Robert Kirby: Loose CannonAmong Africa’s sorest afflictions has been, of course, its missionaries. This pessimistic breed started pouring into those parts of Africa closest to Europe – from where all the best hypocrites emerge – a few hundred years ago and have been here ever since. Not only still here, but still arriving. What is […]
A new treatment for male impotence is taking the world by storm, writes Tim Radford Lewis Carroll should have patented the idea: swallow a little something and feel just swell. “I know something interesting is sure to happen,” said Alice when she found the bottle. “I hope it will make me grow large again, for […]
They’re a dance band who don’t dance, recording stars who rarely record. Yet their sound is everywhere, writes Lindsay Baker What with one thing and another, Massive Attack have taken their time. Their three albums to date have taken as long to appear as The Beatles’ entire recording career. But, gradually and quietly, their sound […]
Wally Mbhele Despite the succession of adventurous military operations he has been associated with, Aboobaker Ismail is an intensely private person – so private that he is still more commonly known by his nom de guerre, Rasheed. It was during his tenure as an Umkhonto weSizwe (MK) commander that he became one of the previous […]
Chris Roper: On show in Cape Town The Association for Visual Arts, or AVA as it’s more popularly known, has got three distinct exhibition spaces on its premises in the trendy Church Street Mall. Their habit of showing three different exhibitions in the respective spaces means that the viewer is often forcibly made aware of […]
Krisjan Lemmer The man who gets this year’s Groot Marico public conscience award is Aboobaker Ismail. This week he went further than any other African National Congress official in owning up to responsibility for some of the horrors perpetrated by the “good guys” in the liberation struggle. Appearing before the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in […]
Sechaba ka’Nkosi Labour and business are becoming increasingly impatient with the government’s reluctance to set a date for the long- awaited presidential jobs summit between the government, organised labour and business. The Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) and Business South Africa (BSA) are ready and waiting for the summit, but say they are […]
Alex Sudheim was pleasantly surprised by musical developments at this year’s Splashy Fen festival For the first time in the nine- year history of the music festival, Splashy Fen rocked. Resolutely folk-oriented until now, the event took on a radically enhanced contemporary element this year with the inclusion of bands that would have previously been […]
Kader Asmal and Mike Muller The content and the cloak-and-dagger presentation of the article “Damn dams, look in your own backyard” (Monitor, April 30 to May 7), alleging powerful opposition to the Lesotho Highlands Project by unnamed Alexandra individuals, need to be tested and placed in context. Much of what is said in the name […]
THURSDAY, 7.00PM: THREE people were killed and one injured on Thursday afternoon in a taxi that was attacked between Libode and Umtata in Transkei, while three people were injured in a taxi-related shooting in Mamelodi near Pretoria. Three people have been arrested in connection with the Mamelodi incident. Police in Mamelodi fired teargas and stun […]
TUESDAY, 1.30PM: A REMARKABLE number of staff of the Safety and Security Ministry — including Minister Sydney Mufamadi, his driver, his private secretary, and the private secretary of his deputy minister — have all been involved in accidents while driving state-owned cars, the ministry revealed on Monday. “Good grief,” was the response of usually outspoken […]
TUESDAY, 5.30PM: APARTHEID dirty tricks agent Ferdi Barnard’s advocate closed Barnard’s case in the Pretoria High Court on Monday, admitting that he was unable to find even one witness who was prepared to testify for Barnard. Advocate Faan Coetzee told the court that several witnesses were hesitant to testify as they would be implicated in […]
Brenda AtkinsonOn show in Johannesburg South Africa is not known for abundant, or even exciting, public art. In fact you’d be hard pressed to find an inspirational public work were you tracking one down, let alone stumble across a few in the course of your day. Of course, there are those pigeon-perch monuments to political […]
Douglas Rushkoff : ONLINE How could the breakfast readers of Melbourne possibly benefit from the musings of a cyber-writer from the other side of the world? Why should the innocent trees of South Africa be sacrificed to provide printing space for the rantings of a New York-based media theorist? Because, like it or not, thanks […]
Andrew Muchineripi : Soccer National soccer coach Philippe Troussier spent this month shifting through the local and foreign-based talent available to him and now has a list of 30 World Cup hopefuls. One of the most eagerly awaited national squads since the birth of Bafana Bafana is scheduled to be named late next week for […]
Ferial Haffajee and Sechaba ka Nkosi : WORKERS’ DAY SUPPLEMENT The Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) has decided not to field candidates in next year’s election. In a break with a tradition set in 1994 when the labour federation sent 20 top unionists to Parliament, it has now decided not to do so. […]
Rastafarians in South Africa want freedom of religion and the right to smoke ganja, writes Zebulon Dread Arthur Molisiwa is doing a masters degree in mathematics and his father is chair of a corporate giant; Moses Mlangeni holds a BSc in economics and is doing a postgraduate training course in business journalism sponsored by New […]
A policeman known for his fight against child abuse is found guilty of murdering the man who raped his daughter, writes Angella Johnson The story would make a powerful Hollywood script, if it had not already been done in the movie A Time to Kill: a young girl is raped by a local man who […]
John Pilger : CROSSFIRE In his fine book, The Mind of South Africa, Allister Sparks wrote: “South Africa has the widest gap between rich and poor of any country in the world for which data are available. Eighty-seven per cent of its land and 95% of its industrial holdings are in white hands. That degree […]
Tim Radford Scientists who identified a single gene that protects against cancerous chemicals said this week a cancer-prevention pill could be undergoing trials within a decade. The Scottish team’s research found that a single gene may determine whether a smoker develops lung cancer. In an experiment with mice, scientists demonstrated that the gene provides a […]
Shaun de Waal : CD of the week The Rough Guide books have been helping people (usually young, hip people)find their way around the world for years. Recently a set of superb music guides was added to the list -World Music, Jazz, Rock – and now, in a logical extension of the concept, here comes […]
A South African cvompany has been implicated in illegal leopard trade, write John Grobler and Fiona Macleod Delegates from an international conservation agency meeting in Namibia for the past two weeks were shocked when, walking out of a popular bar in Windhoek last Thursday (April 23), they encountered a group of drunken men taunting three […]
Andy Duffy The head of state education in the Northern Cape faces a disciplinary hearing next week on charges of misconduct. Zodwa Dlamini is alleged to have defied MEC for Education, Arts and Culture Tina Joemat and provincial Director General Martin van Zyl in their attempts to manage the embattled provincial education department. The province […]
THURSDAY, 1.00PM: FORMER African National Congress midleads leader Sifiso Nkabinde was acquitted on 16 charges of murder and two of incitement to murder in the Pietermaritzburg High Court on Thursday. Even before his acquittal, rumours that he might be released — supported by comments from the judge on Wednesday condemning the police’s investigation — had […]
Lizeka Mda The government may be laughing all the way to the bank after snagging R819-million from the Aeroporti di Roma for a 20% stake in the Airports Company, but some company employees are unhappy. Black managers at the company say the strategic equity partner in the partial privatisation of the Airports Company was acquired […]
Andrew Worsdale : Movie of the week Love and Death on Long Island, a wryly observed romantic comedy, stars John Hurt as fuddy-duddy writer Giles De’ath. He works with a fountain pen; eats his meals at the same time every day; doesn’t have a television; hasn’t seen a movie in 20 years (he calls them […]
Andy Capostagno : Rugby Maybe he knew. Maybe he knew that even he couldn’t improve upon 74-28 and that therefore retirement was the most sensible option. Sean Fitzpatrick was probably sitting in the stands at Eden Park on Sunday watching his beloved Auckland Blues deconstruct the Western Stormers and he probably thought, hell, I can’t […]
Nelson Mandela is promoting peace and development in Luanda … but neither are foregone conclusions Chris Gordon President Nelson Mandela’s visit to Angola this week takes place against a background of rumours of war and the poor health of President Jos Eduardo dos Santos. Mandela is scheduled to meet Dos Santos to discuss the two […]
Robert Kirby : LOOSE CANNON I keep telling the editor of this paper that he needs to get much more with it, to shrug off the air of 1960s priggish decency that pervades the entire Mail & Guardian enterprise. Just because Jeff Zerbst worked in what were then The Weekly Mail offices shortly before he […]
US Martin Kettle Organisers of marathons and long-distance road races in the United States are barring or limiting entrants from Kenya – the most frequent winners – and offering higher prizes to American competitors. The move is overtly anti-African and, in many eyes, racist. The prestigious Bolder Boulder race in Colorado has just restricted Kenyan […]
Michael Brooks looks at the latest cool solution The refrigerator of the future may be cooled by a semiconductor device no bigger than a credit card. There will be no buzz, no moving parts and, most important of all, it will do away with the need for the environment-destroying Freon gases used in conventional refrigerators. […]
Ferial Haffajee South Africa’s trade mission to Angola jetted into Luanda this week with a mandate to fix what apartheid strong-arm tactics destroyed. Pundits say it will cost Southern Africa more than R50-billion to rebuild the rail and road links the previous government helped to destroy. This week President Nelson Mandela and his trade gurus […]