Staff Reporter

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

the poor Ros Coward in London Madagascar, former colony and popular tourist destination, is close to an epidemic of the Black Death – 187 cases have been diagnosed in one city, after the collapse of organised rubbish collection was followed by a plague of rats. In the 1960s, Madagascar was a confident country with a […]

Marion Edmunds Angola’s peace process needs to be extended by two to three months to give Uniaco Nacional para a (Unita) and Movimento Popular de Libertacao de Angola (MPLA) leaders more time to negotiate Jonas Savimbi’s role in the Angolan government, said Freedom Front leader General Constand Viljoen, after a meeting with Savimbi mid- week. […]

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 […]

Benoni boy Philip Holiday has hit boxing’s big time with his recent win over Ivan Robinson BOXING: Gavin Evans Quiet Benoni boy Philip Holiday has suddenly emerged as one of the heavy hitters – financially speaking – among the lightweights of world boxing. He raised the stakes in his division with his emphatic points win […]

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 […]

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 […]

Jacquie Golding-Duffy IN its report last month, the task group on government communications (Comtask), set up by Deputy President Thabo Mbeki, urged government departments to improve relations with the media and ensure speedy responses to queries. I can assure you that the Media Mad column, which appears regularly on the Antenna pages, received no speedy […]

“Barney, please! Resign! You’re incapable of doing the job! ” – Dennis Davis t o Barney Pityana, chairman of the Human Rights Commission “Johannesburg is a jungle. The problem in Beirut is political, not criminal .. . I feel much safer in Beirut than in Johannesburg.” – Lebanese ambassador Ch arbel Stephan, victim of an […]

SOCCER: Andrew Muchineripi South African soccer moves into the new year with one goal eclipsing all others ‘ qualification for the 1998 World Cup finals in France. After comfortably disposing of Malawi in a preliminary tie, the African Nations Cup holders found Zaire a very different proposition in Johannesburg during November. The Leopards from Central […]

The woes of South Africa’s sex workers suggest that a virginal Richard Branson boobed when he chose a brothel to launch a new product, writes Jacquie Goldin g-Duffy British billionaire Richard Branson seemed to show a fine sense of irony – whe ther intentionally, or not – when he came out to South Africa earlier […]

Eddie Koch The Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) went into its Christmas recess a fter a one-year performance that was “quite remarkable compared to other truth -seeking processes around the world”, says an international expert. Priscilla Hayner, an international researcher writing a book on truth commiss ions in various parts of the world, says it […]

Marion Edmunds reports on an old man who runs a pharmacy which occupies the ho ttest piece of undeveloped property in Camps Bay. But he’s not selling HE is not selling at any price. Not his pharmacy nor the fittings nor his flat above – although he is regularly pestered by developers. They’re willing to […]

The newly appointed SABC board has a harder task than its predecessors, warn media industry observers: to salvage the broadcaster from the brink of bankruptcy. The SABC will also have to improve its programme content and deliver audiences as promised if it wants advertisers to convince their clients to use it as a viable advertising […]

Jan Taljaard THE full realisation of what the changes in the country mean has finally hit h ome to the right wing, says Henk van de Graaf, editor of the Conservative Part y mouthpiece, Die Patriot. Thus “more than anything else, 1996 has been a year of reflection” – a quiet y ear for the […]

The Mail & Guardian’s third annual politicians’ report-card comes halfway thro ugh the Government of National Unity’s term of office – the ideal time to make a rigorous assessment of the performance of each individual Cabinet minister. This year, we have formed a five-person panel of experts: Wilmot James, execut ive director of the Institute […]

WEB FEET Notes from the Net At the end of 1995, Newsweek ran a front cover declaring the previous 12 months “The Year of the Internet”. If that was a true reflection of the impact made by the Net in ’95, then they will have run out of ways to describe 1996, so much more […]

Thomas Khoza (above), former R15-a-month farmboy from Warmbaths, is a musician who busks on the streets of Johannesburg’s Yeoville. He was a pikinin carrying a white man’s lunch bag underground at Cooke 3 Secti on of the Randfontein gold mines when he was shot and severely wounded in a mi ner’s strike on Christmas Eve […]

President Nelson Mandela and Graa Machel, the widow of the late Mozambican pre sident Samora Machel, have been involved in a very public relationship. Kingsl ey Makhubela, chief of state visits in Mandela’s office and M-Net presenter Do reen Morris are expected to tie the knot in the near future. South African rug by wing […]

South Africa’s 1996 athletic achievements came about largely despite, rather than because of, the country’s athletics administration Athletics: Julian Drew Looking back on 1996, one might be inclined to regard it as a particularly successful year for the sport of athletics in South Africa. Gold and silver both bore the South African hallmark at the […]

Capetonian Nathan Zeno doesn’t recognise the seasons by the weather. He relies on esoteric signals THE Cape Town of summer is not the same as the Cape Town of winter. This may seem obvious to those who don’t live here. Otherwise we would be besieged all year by all of you. But it’s not just […]

Scientists made a giant leap this year in understanding the HIV virus, which u ncannily changes itself as it invades human bodies, writesLesley Cowling It’s taken more than a decade of concentrated study by thousands of scientists all over the world to begin to understand how HIV operates. Part of the probl em is that […]

This year, the Environmental Justice Networking Forum has come into its own, r eports Eddie Koch When Chris Albertyn was travelling around the country with a team of environme ntalists to research a new policy paper last year, he met Kraai van Niekerk, f ormer minister of agriculture, in Cape Town. Said Kraai: “You people […]

King Goodwill Zwelithini’s palaces cost a fortune to maintain, but what, asks Ann Eveleth, is to be done? KING Goodwill Zwelithini’s financial affairs appear likely to come under close r scrutiny in coming months as the Inkatha Freedom Party tightens the screws i n a renewed effort to bring the monarch to heel. Efforts by […]

Julia Grey Seeing barefoot, shivering urchins begging on a cold winter’s night is not unu sual. What was unusual on that particular July night in 1995 was that my frien d Lee and I didn’t blindly breeze past them, or dismiss them with a 50c piece. Instead, we spoke to them as children. Stanley (7), […]

Media Mad President Nelson Mandela is seen by his presidential aides as Superman Which television programmes do you watch most often and why? The news bulletins in the various languages – depending on time and availability. Which book have you read recently that you would recommend? Not much time to read. When 1999 arrives, there […]

Greg Bowes It’s a rare pleasure these days to come across electronic music that isn’t bound to the latest dance floor fad or the newest pre-set sounds. In a market thoroughly saturated with soulless imitations of the last hit formula there are fortunately some techno pioneers who see past the music-by-numbers scenario. Because machines like […]

Mail & Guardian writers, photographers and cartoonists produced prolifically t his year – and won a number of awards You Have Been Warned (Viking), written by Mail & Guardian co-founder Irwin Man oim, covers the newspaper’s first turbulent decade. l Zapiro, aka Jonathan Shapiro, published Zapiro – The Madiba Years (David Phi lip), a collection […]

The Mail & Guardian’s Reporters take a look at some of the people who’ve been in the news – but whose fame has faded Former arts and culture minister Ben Ngubane was plucked out of his efficient national ministry after the Inkatha Freedom Party’s July conference to bolster the party’s provincial stakes. In keeping with […]

‘I am not made to report on the Truth and Reconciliation Commission,’ writes A ntjie Krog, who has been reporting on it for months. That job takes an awful toll The word truth makes me uncomfortable.mmmmmnAs recently as last week I had to do several retakes of a voice report for radio, because – after […]