes Mercedes Sayagues If you live in Zimbabwe, you have probably heard the stories: of dusk-to- dawn erections that exhaust women; of non-stop sex and multiple ejaculations all night long; of formidable hard-ons that land men in hospital, even kill them. […]

Chris McGreal Jean Kambanda was bathing when soldiers burst through his front door four years ago. Rwanda’s genocide was starting and he was sure death was knocking. The soldiers nabbed him and offered him not a bullet in the head, but an invitation to lead the government – which came to oversee the slaughter of […]

Who are . . . the Congolese Rebels? Ann Eveleth When Congolese rebel commander Jean- Pierre Ondekane vowed this week to “intensify” the rebellion against embattled Democratic Republic of Congo President Laurent Kabila, he spoke with a confidence his opponent has never enjoyed. Unlike Kabila, whose 1997 Alliance of Democratic Forces for the Liberation of […]