Janet Smith Since Ordinary People revolutionised the South African TV documentary in the early 1990s – and, indeed, the way the SABC’s current-affairs producers approached their subject after that – Mail & Guardian Television has set a standard for all other independent film-makers to follow. Its most innovative work to date, the award-winning Ghetto Diaries, […]
Tangeni Amupadhi Legal assistance from advocates has become far too expensive for most South Africans. The Society of Advocates has set fees of up to R1 080 an hour and as much as R10 800 a day. The Johannesburg Bar Council approved the new fee guidelines last week. The R540 to R1 080 hourly rates […]
Andy Duffy The government is mulling over an offer from one of the world’s leading Aids experts to set up a R40-million research unit in South Africa. Dr Luc Montagnier, the French scientist who first isolated the HIV virus in 1983, tabled his offer in a meeting in Cape Town last week with the Department […]
Janet Smith A campaign to revive workers’ culture is at the heart of the Workers’ Library and Museum’s May Day celebrations and 10th anniversary festivities at the Electric Workshop in Newtown, Johannesburg, on Saturday May 2. Omar Don Mattera, Jeremy Cronin, Mi Hlatshwayo, Alfred Qabule, Nise Malange and other South African poets will perform on […]
Tom Quoin : Architecture We will soon have a home for our Constitutional Court. If construction proceeds as expected, it should be ready for occupation early in the year 2000. The building will stand on the upper reaches of the newly named Constitution Hill, north of the painfully memorable Fort, Johannesburg. It will overlook the […]
Shop around for the best credit card deal available, writes Charlene Smith Despite the entry of more than 70 foreign banks into the local market, the South African commercial banking sector, protected by a R1-million limit on deposits to locally based foreign banks by individuals, is plodding along in its same uncompetitive way – unless […]
WHO IS . . . GERALD MORKEL? Gerald Morkel, the man who will replace Hernus Kriel as premier of the Western Cape on May 11, is best described as a politician who has risen without trace. A stranger to controversy, one could say his very blandness ensured the job would be his. It was a […]
Duncan Mackay : London Marathon When Dick Beardsley came over from the United States in 1981 to run in the first London Marathon, he received R125E000. This year R1,25-million was set aside to be divided between two runners, the respective Olympic and world champions, for appearing in the race last Sunday, with Josiah Thugwane of […]
He always knew he’d have a place in film history. He’s arrogant, precious, pretentious, solipsistic and a bit of a genius. Simon Hattenstone meets Quentin Tarantino Quentin Tarantino jives on to the stage of London’s National Film Theatre. His head nods like a hyperactive chicken. He’s walking the walk, waggling that famously big bottom, preparing […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
Ian Wylie and Liz Stuart Plastic may be the gold standard for a new millennium, but people are proving reluctant to give up notes and coins. Cash is still king and electronic purse pretenders are finding it tougher than expected to win allegiance. When coins tear holes in pockets, notes disintegrate and both make the […]
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 […]
They may look like Hell’s Angels but riders of Steel Wings club are not about beer and bluster, writes Swapna Prabhakaran On Sunday mornings they gather like outsize flies at their favourite Pretoria pub, Greenfields. Then the whole swarm – usually about 30 riders – takes off down the highway out of the city on […]
Andy Capostagno : Cricket First of all, the apologies. Last week I suggested that the national selectors were myopic baboons who could not differentiate a class off-spinner from a kicked in car door. I also managed to retire Brian McMillan somewhat prematurely. My only excuse is that newspaper deadlines coincide with important announcements about as […]