Staff Reporter

Guest writer Pippa Green watches the truth commission catch fire THERE is a monument outside Pretoria’s vast municipal complex, a broken arch of triumph. Its dedication reads: “To all victims of terrorism.” It stands on the corner of Munitoria, a distinctly Pretorian name in a city where names like Cartoria for a major vehicle dealer […]

Marion Edmunds THE government is trying to revive the Presidential Review Commission, created to help reform the ailing public sector but paralysed by its own problems, which culminated recently in the resignation of its chairman. Professor Bax Nomvete, who by all accounts had a stormy relationship with the rest of the commission, has refused to […]

Indian film and music is reinventing itself, invading Western fashion and creating heated debate back home CINEMA: Derek Malcolm MOST in the West know little about Indian cinema, one of the oldest, most varied, largest and most glamorous entertainment industries in the world. The conception is that there was Satyajit Ray, a great director of […]

THE ANGELLA JOHNSON INTERVIEW LEGEND has it that Modjadji, the rain queen, is not only the most powerful of all traditional healers but is also immortal. Like the Dalai Lama, Tibet’s spiritual leader, she is said to be reincarnated in a different body each lifetime. Charmaine Modjadji, shebeen queen of South Africa, may deny any […]

There is something a little distasteful about the Independent Group’s “confession” to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission as to its sins during the apartheid era. Like its much-trumpeted “international advisory board” of consultants, the submission smacks more of a public relations exercise than a genuine contribution to South African journalism. The group’s apparent failure to […]

A hydro-electric project dam in northern Namibia could displace 2 000 people. Graham Hopwood reports from Windhoek THE Himba people in north-west Namibia are battling a plan to construct a hydro-power station and dam on the Kunene River which could flood up to 400km2 of their land. “We don’t want the construction of the dam. […]

bomb Aspasia Karras CRIME and unemployment grab the headlines, but an even greater obstacle to putting South Africa on the fast growth track is illiteracy. The fact that the National Economic Development and Labour Council (Nedlac) put the issue high on its agenda at its first meeting this year highlights the growing concern that without […]

FINE ART:Hazel Friedman LAST year’s Unplugged exhibition will go down in South African art history as a supreme example of the “buddy system” at its worst. Initiated by artist Kendell Geers as a riposte to the traditional curatorial process – whereby the curator determines the content and presentation of an exhibition – Unplugged set itself […]

Mungo Soggot TWO of Johannesburg’s elite schools went head-to-head this week, not on the playing field but in the somewhat seedier surrounds of the Randburg Magistrate’s Court, to settle a case of assault, with racial overtones and a sporting twist. The case stemmed from a fight at the Randburg Waterfront last year between two students, […]

Ann Eveleth THE Durban High Court ruled this week that President Nelson Mandela has the right, if he chooses, to appoint biased and partial commissions of inquiry, and that citizens have no legal recourse to oppose them. The ruling by Judge Ron McLaren followed the leak of documents from a secret October 1996 meeting between […]

Madeleine Wackernagel Jilted your partner recently? Upset your neighbour? And not declared your earnings? Be warned, the taxman cometh. With the amnesty out of the way on February 28, the Receiver of Revenue can now follow up on tip-offs from ex-wives, vengeful lovers and angry associates. Until now, the Receiver has been powerless to act […]

IT smacks of a cheap jibe to describe Zimbabwe this week as a “banana republic”. But, however feeble a pun it might be on the name of Canaan Banana, the scandal which broke around the head of the former president further justifies that characterisation of our northern neighbour. The story of the rape of Inspector […]

David Bowie has introduced pop investment, but will others follow in his footsteps, asks Neil Spencer The days when David Bowie represented the cutting edge of modern pop may lie back in the Seventies, but the 50-year-old Bowie proved he’s still an innovative force in the business of music when he invented the pop star […]

The submission to the truth commission by Independent Newspapers is a litany of failure, argues Anton Harber INDEPENDENT NEWSPAPERS has conceded that the company has much to be embarrassed about in its history. In its report to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, written by ex- editor John Patten, the country’s largest newspaper group writes that […]

Mungo Soggot reports on the justice minister’s attitude towards a gun-free South Africa JUSTICE Minister Dullah Omar says South Africans should be allowed to keep their guns until the country has a decent criminal justice system. Omar, who this week also warned against South Africa’s descent into vigilantism, said a gun-free country remained government’s long-term […]

Mark Tran in New York JAMES WOLFENSOHN, the most dynamic president at the World Bank since Robert McNamara, has unveiled his blueprint for reform of an institution struggling to stay relevant as poor countries increasingly turn to private capital. Wolfensohn’s “strategic compact” seeks to push the Washington-based bank further from McNamara’s culture of approval, where […]

Eddie Koch THE truth commission is discussing plans to subject staff to a security clearance test in a bid to prevent the leak of sensitive information. But some of the body’s 17 commissioners – a group which sits with chairman Desmond Tutu and his deputy, Alec Boraine, on its executive committee – have refused to […]

an early start Mail & Guardian Reporters MANY people were surprised when Carel du Plessis was appointed the new Springbok coach this week. With little previous coaching experience and the British Lions tour looming, Du Plessis has been thrown in at the deep end after the sudden departure of the disgraced Andre Markgraaf. The new […]

Jose-Maria Olazabal once feared that he would end his life in a wheelchair but a stroke of luck and a brilliant doctor have brought him back to golf GOLF: David Davies JOSE-MARIA OLAZABAL is to play in the Dubai Desert Classic this week. After 18 months out of the game, it is dipping his toe […]

Charl Blignaut THE Greater Johannesburg Central Library is about to spread its wings and enter the technological era in a big way. In a breakthrough for the city’s educational resources, this weekend sees the launch of a spanking new Multimedia Library that will steadily be building up audiovisual material until such time as organisations and […]

Mungo Soggot OLIVER HILL, the South African fugitive fighting extradition from his south London jail cell, has caught the attention of Minister of Justice Dullah Omar who has dispatched his special adviser Enver Daniels to personally oversee attempts to bring him back to South Africa. Omar has also sent a representative from the Transvaal Attorney […]

Suzy Bell A young black child strokes the lilac long nails of “Aurora the Raver”, marvelling at the sight of a flamboyant marionette on exhibition. With purple spiral curls, rainbow coloured eyelashes, bellybutton and nose resplendent with shiny silver rings, it’s no wonder Winnie Mandela (marionette) couldn’t quite compete. In this joint exhibition of KwaZulu-Natal […]

Although the high crime rate was the worst feature of the Olympic evaluation commission’s report, Cape Town still has a good chance of making the final five, writes Julian Drew THERE were no real surprises when the International Olympic Committee’s (IOC) evaluation commission released it’s report in Lausanne last Thursday on the 11 candidate cities […]

The Mortgage Indemnity Fund has admitted victimising a Sowetan community, reports Mungo Soggot THE key government player in getting bank loans for the masses has admitted to a group of Soweto residents that it collaborated with three major banks to blacklist a relatively comfortable area in Soweto even though residents meet their bond payments. Residents […]

Stuart Hess THE crackdown on rate defaulters which triggered riots earlier this month in Johannesburg’s coloured suburbs is to restart next week. The decision – announced by the Southern Metropolitan Substructure (SMSS) – coincided with the launch of a commission of inquiry into the riots in Eldorado Park, Westbury and Reiger Park, which left four […]

The M&G’s guest writer this week, Boetie Damane, revisited the `Jozi’ of hope, sorrow and fear he knew as a child BACK in 1966, when I was 12, I was a street child in Hillbrow. We slept by the waterfall on the corner of Catherine Street and Saratoga Avenue. Also in scrapyards. Trees provided a […]

Tim Radford Tough Choices: Facing The Challenge of Food Security (Earthscan, R75) Duke University in the United States has a rice diet house. People who tend to obesity check in and guinea pig-out on rice cooked without salt, and fruit, and lose weight and gain life expectancy. Most people in most countries of the world […]

Gustav Thiel A RESEARCH group established in Cape Town to scientifically research remedies used by traditional healers in malaria and tuberculosis has already had encouraging results. But, in the wake of the recent controversy about the Aids treatment Virodene, researchers are wary about drawing premature conclusions. Tramed, a joint effort of the Medical Research Council […]

Nineties 1991 World Cup quarter-final: October 19, Parc des Princes France 10 England 19 England were on France’s patch. The atmosphere was highly charged. “It was the most ferocious, brutal match I have played in,” wrote England hooker Brian Moore. “It was the reason I play the game. It was the ultimate feeling of being […]

Emma Lindsey savours the sweaty spectacle of an ancient game of strength and skill that is no pastime for bored old fatties IF YOU thought tug-of-war was a pub pastime for a bunch of bored fatties, you’d be wrong. The 10 nations gathered for the fourth world closed indoor championship at the Torbay Leisure Centre […]

Mail & Guardian Reporter IT is the end of the road for acid-burn victim Bernadette Gibson following the Appellate Division’s decision last week to spike her petition to appeal a R131000 damages award. Gibson suffered acid burns to her vagina and lower back at the hands of a negligent gynaecologist. But instead of walking away […]

Jim Day AIDS activists say Health Minister Nkosazana Zuma betrayed them with her ill- considered and premature support for the so-called wonder drug Virodene. Reacting to the report this week by the University of Pretoria and Gauteng Health Department, they say the minister’s failure to fully investigate Virodene before giving it her full public support […]