Staff Reporter

JAZZ ON CD: Gwen Ansell In the beginning was the word. And long before slack, ragga, rap and hip-hop, the word was dub. As Jamaican music emerged from mento, rock-steady and ska in the 1970s, a new kind of artist was born. A whole generation of producers and DJs took advantage of increasingly sophisticated (but […]

Accusations of Transnet’s lack of control over its security services are contained in some explosive reports. Ann Eveleth investigates TRANSPORT parastatal Transnet is sitting on an explosive report into weak controls over private security companies it contracted, estimated to have cost the taxpayer R100- million. The Mail & Guardian has established that the long-running irregularities […]

He was the target of the boo brigade when he played in the under-23 team, now George Koumantarakis is the top scorer in the Premiership SOCCER: Andrew Muchineripi THERE was more than a touch of irony surrounding the fact that Milpark Stadium was the setting last weekend for one of the finest goals scored by […]

A strange affliction in the hills of KwaZulu-Natal still evades medical science, writes Simon Pooley DRIVE up into the remote Mseleni area in the Ubombo district of northern KwaZulu- Natal and you could be forgiven for thinking you had returned to an African Eden. The rural people live in small kraals, linked to the small […]

HAZEL FRIEDMAN tries to get beneath the inscrutable surface of Arts minister Lionel Mtshali Picture a coat-tailed Victorian gentleman posing for one of those daguerreotype photographs and you’ll probably come up with a reasonable facsimile of Lionel Mtshali, Minister of Arts, Culture, Science and Technology. Starchily polite, unblinking, with an air of impenetrability effectively masking […]

Peta Thornycroft RADIO station SAfm’s embattled manager Charlene Smith has been told by SABC radio head Govin Reddy to resign on grounds of ill health. Reddy told Smith on February 13 that he would pay her to the end of the month if she resigned “gracefully but immediately”. Smith, hired by SAfm only five months […]

Jacquie Golding-Duffy reports on the far- ranging cuts a top US consultancy has suggested for the SABC THESABC has been advised to axe nearly 1 000 staff and to cut R200-million from the cost of its radio and support services. Two confidential reports by top United States company McKinsey Consultants detail cost-cutting measures ranging from […]

Amid uproar at South Africa’s universities, evidence of state manipulation emerges Ann Eveleth MINUTES of a secret meeting allegedly between Education Minister Sibusiso Bengu, University of Durban-Westville (UDW)council members and high-flying Durban attorney Linda Zama suggest a clear political agenda lies behind an ongoing probe into campus conflict. Attorneys acting for UDW’s Combined Staff Association […]

Controversy surrounds the proposed Bill to convert the Development Bank of South Africa into a company, writes Lynda Loxton NEW parliamentary finance committee chairman Sipho Mpahlwa had a baptism of fire this week when the committee once again flexed its muscles and refused to rubber stamp an important Bill. Appointed on February 17, Mpahlwa almost […]

Jacquie Golding-Duffy THE SABC has axed a string of high-profile sports commentators just days before a huge sports programme relaunch, in favour of veteran presenter Martin Locke. Topsport general manager Edward Griffiths said this week eight presenters are to go. They include athletics presenter Elma Neethling, the first female to conquer the all-male domain of […]

Hazel Friedman CALL her a big fish voraciously feeding off South Africa’s art plankton. Call her a prophetess and profiteer in one. Call her a superbitch and nurturing matriarch in the same breath. Call her, even, the Mother Teresa of the cultural church. In fact call her virtually anything at all. Just don’t call Linda […]

Stefaans Brmmer FLIGHT SA 232 from Johannesburg to London on February 6 1993, two months before Chris Hani was assassinated, had three passengers of note – the South African Communist Party leader himself; right-wing journalist Arthur Kemp, who was later arrested in connection with his murder; and Inkatha Freedom Party militarist Philip Powell. This “coincidence” […]

South African companies are under pressure to take a stand on the Swazi strike, reports Max Gebhardt SOUTHAFRICA’S Transport and General Workers Union has vowed to intensify its campaign against South African companies invested in Swaziland as the Swazi general strike moves into its fourth week. The union will meet shop stewards next week to […]

by funding cuts Jim Day THE view from her back door is of acres and acres of corrugated steel roofs, weighted down by cement blocks and broken furniture. Thin columns of smoke rise from fires burning in steel drums. All around her, the streets are teeming with people, cars and a small herd of goats. […]

Politicians need to consider the social dynamics behind gun proliferation, argues Wits sociology professor Jacklyn Cock GUN violence is about contested social identities. This is evident in the case of the Kalashnikov assault rifle, the AK-47. I want to use this particular weapon to introduce some of the key themes in a sociological analysis of […]

NATIONAL Party leader FW de Klerk is juggling the chicken and the egg, and cannot decide between the two. The chicken is the current NP: it clucks about forming a “new new” National Party and scratching for dirt on the African National Congress, particularly in the backyards of the Western Cape, where it struts its […]

Rehana Rossouw THE law requiring members of Parliament to declare their assets and financial interests and extra-parliamentary income may be well-meaning but it is nearly impossible to uphold, according to the person responsible for administering the register. Acting registrar of members’ interests, Peter Lilienfeld, said that without funds to hire investigators to check out MPs’ […]

First it was abortion on demand and now it may be death, following the example set by Holland Gustav Thiel THE medical fraternity, still battling with its conscience over the recent advent of legalised abortion in South Africa, will soon have a new medical and ethical dilemma to confront, with the release of proposals to […]

Maria McCloy IF you’re one of the millions of South Africans who tunes in to any of an ever- growing number of music radio stations each day, it’s unlikely that many of the sexy, soothing, lively or witty DJ voices you hear belong to a woman. Or when you get down in the club of […]

GLYNIS O’HARA speaks to the versatile Sibongile Mngoma, a young soprano who is riding the wave of opera in South Africa SUPERLATIVES fly for Sibongile Mngoma (25), the soprano whose voice has overwhelmed critics, conductors and the public. “I think she’s great,” says Robert Maxym, freelance American conductor and musician resident in South Africa. “She’s […]

THE stench arising from the administration of rugby in South Africa is over-powering. If the coaching career of the Springbok coach, Andr Markgraaff, is the immediate casualty of this week’s rugby race row, the putrefaction which gives rise to the stink lies with the South African Rugby Football Union (Sarfu). It has been obvious for […]

churches While the Constitution promotes human rights, churches refuse to accept gays and lesbians into the South African clergy. Gustav Thiel reports THE religious fraternity is on a collision course with the Constitution over its continued ban on homosexuals. Constitutional and human rights law specialists say the Bill of Rights, formally adopted earlier this month, […]

The head of Durban’s port is accused of racist behaviour and using spy tactics against his fired deputy, reports Ann Eveleth THE head of South Africa’s busiest port is bugging the offices of his subordinates, undermining black empowerment and operating behind the backs of senior port management, according to allegations by port employees and suppliers. […]

South Africa’s brain drain Marion Edmunds SKILLED foreigners should be lured to South Africa to fill the gap left by the brain drain, according to research for an influential government task team on immigration. Social scientist Robin Cohen says official statistics have not adequately reflected the exodus of professionals with valuable skills from South Africa, […]

The universe is bigger and older than first believed, but sci-fi writer JG Ballard sees space as a vacuum New evidence shows that previous assumptions about space were wrong, reports Lesley Cowling A SOUTH AFRICAN astronomer this week presented evidence to international cosmologists that the observable universe is 10% larger than previously supposed. This means […]

As the Australian batting gets better in the run-up to the first Test, the need for more than one of South Africa’s specialist batsmen to make big scores increases CRICKET: Jon Swift THE Austalians will always be this country’s biggest rivals on the cricket field. There is, quite simply, no side the South Africans want […]

With market sentiment on its side, now would be a good time for South Africa to act on exchange controls, a USeconomist tells Madeleine Wackernagel THE subject on everybody’s lips at this year’s Socit Gnrale Frankel Pollack investment conference was exchange controls. But the governor of the Reserve Bank wasn’t talking, and neither was the […]

Nick Price had his first victory in 15 months last weekend, and he’s hoping it will be the first of many this year GOLF:Jon Swift THERE’S a new lady in Nick Price’s life. A fat one. And she has much to do with the Zimbabwean’s changing fortune in tournament play. The new fat lady is […]

The Dolphin Group which has secured huge interests to develop tourism in Mpumalanga is struggling to defend its chief, reports Justin Arenstein THE public relations drive by nature reserve heavyweight Dolphin Group stumbled this week after Kenyan President Daniel arap Moi’s office denied it had issued letters vindicating Dolphin chief Ketan Somaia. The supposed letter […]

fences Caitlin Davies in Maun THE Botswana government looks set to introduce “wildlife-friendly fences” – that control the movement of one species while allowing others to roam free – in the Okavango Delta. Mary Kalikawe, a biologist for the Wildlife Training Institute based in Maun, produced a manual on such fences in 1995. She says […]

Charles Krauthammer in Washington IN 1991 in the Dutch city of Assen, a perfectly healthy 50-year-old woman asked her doctor to help her die. Her two sons had died, one by suicide, one by cancer. She wanted to join them. After many hours of consultation, Dr Boudewijn Chabot consented. He was at her side when […]

Mature economies are battling to expand rapidly; while this may mean nirvana for some theorists, it could spell hell for Britain’s Labour Party, writes Victor Keegan in London LOOSEN your seat belts, the world is slowing down. According to the latest figures from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the 15 economies of […]