Staff Reporter

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

While 1996 was in many ways the year of big business, there is still space in South Africa for the little person … David Shapshak AT the end of every working day, as commuters stream out of Johannesburg’s cit y centre, Sewlinali Ngwenya packs pots of face cream and bottles of washing-up liquid into a […]

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), […]

“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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

TENNIS:Jon Swift The revival of tennis has proved in a sporting season just what this country is capable of. From a base of minus zero a short time ago, the game has regenerated and is on the path back. The internal wranglings and factionalism — witness the unsavoury squabbles about the national manager at the […]

Criminal sanction: Fighting crime is at the forefront of everybody’s minds – s ome do it with thepolice, while some have decided to go it alone Rehana Rossouw Father Christopher Clohesy’s life is filled with contradictions: he’s a white man but lives in destitute Mitchell’s Plain in Cape Town; he’s a supporter of Gun Free […]

the cultural year The best and the worst of the continuity presenters PLENTY happened in SABC television this year. We had a relaunch with an unwieldy Jumbo jet and some awkward, second-grade, politically-correct United States TV actors. Felicia Mabuza Suttle looked pleased with herself. Stevie Wonder was asked to comment on the quality of South […]

cricket: Jon Swift South African cricketers can truly be said to be in the process of charting new waters. To understand this, what goes on behind the scenes must be considered. The most public changes are in personnel at national and provincial levels. Less obvious are the growth of the development programme and the ongoing […]

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 […]

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 […]

Vusi Mona Allegations that teachers are not being adequately included in discussions aro und South Africa’s new school curriculum, but are instead being caught up in c ommittees and bureaucracy, are dogging the vital rewriting process. The new curriculum, expected to be launched at the end of January, will be pha sed in by January […]

Madeleine Wackernagel Sometimes it does not pay to take advice. Everyone I asked upon arriving in Johannesburg recommended I exchange my travellers’ cheques immediately; little did I know I could have virtually doubled my money 10 months later. And as the rand continued to fall and economic gloom set in, the question I often heard […]

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 Mpumalanga Parks Board is desperately trying to rescue its ‘theme resort’ deal, reports Justin Arenstein DESPITE mounting public opposition and the discovery that there are gazetted land claims on some of the key conservation areas promised to the Dubai-based Dolphin Group, the Mpumalanga Parks Board denied on Thursday that their R12,2-billion deal was in […]

Stuart Hess The new head of the Department of Health’s HIV/Aids/sexually-transmitted diseases (STD) directorate has vowed to kickstart the organisation’s stumbling campaign, pursuing a strategy based on greater co-operation within the government. Rosemary Smart, a 48-year old former nurse, was appointed to the post on December 12 ‘ some six months after her predecessor Quarraisha […]

Magic Johnson and his ‘All Star Team are in South Africa to do more than ‘just play basketball Basketball: Julian Drew t’s in his smile. It’s a happy, spontaneous, infectious smile, an inherent response to the joys of living. It has always been that way for Earvin ‘Magic’ Johnson. Ever since he burst on to […]

DANCE: Andrew Wilson When you open the cupboard and Christmas comes tumbling out again this year, and you’ve had it with tinsel and tides of Santa Clauses, get to the dance factory at the Newtown Precinct for a double tot of the real thing, where over forty inner-city primary school children from Fairview to Fordsburg […]

Archbischop Desmond Tutu, as chairman of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, is recently reported to have issued a decree to commission members to act impartially. Among the commissioners who are reported to have been cautioned are Denzil Potgieter and Khoza Menojo. Ironically neither of these commissioners were nominated by interested parties according to nomination procedures […]

Rehana Rossouw ‘I HAVE never been so satisfied with a job well done as I was today,’ said Tito Mboweni, minister of labour and African National Congress troubleshooter hours after witnessing the swearing-in of South Africa’s first woman premier, Dr Ivy Matsepe-Casaburri, this week. Round one went to Mboweni. Round two takes place in February, […]

Ann Eveleth The special amnesty mooted for KwaZulu-Natal may help African National Congress chairman Jacob Zuma’s bid for the party’s deputy presidency, but the idea is still highly controversial within ANC ranks. ANC leaders say details of the proposal to grant a special amnesty to KwaZulu-Natal’s warlords has not been discussed by either the party’s […]

Despite all the odds ‘against him, Andre Markgraaff’s Springboks have scored the points Rugby: Barney Spender Remember all those headlines eight weeks ago? The shock, the anger, the emotional outrage from pundits and public alike? The botched television announcement of the Springbok touring party? The absence of Francois Pienaar, the inclusion of Theo Oosthuizen, the […]

Your front-page headline ‘Top firms in huge medical aid scam’ (December 13 to 19) is not really news. The whole medical aid business is one huge scam. Why should anyone be forced to help pay for the sleeping-pill and Prozac addictions of others? And why should anyone have to pay for the consequences of the […]

William Kentridge’s new multi-media production will employ Alfred Jarry’s despicable Ubu. HAZELFRIEDMAN spoke to him He is the grotesque personification of human greed and ignorance. And now, 100 years after his theatrical birth in Europe with the unforgettable Merdre (shite) Ubu, the scandalous creation of 19th century poet Alfred Jarry has been adopted by South […]

Funny how a lot of people are commenting on the decision by President Nelson Mandela, himself a victim of gross human rights abuses and a former political prisoner, to give diplomatic recognition to Beijing, which has such a poor record ‘ especially as regards dissent. Now suddenly the ANC is being seen to be putting […]

After years of civil war, Mozambique’s hydro-electric plant is being refurbished for R575-million. Max Gebhardt reports For nearly 12 years, as civil war ravaged our eastern neighbour, five massive hydro-electric generators, with the power to light up a small city, have been sitting idle ‘ waiting for the moment when they could return to operation. […]