Staff Reporter

A unique project has ‘saved a little girl from a lifetime in hospital, reports Marion Edmunds The evil has for once been taken out of Ondine’s Curse, thanks to a determined mother and the Red Cross Children’s Hospital in Cape Town. They have saved a ‘cursed’ toddler from life in a hospital ward. On Wednesday, […]

Joshua Amupadhi The University of the North has appointed a commission of inquiry to investigate a long-running feud at its Unin Qwa Qwa campus, which came to a head last week when three lecturers exchanged blows. The commission comes more than a year after students, workers and lecturers first demanded independent investigations into allegations of […]

Subsidy cuts to tertiary education institutions are far more serious than they at first appear, argues ‘Brenda Gourley, vice-chancellor of the University of Natal (Durban) There has been a great deal of news coverage about the subsidy and financial-aid cuts to universities. Organisations all over the world suffer reverses of fortune and trim their sails […]

Charl Blignaut SAY what you like about the Tevin Campbell concert at the Standard Bank arena in Johannesburg last weekend, the highlight of the evening had to be the crowd. Mingling at the slightly tame Radio Metro bash beforehand (I mean, what radio station hangs banners saying ‘Where the music talks’ and then doesn’t play […]

Chris McGreal in Johannesburg Foreign envoys attempting to bring an end to the civil war in Burundi believe it may be about to invade Tanzania to hit Hutu rebel bases which have swollen with fighters driven from eastern Zaire. Officials fear Burundi’s overwhelmingly Tutsi army will strike into Tanzania before long in an attempt to […]

Do you think there is a significant difference between this on the one hand: ‘Minister suggests that this movement must be broken and the police must perhaps act a bit more drastically and hard-handedly which would bring with it more deaths’, and this on the other hand: ‘Minister suggests that this movement must be broken […]

Police claim that a commander tried to get serious charges dropped against relatives, reports Angella Johnson Fresh evidence of police involvement in top crime syndicates emerged this week with allegations that Charlie Landman, suspended acting commander of the Brixton Murder and Robbery Unit, has close links with two brothers said to be among South Africa’s […]

Anthoni van Nieuwkerk In 1996, South Africa’s international relations went on a roller-coaster ride. The country’s multi-lateral approach to global affairs produced a number of successes, the high point of which was probably in April, when South Africa hosted the ninth meeting of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development. Also significant is the […]

A former commander ‘of the notorious unit has ‘been promoted to lead ‘the SANDF, reports ‘Ann Eveleth A FORMER commander of 32 Battalion, the crack unit recently linked to train violence, is set to take over the South African National Defence Force’s KwaZulu-Natal operations. Colonel Jan Houghardt ended his stint in South Africa’s dirty wars […]

There were stories to remember and some that editors just wanted to forget. Jacquie Golding-Duffy reports on the highs and lows in the media industry This was certainly an eventful year for the print media, with several editors admitting to a series of high notes as well as major booboos. While some editors had inaccurate […]

An exhibition of mostly linocut prints celebrating the new Bill of Rights opened in Durban last week. SUZY BELL reports After trampling over every single clause of the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights during the apartheid era, it’s fitting that South Africans can finally express their newly found freedom in art, by celebrating the […]

As the fight for the commercial TV licence heats ‘up, bidders are closing their doors to the press. ‘Gillian Farquhar and Jacquie Golding-Duffy report Bids have already begun for the commercial television licence to be awarded by the Independent Broadcasting Authority (IBA), but most contenders are shrouding their plans in secrecy as the race heats […]

Nick Varley HE IS one of the most fearsome men on earth, reared on boxing in the Bronx. She grew up in splendour, but has had a miserable time of late ‘ all that family squabbling and those tax demands. Now Queen Elizabeth II of England is to meet Mike Tyson, ex-convict and ex-heavyweight champion […]

Iden Wetherell in Harare Despite growing demands in Zimbabwe for political reform, President Robert Mugabe has declared that his ruling Zanu-PF party will continue to take precedence over Parliament as far as governing the country goes. Mugabe slapped down members of Parliament who had been calling for change ahead of last weekend’s Zanu-PF conference held […]

CHARL BLIGNAUT shares lunch and ideas with Robert Hodgins, man of vision and painter extraordinaire ‘BETWEEN 12.30 and 3pm I paint in my underpants or not at all,’ says 76-year-old artist Robert Hodgins of the heat that, throughout summer, converts his makeshift outdoor studio into a sweltering greenhouse. Pretty apt, the greenhouse, I decide after […]

BOXING: Gavin Evans Philip Holiday has always been the bridesmaid of South African boxing. He’s the nice fella who’s historical role is to give a brave showing before making the way for one deemed worthy, like Jan Bergman or Dingaan Thobela. So far though, it has to be said that young Flippie, as they call […]

JDFJones LAURENS van der Post, who has died aged 90, was a man of many achievements. He was an Afrikaner and, by long residence and cultural familiarity, also a European. He had been a soldier ‘ and a prisoner of war who discovered and preached forgiveness for his enemies. He was a farmer who became […]

GLYNIS O’HARA does a ‘vastrap’ with Boereqanga’s Nico Carstens NICO CARSTENS, once the darling of boeremusiek, subsequently an outcast, has been staging a quiet comeback over the last few years through his work with the likes of Ray Phiri, Johannes Kerkorrel, and now boereqanga. It’s absolutely amazing what a nifty little name can do because […]

* Jackie McLean / Junko Onishi: Hat Trick (Blue Note) Forget pretty young sax players sporting an earring or two. At 64 Jackie McLean is still playing with that same mixture of love, pain and fuck-you defiance which characterised his performances in the early Sixties. Three decades on, he has many more life songs to […]

Bronwen Jones The triumvirate of car hire power is set to be broken with the re-emergence of international rival Hertz into the overcrowded South African market in 1997, but industry insiders already expect the company to tout the same prices as current leaders Budget, Avis and Imperial. Nicola, who answers the toll-free line at Avis, […]

Benjamin Pogrund COSTA GAZIDES has travelled a long political road from the days when, 32 years ago, he was charged alongside Braam Fischer with membership of the underground Communist Party, to last weekend when he was a delegate to the Pan Africanist Congress conference. The Sharpeville killings in 1960 were a first turning point in […]

In December 1959 Benjamin Pogrund covered a PAC conference in Orlando for the Rand Daily Mail. Now he reports on the latest PAC conference SHORTLY after 1am last Monday the Pan Africanist Congress was transformed from a dying no-hoper into an organisation of spirit and potential. The dramatic change came with the announcement at its […]

Mail & Guardian Reporter THE Transvaal Bench will be on the light side next year after the Judicial Services Commission last week rejected five of the seven candidates gunning for the division’s four vacancies. The commission selected only two of the applicants: Ivor Schwartzman, SC, and S Snyders, SC, who will become the division’s third […]

Ann Eveleth Three former KwaZulu-Natal security policemen have applied to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) for amnesty, the commission’s chief investigator said this week. TRC investigator Satchie Govender confirmed reports that former Durban security policemen Colonel Andy Taylor and Captain Tjaart Fourie ‘ now with the TRC’s Witness Protection Unit ‘ and Pietermaritzburg policeman […]

Would court action to prevent the recent tax amnesty ‘succeed? Our legal columnist thinks not The government has again extended its tax amnesty to non-payers. In essence, this is an invitation to people who have not paid tax, for various lengths of time and often ever, to come forward and put themselves inside the taxation […]

Almost a quarter of a ‘million rand intended for ‘the poor was allegedly diverted by Allan Boesak. ‘Stefaans Br’mmer and Rehana Rossouw report AMONG the 30-odd charges faced by former African National Congress Cape leader Allan Boesak when he appears in court next year is that his foundation misappropriated a donation of almost a quarter […]

A junior mining group is boldly entering the ‘mining majors’ territory. Bronwen Jones reports MINING company Metorex normally keeps a low profile, but its bold moves as the only South African junior to tender and pre-qualify for the Zambia Consolidated Copper Mines’ privatisation mark it out as unusual. With a stack of tender documents piled […]

Angella Johnson A GANG of con artists has ripped off senior citizens to the tune of hundreds of thousands of rands after accosting them in shopping centres and offering to double their savings instantly. Police say they are baffled that so many old people have fallen prey to the scam in Gauteng, the Free State […]

ART: Dennis Mair At the Sluice event, what started out as bits of plastic and hose pipe transformed into an interactive art experience for the masses. The group of young artists got their shit together last week and mutated the B-Block at the Castle of Good Hope into a pleasure ride for anyone to absorb. […]

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 […]

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 […]