Staff Reporter

Gustav Thiel A leading British bookmaker, William Hill, is betting on Cape Town as the site for the 2004 Olympic at the very generous odds of 6 to 4, followed by Rome with 2 to 1. However, the international magazine Sports Business puts Cape Town in third place, behind Rome and Stockholm. The International Olympic […]

Stephen Gray WOZA SHAKESPEARE!: Titus Andronicus in South Africa by Antony Sher and Gregory Doran (Methuen, R130) THERE is a fine South African exclamation to express human sympathy – “ag shame”. Said with a certain tone, it also means “look what you deserve!” Here are poor Tony and Greg, mounting their big Shakespeare number in […]

redundancies THE Education Ministry is struggling to determine whether its drive to reshape state schooling has achieved much more than lose South Africa thousands of experienced state teachers and unnerve those who remain. Pressure is growing on the ministry -even from its own officials – to rethink the programme, which is supposed to redeploy teachers […]

HAZEL FRIEDMAN finds out why the work of local art guru, the late Neil Goedhals, is hanging in Johannesburg finds out why t THE life and death of Johannesburg artist Neil Goedhals inspired as much myth-making as his work inspired emulation. Six years after his death, his memory and the legacy he bequeathed to a […]

The land of the sinking yen is in economic crisis. Keith Harper in Tokyo asks what’s going wrong JAPAN’S emergence as an economic superpower, second only to the United States, had been – until the 1990s – one of this century’s most dramatic changes in the global pecking order. But as the yen soared to […]

Joseph Hanlon PEACE has not brought prosperity to Mozambique. Four years after the end of the civil war, the poorest country in the world is growing poorer. The reason is that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has ruled that annual inflation must be brought below 15%t before there can be significant post-war reconstruction. This policy […]

Leon de Kock The Road Out by Dan Wylie (Snailpress, R34) Dan Wylie is one of those hopeless romantics whose CVs include, as a matter of necessity, extended detours into solitary, footloose travelling, shunting, ship- crewing and intermittent writing. Eventually these voyagers return to one of the points of departure, get a job teaching or […]

This week, Vida Heard was given a government payment of R46 000 more than 50 years after the disappearance of her husband, George. He was the Rand Daily Mail’s political correspondent and a Sunday Times columnist before enlisting in the navy. Their son, Anthony Heard, remembers his father … In September 1939 South Africa entered […]

Gustav Thiel The avalanche of sightseers and tourists wanting to visit Robben Island could result in permanent damage to the marine environment on the island. This warning comes from the island’s temporary administrator, Professor Andre Odendaal, and the Victoria & Alfred Waterfront’s harbour master Bill Shewell. Odendaal said he was working on a tight schedule […]

The South African cricket authorities are to be congratulated for their achievements with regard both to the victories of Hansie Cronje’s men against India in the present series and the development of the game as a truly national sport. But if our cricketers are showing the way where both sporting prowess and racial integration are […]

The culture in the newly integrated army is still white, causing widespread racial problems. Rehana Rossouw reports AT least four soldiers in the South African National Defence Force are currently being court-martialed on charges of alleging that their commanding officer was racist. The prosecutions appear to reflect widespread race problems in the newly integrated SA […]

Robots are efficient workers who don’t get bored, don’t ask for a pay rise and don’t want your job. Or do they? Sue Nelson reports Does the future belong to humans or machines? Science fiction usually portrays robots as inheriting the Earth but, in contrast to these ominous forecasts, most scientists predict mutual and helpful […]

Mungo Soggot The privatisation of Sun Air is galloping ahead, with the Transport Department set to interview on Friday advisers who will start work on Monday. The shortlist of three possible advisers for the R200-million airline sale comprises banking group Investec, a partnership between investment bank BoE NatWest and Johannesburg law firm Moseneke & Partners, […]

The Dolphin Group has put together a deal that not only includes Mpumalanga’s prime resorts, but could also be at public expense, reports Justin Arenstein The Mpumalanga government has handed over its main natural assets to an unknown foreign company and has promised not to talk about the deal for 50 years. The contract which […]

Rupert Murdoch is way ahead of his media competition. Henry Porter wonders if anybody realises his power IN Full Disclosure, Andrew Neil’s telling account of his life as a Murdoch editor, he reveals that Rupert Murdoch’s presence is so strong in News International that he appears to his executives in their dreams. It’s a pity […]

Andrew Meldrum in Matandele, Zimbabwe SURROUNDED by government ministers and tribal chiefs, Sinqobile Mabhena appears a model of female subservience as she bows her head and modestly lowers her eyes. But this demure 23-year-old has rocked Zimbabwe’s traditional culture by becoming one of the first women to take on the powerful mantle of tribal chief. […]

Marion Edmunds Pragmatism has defeated romance at Villiera Wine Estate just outside Stellenbosch, where wine-maker Jeff Grier has swapped natural corks for synthetic stoppers to seal his cheaper bottles of wine. While some wine aficionados have decried the move as a tragedy for South African wine drinkers, others are praising Grier for bravery. They are […]

Two key media figures are at each other’s throats prior to the truth commission’s probe into the press, writes Jacquie Golding-Duffy The Freedom of Expression Institute and its chair, Raymond Louw, have come under fire for volunteering to assist the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) in its investigation of the media. The Black Editors Forum […]

Despite a bad week, Bafana Bafana remain confident of a successful game against Zambia SOCCER: Andrew Muchineripi It has not been a good week for the South African World Cup soccer squad with Clive Barker in hospital, Helman Mkhalele nursing an ankle injury and Mark Fish flying back to Rome instead of Lusaka. But disappointing […]

Thousands of children have been recruited into a fearful army that claims inspiration from God, reports Anna Borzello in Gulu, Uganda IN northern Uganda, villagers do their best to follow the 11 commandments of Joseph Kony, altar-boy turned born-again guerrilla whose Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) is terrorising the countryside. The first 10 are as given […]

The Soweto String Quartet’s second album, Renaissance, is set to rocket the ensemble to international fame, writes GLYNIS O’HARA RIGHT now we’re living through South Africa’s Renaissance, say the Soweto String Quartet. “It’s in all aspects of life. It’s an awakening, a rebirth, as well as in the redefining of South African arts. Europe had […]

The proposed special deal for KwaZulu-Natal is a serious threat to the rule of law, says deputy chair Alex Boraine. Ann Eveleth reports KwaZulu-Natal’s “special amnesty” proposal would undermine the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s current amnesty process, promote a culture of impunity and pose a serious threat to the rule of law, the commission’s deputy […]

A senior South African journalist tells the story of how, as a young reporter in the apartheid era, he was delegated to act as a guide to Eartha Kitt, showing her around Cape Town. The reporter (white) was sitting in the back seat of a chauffeur-driven car with the great singer, lecturing her on the […]

Justin Arenstein The Mpumalanga Parks Board (MPB) has signed an agreement with a foreign conglomerate that contractually obliges it to support the full listing of the commercial rights to some of South Africa’s prime environmental assets on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE). Assets include the second-biggest canyon in the world, Blyde River Canyon, South Africa’s […]

Jimmy and Louise Warner, both 53, are about to start new careers. He will work from their Rondebosch home for Cape estate agents Steer & Co, and she will help with the typing. In Eldorado Park, Johannesurg, Anthony Swartz (50) is also starting afresh, going into a business which he doesn’t want to talk about […]

DESIGN: Hazel Friedman THE undisputed winner of the Mail & Guardian’s Not the Pirelli Calendar Prize for 1997 is the calendar put out by the women’s support group, Powa (People Opposing Women Abuse). A collaborative project between the organisation and the Fine Arts Department at the University of the Witwatersrand, the calendarconsists of provocative images […]

Our critics look at movies to be produced in South Africa this year, and the most hyped of the international releases Andrew Worsdale THIS year promises to be the brightest in years for South Africa’s film industry, with loads of movies in development and several sure to see their first day of shooting some time […]

National Parks Board CE Robbie Robinson has chosen to retire on a matter that could split the board, reports Anita Allen The imminent departure of Dr Robbie Robinson as chief executive means that the 17-member National Parks Board is going to be put to the test. Not only does it have to choose a successor […]

Golf: Jon Swift It is one of the inevitable facts that, having placed the focus on making the FNB Tour part of the European Circuit, that the major focus on professional golf will centre on three weeks in February. In truth, there is little else that the South African PGA could have done but to […]

THE first time I saw a Gibson Kente production was some time in the 1970s. Instead of dispatching my siblings and me to grandmother for their night out, my parents decided to take us along to the theatre. The play was called I Believe. I recall the name of the play; of the plot I […]

turbojav ATHLETICS: Julian Drew Africa has never won a medal at Olympic or world championship level in the throwing events. Some theorists – no doubt from the same school of thought which once asserted African physiology was not suited to running – have claimed that this is as a result of anatomical differences. The exploits […]

Stefaans BrUmmer investigates the suspects behind the Worcester and Rustenburg blasts The Boere Aanvalstroepe (Bat), which claimed responsibility for the Worcester and Rustenburg bomb attacks, appears to link directly to the Afrikaner Weerstandsbeweging. AWB leader Eugene Terre’Blanche this week told the Mail & Guardian in an interview that Bat consisted of members of his organisation, […]