Staff Reporter

Mungo Soggot An influential United States medical journal has accused South African doctors of endangering the lives of scores of babies to test new drug treatments for pregnant women infected with the HIV virus. The New England Journal of Medicine says the drug trials which deny some of their human guinea pigs effective, available treatment […]

M&G Reporter The National Arts Council Bill has finally been passed by parliament after drafters quietly ditched the controversial clause that could have enabled the national arts and culture department to hijack the council. Clause 13 which was seen as a major threat to the councils independence has been replaced with a clause that says […]

Wonder Hlongwa African National Congress national chairman Jacob Zuma has been involved in intense lobbying to get Zulu King Goodwill Zwelithini and Inkatha Freedom Party president Mangosuthu Buthelezi to patch up their family quarrel and appear on the same platform at the symbolically important Shaka Day celebrations. Zuma said he had been acting as a […]

Ellen Bartlett South Africa has long operated under the assumption that it is running out of water. The year 2020 is the oft-projected point at which the country will no longer have enough water to meet its needs. In looking towards a future of high demand and dwindling supply, water resources planners have considered such […]

Kevin Mitchell : Soccer The advertising campaign that seeks to convince us that football is not just a game but a religion with Sean Bean as the archbishop and television the cathedral is absurd to the point of pastiche. But a slim Colombian footballer, a man for whom religion has been a fleeting influence in […]

FRIDAY, 3.30PM WINNIE MADIKIZELA-MANDELA appeared reluctantly before the Truth and Reconciliation Commission on Friday, her 64th birthday. Subpoenaed to a closed hearing to answer questions relating to her alleged links to 18 gross human rights violations, Madikizela-Mandela requested the inquiry to be public so that “the matter can be dealt with once and for all”. […]

Madeleine Wackernagel : Taking Stock The international financial magazine Euromoney this week voted Trevor Manuel best African finance minister, citing Gear as an example of Manuels innovative style and his ability to push his plans through government. But as the delegates at last weeks Cosatu congress made only too clear, not everybody is as enamoured […]

FRIDAY, 8.00AM: NEW Springbok coach Nick Mallet, appointed on Thursday, hinted that unlike his predecessor, he won’t sideline a world-class star like Japie Mulder. “Japie does not have to play a match to prove anything,” said Mallet, who said he is simply watching to make sure Mulder has recovered from injury. Mallet, a former Springbok […]

league Andrew Muchineripi : Soccer Offered a choice of a present between a terrier of dubious pedigree and an award- winning Maltese poodle, Wits University Football Club coach Eddie Lewis would consistently plump for the former. His approach to a game he loves and has been involved in for more years than he readily cares […]

In the week of this years gay pride march, we look at the significance of queer icon Oscar Wilde, and debate the problems surrounding the Johannesburg parade Peter Conrad Ignominy effaced Oscar Wilde as soon as he was hauled off to prison in 1895. His name was summarily blacked out on theatre marquees in Londons […]

Robert Kirby: Loose cannon I spent a most enlightening two hours last week phoning up a few of the leading restaurants in the charismatic Boland. I was phoning around because some generous friends from up north had invited my wife and I out to have dinner in one of the areas famous gastronomic establishments, particularly […]

Veteran B-movie maker Sam Fuller once said that in order to make a movie youve obviously got to have money and in order to have money you gotta woo people with proverbial bullshit, but … the last thing in the world to be worried about is how to make the picture. After the money, the […]

Following a spate of murders, 70 officers have been deployed to the troubled Cape Flats, reports Andy Duffy Mogammat Dharsey had little reason to feel threatened. The 55-year-old doctor had worked in Valhalla Park on the Cape Flats for years. He knew it was a region overrun by gangsters he had several on his books […]

The witness protection programme offers protection to individuals, but not their families, writes Mungo Soggot Key witnesses to the killings which have ravaged the KwaZulu-Natal Midlands town of Richmond have refused to join the witness protection programme. The witnesses are either anxious to protect their families for whom the scheme does not cater or are […]

Gustav Thiel Residents of Claremont, a neighbourhood south of Johannesburg caught in a web of paranoia since an alleged serial killer murdered four people there in July, believe the tragedies should have been prevented by the police. Hendrik van Wyk, whose sister Lelanie lost her life on July 19 when the killer struck twice in […]

Wally Mbhele The Reverend Frank Chikane emerged this week as the new favourite to replace Gauteng MEC for Health Amos Masondo in challenging the leading candidate, advocate Mathole Motshekga, for the provincial chairmanship of the African National Congress. While another powerful, nominated candidate, Murphy Morobe, was still making political calculations before taking a final decision […]

Globalisation has all the appeal of an express train with no driver in the cab, argues Larry Elliot In many ways, DH Lawrence was the prototype green. The constant theme of his novels was the way in which the hard, mechanistic world of the industrial West was sucking the life out of mankind. This scene […]

SABC TVs programming is about to undergo a facelift. Ferial Haffajee reports The whittling and tweaking of programming at the SABC will soon bring big changes to television current affairs. October offers two new evening programmes and two hours of breakfast television each week day, while the Truth Commission Special Report will double in length. […]

The Nazis final solution had a dress rehearsal in Namibia, writes Delroy Constantine-Simms At a time when the fight for justice for Jewish Holocaust victims makes front-page news, few people know that a significant number of black people suffered, too, under Nazi rule. Revelations about their experiences are made in a documentary, to be screened […]

FRIDAY, 12.30PM: FORMER Wimbledon champion Pat Cash is out of the MTN Championships Tennis tournament after losing 2-6 7-8 (8/6) 10-8 to Tim Wilkison in the quaterfinals at Sandton Gardens on Thursday night. Cash, who replaced defending champion Yannick Noah in the 12-man field, destroyed a courtside television microphone after one of many dodgy line […]

A new commission to investigate the costs of dams puts South Africa at the centre of the debate on sustainable development, writes Aspasia Karras On a live satellite link-up between Washington and Cape Town, the World Bank and the World Conservation Union this week announced they would be establishing a world commission on dams in […]

Olivia Strange The sisterhood is going to be happy. Cosmopolitans gone a step further than just debating the image of women debate. The magazine which has a circulation of 105 000 is running a big girl campaign and will now more regularly feature normal- sized women on its pages. Writer Roald Dahls granddaughter, the curvaceous […]

If James Wolfensohn, president of the World Bank, means half of what he says then the worlds poor may have found a new friend. At a time when industrialised nations are unashamedly widening the gap between rich and poor in their dash for economic growth, Wolfensohn is urging the opposite. In his speech to the […]

FRIDAY, 8.30AM SUN International chairman Sol Kerzner told a New Jesey gambling commission that the R2-million payment to former Transkei prime minister George Matanzima was a mistake. Kerzner said he had foolishly passed on a bank account number from the Transkei Development Corporation to a lawyer after Matanzima had made it clear that he expected […]

The financial records of the Kwazulu Natal Arts and Culture Council are being investigated, reports Suzy Bell Chaos surrounds the powerful provincial funding and administrative body, the KwaZulu Natal Arts Cultural Council (KZNACC), as an internal audit and an external investigation gets wrapped up to determine whether or not the council is guilty of misuse […]

Bridget Hilton-Barber : Unspoilt places The views at Itala Game Reserve in KwaZulu- Natal are so gorgeous they should be prescribed by optometrists. From the highveld plateau in the east to the Ngubu Basin in the west, the land falls steeply and spectacularly a drop of almost 1 000m. The drive from the nearest village […]

Maria McCloy : Macufe Festival The pretty grounds of Loch Logan provided Bloemfonteins perfect Saturday afternoon venue for McCoy Mrubatas appearance with Khaya Mahlangu and the Dillo Band. But the smell of braais getting going was not a fair indicator of the crowd, which was almost non-existent and this pattern repeated itself throughout the weekend. […]

The New Movement Process is launching this weekend, but little can shake the ANCs dominance, writes Marion Edmunds As Roelf Meyer and Bantu Holomisa prepare to launch their extra-parliamentary movement at Kempton Park this weekend, opposition parties in Parliament are involved in delicate negotiations for future co-operation. Meyer and Holomisa are seen as the catalyst […]

William Feaver : Style News of construction gangs working on a Damien Hirst pop-up book has been joshing around in the art world for some time. Paper sharks leaping off the page have been rumoured. Sniffer footnotes. Paint sachets and spinning-tops. Would there be blister packs of meaningful pharmaceuticals? The specifications (334 pages, over 700 […]

Melvyn Minnaar potable pleasures Since the great gates to wealth from world- wide wine sales opened, former vineyard bywoners and enriched company directors alike jumped on to the South African brand wagon for their sip of the market. The result has been a plethora of new trade titles for wine. A number of the recently […]

Cash-strapped communists are to benefit from financial and political support, write Ferial Haffajee and Sechaba kaNkosi The Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) will soon provide financial and political support to the South African Communist Party (SACP). A resolution taken at Cosatus sixth national congress last week puts to rest calls for an independent […]

A new series of short films is focusing world attention on African film. Andrew Worsdale previews, Janet Smith speaks to the South African director So Be It, the Senegalese short film that won the Silver Lion at Venice a fortnight ago, is just one part of a series of African movies creating a stir at […]