any Time is what South Africa’s young cricketers need to mature into a competitive team, but there is not much of that available before a tough tour to Pakistan CRICKET:Pat McDermott FOR many of South Africa’s cricket-loving public this has been a disappointing summer. Beaten in India away and trashed by the Aussies in both […]
Poverty-stricken workers in the Northern Province are living in the shadow of defunct – but still deadly – asbestos mines. Jim Day reports A LONG-STANDING feud between a traditional leader and civic groups has halted aid for thousands of people suffering from lung diseases caused by asbestos exposure in the remote Northern Province community of […]
Chris McGreal in Lubumbashi ONE group of women knows exactly what it expects from Laurent Kabila’s rebel troops, should they ultimately be victorious in Zaire – the abolition of Mobutu’s Family Code which legalised polygamy, relieved husbands of responsibility for the maintenance of wives and children, and lowered the sexual age of consent to 13. […]
This week supermodel Naomi Campbell spoke out against prejudice in the fashion world. ALISON DANIELS reports on her claims IF the fashion industry peered into the mirror it would prefer to see a white face staring back, claims Naomi Campbell, the world’s best known black supermodel. In a newspaper interview coinciding with New York fashion […]
Although the KwaZulu-Natal gambling board has not yet opened tenders for its casino licences, certain celebrities are vying for the best sites. Ann Eveleth reports FILM star Omar Sharif and former Inkatha Freedom Party secretary general Oscar Dhlomo are among those vying for Durban’s potentially lucrative casino licence. The actor, best known for his roles […]
Matthew Krouse HISTORY records the existence of Yiddish theatre troupes in South Africa, in the 1880s, when an alumnus of the famous Goldfadn, Yankl Rosenfeld, led several performances of Yiddish classics. The latter part of the 19th century saw ad hoc troupes travelling the breadth of the country, playing to a culture-starved European audience that […]
Unions and mine bosses prepare to wrestle with pay issues in South Africa’s biggest industry, reports Ferial Haffajee FOR the next four months, mining and union bosses will be virtually incommunicado as the annual wage talks get under way. Busy cellphones and bated breath will be the order of the day. But down on the […]
Lynda Loxton THE financial services market could be in for a shake-up this year as supermarket giant Pick ‘n Pay moves into in-store banking. Fairly common in Britain, the concept is new to South Africa and has created quite a stir in the conservative banking community. What particularly irks the banks is that Pick ‘n […]
With the SABC not meeting its public service mandate, advertisers and independent producers are pushing the IBA to speedily decide on a new free-to-air channel, writes Jacquie Golding-Duffy THE burgeoning crisis and disarray within the SABC is prompting independent producers and advertisers to look to the new free-to- air channel as a way of rescuing […]
The skull affectionately known as Mrs Ples was unearthed 50 years ago. What are the new controversies in evolutionary theory, asks Lesley Cowling MRS PLES would be hard to find at an exhibition of human fossils, if she weren’t encased in glass and mounted on a little podium of her own. There is not much, […]
companies Jim Day THE London-based lawyers who recently won more than R9-million for workers poisoned by mercury contamination in KwaZulu-Natal have launched a suit against a British company that ran asbestos mines in South Africa. Richard Meeran, a solicitor with Leigh, Day & Co, has filed proceedings against Cape plc of Middlesex, the parent of […]
Justin Arenstein THE head of Dolphin, the foreign company which has secured exclusive commercial rights to top South African tourism sites, this week evaded attempts by politicians in his home country to question him over a defaulted R34-million government contract. Ketan Somaia was summoned to appear before Kenya’s parliamentary Public Accounts Committee, but failed to […]
The conflict in Zaire took a long time to make the news and has been poorly reported, with a few notable exceptions, writes Alison Campbell SO far, there is little in the reporting of Zaire, or Congo, as the rebels have renamed it, to suggest that it is any more than another tin-pot African war. […]
GOLF: Bill Elliott AUGUSTA National Golf Club like to promote the idea that they, the US Masters and all things related are about tradition above all else. Over the years, this has become something of a tradition in itself. Nowhere is this more evident than on the greensward close to the back of the clubhouse, […]
Tiger Woods’s father believes his son will `do more than any other man in history to change the course of humanity’. Many golf fans will concur after he won the US Masters last weekend GOLF:Greg Williams THIS week America officially remembered an infamous footnote in its history. Tuesday marked the 50th anniversary of Jackie Roosevelt […]
Eddie Koch and Charl Blignaut wrestle with just what it is that makes the big men in little costumes fly through the air IS it theatre? Is it sport? we wondered, as the African Storm World Wrestling Federation (WWF) tour rumbled into town. The truth is, it’s probably something altogether in between. Wrestling is, said […]
The draft Basic Conditions of Employment Bill, released this week, has raised the ire of business and labour. A compromise is vital if Gear is to stay on track. Madeleine Wackernagel and Ferial Haffajee report THE next stage in the heavyweight battle to get the draft Basic Conditions of Employment Bill passed into law is […]
The SACP and ANC are at loggerheads over the shape of South Africa’s new democracy, writes Hein Marais IF political alliances were marriages, the African National Congress and the South African Communist Party (SACP) would be in counselling today, poring disconsolately over a new text that aches with unhappiness and disillusionment. The text appears in […]
Ian Katz THE “orgasmatrons” of Woody Allen’s imagination may some day become a reality, thanks to United States scientists who claim to have found the chemical that produces the female sexual climax. The researchers, from prestigious Rutgers University, say they have identified the so-called neurotransmitter that causes the sensation of orgasm in the brains of […]
Jim Day AN apartheid-era plan to move thousands of farmworkers off government-owned farmland in the Northern Province into rural villages has resurfaced in the guise of land reform. Many of the 5 000 people involved oppose the plan, saying they have not been properly consulted and promises that they would have first priority over the […]
The pilot programme to spearhead land reform has fallen flat, with most provinces spending only a fraction of the budgets set aside for this purpose. Jim Day reports THE government programme set up two years ago to spearhead land redistribution has failed to hand over more than a few acres to the landless. Figures from […]
The five bidders for South Africa’s first private TV station have criticised many of the IBA’s proposed regulations for the new licence. Gillian Farquhar reports RAINBOW TELEVISION and Vula Television are the latest entrants in the race for South Africa’s first “free-to-air” private television licence, to be awarded in November by the Independent Broadcasting Authority […]
Draft legislation proposed by the law commission recommends legalising euthanasia, reports Gustav Thiel THE first steps have been taken toward legislation allowing South African doctors to end the lives of the terminally ill. A discussion document by the South African Law Commission, released to the Mail & Guardian, recommends new legislation allowing so-called passive euthanasia […]
Popular British evolutionist Richard Dawkins is in South Africa to promote a love of science. He spoke to Lesley Cowling THERE are few things eminent scientist and Oxford don Richard Dawkins doesn’t know. One of them is that he’s an Aries. Perhaps it would be more correct to say he doesn’t want to know. “Astronomy […]
Andrew Worsdale IN an impassioned oral presentation to the Independent Broadcasting Authority (IBA), members of the newly formed Independent Producer’s Organisation discussed the viable options for a new “free-to-air” channel. The organisation responded to the IBA’s discussion paper on the channel, honing in on local content and independent production, programming contributions, language, employment equity and […]
victims Rehana Rossouw ALL victims of gross human rights abuse who give their stories to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission will be offered the same cash compensation, irrespective of their individual suffering or financial status. The commission’s Reparation and Reconciliation Committee said this week that every victim would be given an equal share of the […]
gore Special writer Ruaridh Nicoll spends 12 hours in the hell halls of Baragwanath Hospital Friday 6.48pm T HE night-porter waits. Lounging in a wheelchair, he watches as the darkness begins to strangle the eve-ning’s flaring sun. At his feet, pools of water from earlier rain stand in the hollows while the tools of his […]
Gustav Thiel THE government is discussing throwing a R200-million lifeline to safeguard specialist services provided by academic hospitals in the Western Cape. The Western Cape Health and Social Services MEC, Ebrahim Rasool, said this week talks with the Finance and Health ministries were under way and an announcement about the cash, to be drawn from […]
Documents found in the wrecked car of Internal Security head Leonard Radu led to the identification of two KwaZulu-Natal warlords as alleged agents, reports Ann Eveleth THE spy scandal which erupted this week also implicates Inkatha Freedom Party warlord David Ntombela. The Mail & Guardian has established that the evidence which led the African National […]
Stuart Hess and Tangeni Amupadhi RULES governing children’s homes are woefully inadequate, the Minister of Welfare and Population Development, Geraldine Fraser-Moleketi, said this week. She was responding to inquiries by the Mail & Guardian about the spate of disclosures and criminal trials to do with abuses in child-care homes. “The cases of molestation, child rape […]
Potential bidders may think again before taking on SAA’s losses, now set to top R400-million, writes Ferial Haffajee SOUTH AFRICAN AIRWAYS (SAA) may now be up for grabs, but potential bidders are likely to baulk at the extent of its losses – now tipped to top R400-million in 1996-97. The disappointing prognosis comes at a […]
The exposure of alleged ANC spy Sifiso Nkabinde highlights the nature of the tension between George Fivaz and Sydney Mufamadi, write Mail & Guardian Reporters THE public spat between Safety and Security Minister Sydney Mufamadi and national Police Commissioner George Fivaz is the culmination of old tensions around police inability to deliver in the face […]