Staff Reporter

Jim Day DOCTOR Eva Ngwenya-Seobi points to the tiny male genitals, the little feet and the thumb inserted contentedly in the mouth of the 12-week-old human foetus she keeps in a jar of formaldehyde. It is obvious, she says, that this thumb-sized boy floating in his amniotic sac was a living, kicking person before he […]

Mungo Soggot CRAIG WILLIAMSON, the spy turned media celebrity, was “contemptuous” in his attitude toward the justice system and the truth commission, the Pretoria Supreme Court heard this week. Williamson was appearing in the first round of a case that could become a landmark clash between the truth commission and the justice system. He is […]

Dennis Mair FOR the next two weeks, Gallery Mau Mau in Cape Town shifts focus from the = ost entation of the art world to the thrill of B-schlock, exploitation filmogra= phy and pure horror. Amid projections and popcorn, administrators David L Dei = and Craig E Parker describe the ensemble as “a terrorism of […]

Claudia Braude ‘MANAGING the package” is how truth commissioner Hugh Lewin describes selecting 12 statements from 150 submitted for public hearings in one community. “Which is the story to choose, the story we say you should hear?” he asks. He’s upfront about the process, difficulties and discomfort involved in narrating the role of the Truth […]

TENNIS:Jon Swift IT is well, with the weekend’s Davis Cup World Group tie at Durban’s Westr= idg e Park in view, to keep an eye on the quintessential cornerstone of the Rus= sia n psyche – hardship is not a new phenomenon, it is to be both expected and = end ured. The Russians go […]

MARIA McCLOY talks to Skeem, a bright new South African group who are mixin= g s tyles and doing their own musical thing SKEEM broke on to the local music scene in September last year with the rel= eas e of their song Waar Was Jy? In terms of both lyrics and style they were […]

THE ANGELLA JOHNSON INTERVIEW IF ever you wanted a walking advertisement in support of legalised abortion, take Glenda Bateman. Fifteen years ago, while working in Johannesburg as a student nurse, she fell pregnant after dating a student doctor for just three months. To put it delicately, it seems a too large condom slipped, and bingo! […]

The exhibition at South Africa’s National Gallery in Cape Town offers a spe= ctr um of insights into a troubled decade. JULIA TEAL reports LOOKING at the work presently on display at the South African National Gall= ery , there is an almost tangible sense of the weight that the institution carr= ies as one […]

Following the arrest of Dr Wouter Basson, SADF scientists are revealing det= ail s of its covert chemical programme, writes Peta Thornycroft SCIENTISTS involved in the development of chemical weapons by the former So= uth African Defence Force (SADF)have begun talking to authorities, giving deta= ils of the sale of chemical weapons technology to Libya […]

A group of Christian churches has launched a vigorous anti-halaal campaign, reports Jan Raath in Harare A POWERFUL right-wing Christian fundamentalist group in Zimbabwe has launched a campaign against the country’s modest Muslim community to halt what it believes is a “dangerous and violent” religion with its eyes on taking over the government on its […]

If a task team’s recommendations are adopted, the Cabinet will continue to decide behind closed doors to whom the arms industry sells. Marion Edmunds reports THE government plans to keep secret its most sensitive arms sales, such as the recent proposed Syrian arms deal, despite calls for greater transparency. A governmental task team will advise […]

Oliver McCall says God will be in his corner when he fights Lennox Lewis fo= r t he title. He may need him, says Kevin Mitchell HAVING been dropped on his head as a baby, Oliver McCall seems to have been= in a state of almost permanent, thumb-sucking belligerence ever since. This i= s a […]

Glynis O’Hara WHAT do you do when there are two radio stations with substantially the same format, both wanting a slice of the airwaves? Will it be overkill for listeners and too much competition for advertisers? Or should the discipline of the free market be left to sort out who will and who won’t survive? […]

Justin Arenstein AUTOCRATIC management and a failure to consult with affected rural communities is threatening Mpumalanga’s revolutionary attempts to make its conservation areas pay for themselves. It was with the future of its conservation areas in mind that the Mpumalanga Parks Board granted commercial management of its reserves, which are largely undeveloped and which cost […]

A founding editor of the Mail & Guardian, Anton Harber, is leaving the newspaper for radio, writes an M&G Reporter

Rehana Rossouw and Ann Eveleth AN obscure law dating back 169 years could cripple the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s (TRC) amnesty process, Cape Attorney General Frank Khan said this week, announcing that he will challenge a landmark ruling based on the law which was made this week in the Cape High Court. In what could […]

ATHLETICS:Julian Drew ONE of the most forlorn figures in the Centennial Olympic Stadium in Atlant= a l ast year was that of Adri de Jongh. Instead of enjoying the highlight of he= r c areer out on the track the Germiston-based 200 and 400m sprinter watched di= sco nsolately from the stands, her leg in […]

Gwen Ansell EVEN now, at 40, Andy Sheppard looks like the art student he never became. = His hair is spiky, his eyes focused on some distant, as-yet-unpainted, landsca= pe. What changed his 16-year-old life was the recordings of John Coltrane. Sud= den ly, he found his music – jazz – and his instrument, the […]

Despite Minister Sydney Mufamadi’s best intentions, police lawyers persisted in fighting another losing battle in court, with taxpayers footing the bill. Mungo Soggot reports RESIDENTS of a Cape Town squatter camp awaiting damages after police torched their homes in 1991 may finally see their money, following a last-minute decision by the police to drop their […]

Stuart Hess ‘HOW am I supposed to feed my children if the taps don’t work?” asked a young mother of two in Eldorado Park. “If there’s no water, how do I wash myself?” inquired a boy, adding that he had not bathed for two days. These were reactions by residents of Westbury, Riverlea and Eldorado […]

This week’s guest writer, Hein Marais, paid a visit to a private deportation centre near Johannesburg A COUPLE of kilometres outside Krugersdorp lives a town of ghosts. The winches that once hoisted gold ore to the surface of Randfontein rust in fields of long grass. Lining the main street are grimy, melancholic buildings. It’s hot, […]

KwaZulu-Natal has decided to close down its 2 000-odd illegal casinos and grant a few licences for big outfits. But the political wrangling is not over yet, reports Ann Eveleth PLAYERS jockeying for position in the highstakes game that is casino gambling in KwaZulu-Natal are finding themselves confronting powerful political and economic interests in the […]

Real stars take drugs, lose their looks and throw tantrums. But ‘Digital Hollywood’ can now make its own stars, writes Pat Kane SCI-FI writer William Gibson, the inventor of the term “cyberspace”, recently brought out a new novel about a digital woman – a computer-generated image – who gains an actual consciousness and wants to […]

Cutting wages is not an effective means to increasing employment, write Eddie Webster and Ian Macun CONTRARY to conventional wisdom the South African labour market is reasonably flexible. This is the conclusion reached by the South African Labour Flexibility Survey, conducted by the International Labour Organisation (ILO) and the Sociology of Work Unit of Wits […]

Jim Day HOSPITALS around the country are having trouble meeting the demand for abortions, largely due to reluctance on the part of staff to take part in the procedure. No one knows the exact number of medical professionals who have declined outright to help with abortions, but Helen Rees, respected director of the Reproductive Health […]

Mail & Guardian Reporter THE high drama of former superspy Craig Williamson’s appearance in the Pretoria Supreme Court this week was deflated by a pitiful divorce case. Just before Williamson’s case came up before Deputy Judge President Piet van der Walt, a man sporting a wavy hairstyle uncannily similar to that of former Civil Co-operation […]

PEOPLE AT THE EDGE Lesley Cowling WHO remembers Max Perkins? But I’ll bet you remember Hemingway, Fitzgerald and the host of other American writers he painstakingly nurtured until they achieved fame. Perkins is one of the forgotten people of the literary world, as most good editors are. Most sectors have these people, individuals whose role […]

Andrew Culf THE BBC has ordered a rethink of all its news programmes from Newsnight to Radio 4’s Today in a move which could herald significant changes for viewers and listeners. The programme strategy review is the biggest overhaul of the BBC’s news output for 10 years. It could lead to some shows being axed […]

Richard Brooks THE sister of pianist David Helfgott has mounted an extraordinary attack on= Sh ine, the critically acclaimed film which tells his life story. Margaret Hel= fgo tt, who lives in Israel, has sent a British newspaper a detailed account to= de monstrate that the portrayal of the relationship between her late father Pe= […]

TENNIS:Jon Swift IT is well, with the weekend’s Davis Cup World Group tie at Durban’s Westridge Park in view, to keep an eye on the quintessential cornerstone of the Russian psyche – hardship is not a new phenomenon, it is to be both expected and endured. The Russians go into the crucial five-match encounter suffering […]

James Rupert in Abidjan LIBERIANS who have fought a civil war for seven years hurried last week to hand over guns and bullets to a peacekeeping force before a deadline for warring factions to disarm. The last-minute rush raised some hopes – the most substantial in years – that a peace plan is making real […]

Tangeni Amupadhi NATIONAL Police Commissioner George Fivaz’s warning this week that members of his force must shape up or ship out has caught even his most senior officers by surprise. In inquiries to provincial police commissioners around the country, the Mail & Guardian learned that they had been informed of the shakeup at the same […]