David Lewis and Jayendra Naidoo South Africa has chosen a path of social dialogue – but is it working? Social dialogue reflects the unique national pressures and circumstances of a state making a transition to democracy and introducing far-reaching economic reforms. A social partnership that is associated with a reduction in inequalities of wealth, income […]
Vuyo Mhlati In response to the article “Tempers Flare on the Wild Coast” (Monitor, May 8 to 14), I’d like to make it clear that the call from communities on the Wild Coast is not for more consultation, but for economic development and jobs. At the launch of investment projects on the Wild Coast, the […]
The demise of Louis Luyt as president of the South African Rugby Football Union is only the first step towards rugby’s rehabilitation as a national sport. There are many administrators and followers of the sport who, while accepting Luyt’s departure as a necessary expedient to removing an obstacle to the upcoming international tours, resent the […]
Chris Roper The saga of censorship at Stellenbosch University took a new turn last week when students exhibiting at the university’s gallery took down their work because the show had been tampered with. A triptych by Mark Coetzee, featuring erect penises, was removed from the exhibition by Professor Greg Kerr, head of the Stellenbosch art […]
Stephen Gray Unspoilt places The clanking centre of the Moffat mission near Kuruman is a real old museum piece – a manual printing press. A cast-iron precision machine, it kept running through most of the 19th century. Then abandoned and shipped to Kimberley, it was exhibited there as a pretty historic item – the contraption […]
Maggie O’Kane in Niger They are sitting in a corner of the hospital, shaded by their compound wall. She is three years old, with dark, dusty ringlets and a buttercup yellow dress with faded pink tulips. They are on a wicker mat, apart from the others, him rubbing her shoulders and smoothing her hair. The […]
Ferial Haffajee The ruby red BMW roadster races down the main road in Eldorado Park, past rows and rows of grim council houses. At full throttle, the front doors open and close to simulate a bird in flight. The Majimbos are in town – the gang’s symbol is a flying bird and Eldorado Park, south […]
Saul Klein A business exists to satisfy its customers. But South Africa’s poor service attitude is an important factor in the country regularly being ranked near the bottom in terms of competitiveness. One component of competitiveness that captures our poor performance has to do with the market orientation of local business. Market orientation means designing […]
Andrew Muchineripi Soccer The curtain finally comes down on a seemingly endless South African soccer season this Sunday when Orlando Pirates and Sundowns contest the Bob Save Super Bowl final. Pirates have played 52 domestic and African matches since last July and Sundowns 51, so do not be surprised if some players look a little […]
Michael Nurok Given that the number of people who die each year of malaria is equal to the cumulative number of Aids-related deaths in 15 years, one would expect at least equal amounts of money to be spent on research. Yet less than 10% of the amount spent on international HIV research goes into malaria […]
Mail & Guardian reporter The archbishop of Cape Town, the Reverend Njongonkulu Ndungane, is to present the world’s largest gathering of Anglican bishops with an explosive document suggesting the church take a fresh look at issues such as polygamy and euthanasia. The 24-page report, entitled Called to Full Humanity, is to head the agenda at […]
Andy Capostagno Rugby Deja vu. The Springbok captain is involved in negotiations to form a players’ union, Louis Luyt is in the news and euphoria over Springbok success has died down to a hoarse croak. Take yourself back to August 1995, less than two months after South Africa had won the World Cup. Louis Luyt […]
Anton Simanowitz Nyatela Baloyi, living in a village in Khomanani Tribal Authority in the former Venda, is typical of many of the poorest families in the Northern Province. She lives in two mud brick rondavels together with five children. She has no husband -he passed away some time ago, and supports her family with her […]
Ferial Haffajee The government will tax private radio and television stations, as well as signal distributors, to fund local-content production. A draft White Paper on broadcasting says a fund will be established to subsidise local producers. It is understood that private owners may have to pay up to 1% of their profits, which translates into […]
THURSDAY, 6.30PM: THE Presidential Review Commission on Thursday said in a report that it appears the leadership of the Northen Province and the Eastern Cape have been bogged down by the enormity of the challenges facing their provinces. The PRC also admitted that the problems may be much more complex than they had appeared at […]
THURSDAY, 9.15AM: THE National Sports Council lifted the ban on international rugby tours to South Africa amid scenes of jubilation in Johannesburg on Wednesday evening. After lengthy meetings with the South African Rugby Football Union’s executive and the 14 provincial rugby unions, the NSC announced that proposed tours by England, Wales and Ireland will go […]
THURSDAY, 11.00AM: THE National Party lost 81% of its 1995 vote to lose 1419-386 to the Democratic Party in the Brakpan by-election on Wednesday. The winning candidate was the DP’s Shelly Loe, who defeated the NP’s Malcolm Laing in a 31% poll. On Tuesday, the DP won a clear victory in former NP bastion Bergvliet/Meadowridge […]
TUESDAY, 7.00PM: THE Council for Nuclear Safety is worried by rapid development near Cape Town’s Koeberg Nuclear Power Station, and says it must be brought under control. Further development could create enormous difficulties should an emergency evacuation of Koeberg ever become necessary, council general manager Jeff Leaver told the Minerals and Energy parlimentary committee on […]
Charl BlignautOn stage in Johannesburg There is a bizarre moment in the Johannesburg Market Theatre/Stockholm Stadtsteater co-production of August Strindberg’s 1901 tragi-comedy Dance of Death when the subtle, classic lighting design suddenly spins out of orbit and transforms the stage into a discotheque, John Kani’s cantankerous Captain thrusting his arm in the air like a […]
Greg Bowes Dance music tour In what promises to be one of the dance events of the year, a veritable who’s who of commercial and underground dance musicians and DJs have been assembled for this year’s Camel Experience. The series of parties – this year subtitled, for reasons unknown, Quadropheria – begins in Cape Town […]
Loet Douwes Dekker Celebrations in recent weeks commemorating the democratic elections and Workers’ Day highlighted South Africa’s work to ensure new constitutional rights take effect in practice. In the workplace, this means defining new priorities and guidelines, while taking cognisance of the implications of South Africa having rejoined the International Labour Organisation and the World […]
The University of Pretoria’s celebrated Van Tilburg collection may have been stolen from Dutch Jews, writes Bart Luirink In 1951 Jacob van Tilburg, a Dutch art collector, managed to transfer 91 cases with valuable art pieces to South Africa – a remarkable effort for somebody who, three years earlier, had been sentenced for collaboration with […]
Special Mail &Guardian supplement on Internet connectivity in Africa Developing Africa’s information economy is of paramount importance, writes David Shapshak The Internet will finally take off in Africa in 1998. But taking the information age into the continent, which dramatically lacks the infrastructure needed for conveying the Internet and normal telecommunications, may prove to be […]
John SeilerSOUTH AFRICA, LIMITS TO CHANGE: THE POLITICAL ECONOMY OF TRANSITION by Hein Marais (Zed/UCT Press, R150) Hein Marais is not the first observer of post-apartheid South Africa to point to the burgeoning African professional and entrepreneurial classes and their conspicuous consumption patterns. The recent book Comrades in Business captures this dynamic pithily in its […]
house World-renowned palaeo-anthropologist Professor Phillip Tobias discusses why it would be disastrous to build a casino near Sterkfontein Valley Since the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation’s (Unesco) general conference adopted a convention on the protection of the world’s cultural and natural heritage on November 16 1972, 506 properties worldwide have been inscribed on […]
The University of Pretoria’s celebrated Van Tilburg collection may have been stolen from Dutch Jews, writes Bart Luirink In 1951 Jacob van Tilburg, a Dutch art collector, managed to transfer 91 cases with valuable art pieces to South Africa – a remarkable effort for somebody who, three years earlier, had been sentenced for collaboration with […]
Andy Duffy The National Party’s new Western Cape leader, Gerald Morkel, played a central role in propelling a convict’s outlandish sex claims against NP chief Marthinus van Schalkwyk into the public domain. Morkel, provincial police MEC and now premier elect, was party to the decision to put senior investigators on to the case. His office […]
Deborah BosleyGAGLOW by Esther Freud (Penguin, R62,95) It is not always easy to find the novel that will draw one willingly into its narrative and engage us consistently to the final page. Rarer still is the book in which we taste every morsel of food, feel each chill wind and the reproach of a sideways […]
Angella Johnson There is much less of Louis Luyt these days – 18kg to be precise. The beleaguered rugby boss was in defiant, if slightly subdued mood, as he confessed to a room of Johannesburg businessmen that the pressures facing him had led to rapid weight loss. Just hours before he was expected to face […]
David Beresford The master planner in the African National Congress’s liberation war came out from the shadows this week to defend his role in the most deadly phase of South Africa’s anti-apartheid struggle. Aboobaker Ismail, the ANC’s head of “special operations”, appeared before Desmond Tutu’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission to ask for amnesty for a […]
Alex Dodd On show in Johannesburg He thinks it was Andy Warhol who said it. Something like, if you can’t appreciate the beauty in a Coke can what’s the point of being alive right now? “You’ve got to be able to appreciate the beauty in the world around you – just the way it is,” […]
David Bennun Foreign CD of the week `It is,” observed one visitor to my flat, “a bit bloody gloomy, isn’t it?” My visitor was referring to Massive Attack’s new CD, Mezzanine (Virgin), an album so dark that it seems to soak up the light in the room like a miniature black hole. It was playing […]