Staff Reporter

As tertiary education cuts loom, University of the North lecturers feud and Wits’s June Sinclair departs Disadvantaged students could continue to be left out, report Joshua Amupadhi and Stuart Hess Thousands of school-leavers hoping to further their studies next year could find themselves on the streets following the government’s drastic cut in bursaries. A string […]

Anthony Egan TREKKING: In Search of the Real South Africa ‘by Denis Beckett ‘(Penguin, R59,99) One of the (few) popular and quality local television programmes currently showing is the quirky, opinionated, sometimes angry but always watchable Beckett’s Trek. Ajournalist with attitude, Denis Beckett takes often all-too-close looks at the realities and foibles of contemporary South […]

Joshua Amupadhi WITS University Deputy Vice-Chancellor for Student Affairs June Sinclair is to leave the administration at the end of this month, after failing in her bid to win the most powerful office on the campus. Sinclair, defeated in October in the contest to be Wits’ next vice-chancellor, said this week she would not ask […]

TELEVISION: Andrew Worsdale All you film-makers out there! Dust off those old video-cassettes and film reels ‘ the SABC might buy them. The three-part series Matchbox City plays on SABC3 at 9.45pm on Sunday December 22. Matchbox City was initiated in 1990 by left-wing group Free Filmmakers as a hands-on training project for its stable […]

James Meek in Moscow MOST Muscovites, cynical by nature, suspected the giant billboards were a trick to make them buy something they did not want. Others saw the adverts, featuring a beautiful woman gazing adoringly at all and sundry with the message ‘I love you’, as the latest wheeze by the mayor, Yuri Luzhkov, to […]

Ann Eveleth With the first anniversary of last year’s Christmas Day floods in Pietermaritzburg looming, much remains to be done to prevent a repeat of the tragedy that cost 169 lives and left nearly 6 000 families homeless. And the National Disaster Relief Fund, which has already spent its R14,7-million budget for the year, will […]

Following revelations of irregularities at a Cape medical ‘aid company, the Department of Health plans to fight corruption in the industry, writes Marion Edmunds The Department of Health is planning a crackdown on corruption in the billion-rand medical insurance industry, introducing strict new laws and policing as a priority next year. Sources say last week’s […]

STEPHEN GRAYoffers his own view of the late Sir Laurens van der Post ‘And so there then I stood on the night of 21 August 1945, in the street in Bandoeng where my book The Night of the New Moon ended …’ ‘As I stood there watching my men …’ Because I had skipped the […]

Bafana Khumalo ONE of the most enduring images I have of Hugh Masekela is that of stocky man surrounded by a band, hand raised and confronting an audience of rowdy revellers who would rather be sitting at a shebeen regaling each other with stories of sexual conquest than listening to jazz music. This would sometimes […]

Marion Edmunds THE National Party is not interested in recruiting African National Congress renegade Bantu Holomisa, says NP deputy secretary general David Malatsi, as he is on his way down. “He is not on our recruitment list,” he told the Mail & Guardian. “Personally, I am suspicious of his staying in power because to be […]

The bail system being applied by KwaZulu- Natal courts is contributing to a rise in political tension, reports Ann Eveleth INKATHA Freedom Party leader Biva Nkwenyana appeared in court last month in connection with three separate murder cases – including one allegedly committed after his first court appearance – but he is still out on […]

African radio is switching from being a vehicle of the state to one of commercial enterprise. Peter van den Akker reports A TAXI driver called Antwi, in Ghana’s capital Accra, roars with laughter. “She is a sugar mammy herself!” he exclaims, and to get his message across to his passengers, he points repeatedly to the […]

Controversy surrounds the killings at a platinum mine near Rustenburg last weekend. Joshua Amupadhi reports EVERY man was “a potential corpse” when violence spread last weekend near a Rustenburg platinum mine, resulting in the death of 32 men. Mine worker Solly Kokone, who was enjoying a mug of beer when the fighting began, told the […]

Tic Tic Bang has shown that there is room for competition in the local music industry. Glynis O’Hara reports TWO idealistic young men, who loved what South Africans might call alternatief (alternative) music, have proven that being big in the distribution business is not necessarily better. Anybody who knows anything about the music industry will […]

Applications for amnesty from the the PAC and ANC are pouring in to the truth commission, and with a likely extension of the cut-off date right-wingers will also be able to apply, writes Eddie Koch PRESIDENT Nelson Mandela is expected to cap a week of dramatic developments around the truth commission by announcing on Friday […]

Pro Sano, the third-largest medical aid scheme in the country, has run up R90- million losses and now faces serious charges of bribery and corruption. Marion Edmunds and Mungo Soggot report A TOP medical aid scheme for public servants is on the verge of collapse, racked by financial mismanagement and corruption allegedly involving leading insurance […]

Can a picture sell a thousand songs? GWEN ANSELL reports on the makeshift state of South African CD cover design, and some fresh new ideas ITS enemies claim that South African mass- market pop all sounds the same. Even its fans can’t deny that it all looks the same. Check out the serried ranks of […]

Mail & Guardian Reporter IT appears some unusually colourful curricula vitae have been thrown at the Judicial Services Commission which is selecting new permanent judges in Cape Town this week. In his enthusiasm for a seat on the Bench, one of the applicants, Solly Sithole of the University of the North, apparently flagged some of […]

Jacquie Golding-Duffy scrutinises the credentials of the newly appointed South African Broadcasting Corporation board members THE appointment of members to the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) board has been finalised, with President Nelson Mandela rubberstamping 16 of the 21 names submitted. But only five of the successful candidates seem to have specialist media experience, while […]

Lynda Loxton THE increased globalisation of the world economy is expected to have wide-ranging effects on both investors and consumers, Old Mutual International Asset Managers economic strategist Nigel Morgan said this week. Briefing journalists on his latest Market Focus, Morgan outlined why the kind of “neo- liberal” policies detested by Cosatu and others were needed […]

Former Robben Island prisoners are bitter at not being consulted about its development, reports Rehana Rossouw FORMER Robben Island prisoners have slammed their leadership for excluding them from plans to transform the island into a monument celebrating the struggle against apartheid. They claim promises that they would benefit from the island’s development have not been […]

Many South African companies still appear to be awarding their executives increases way above the rate of inflation. Max Gebhardt reports SOUTH AFRICAN captains of industry have yet again rewarded themselves pay increases far above the rate of inflation. While calling on unions and employees to “take the pain” for the good of the economy, […]

A retrospective of Jrgen Schadeberg’s work over the last 40 years confirms his enduring photographic eye. HAZEL FRIEDMAN spoke to him IT takes a strange kind of eye to be able to see life constantly through a lens — a kind of nomadic outsider-looking-inside perspective and a remarkable degree of detached curiosity. Not to mention […]

Contenders for Gauteng’s only medium wave licence are eagerly awaiting the IBA’s decision, reports Jacquie Golding-Duffy THE Independent Broadcasting Authority (IBA) faces a tough decision as the time draws near for it to award the single medium wave (MW) licence up for grabs in Gauteng. According to an IBA representative, the licence for Gauteng will […]

ART: Suzy Bell THE entire Victorian and Foreign collection should be sold,” said Andrew Verster with panache. “What?” shrieked the British Empire, “Has the man gone quite mad?” Certainly not. But have you walked into The “Pink Victorian Room” or “The Circular Gallery” lately? It reeks of colonialism — and we’re not just talking about […]

Glynis O’Hara THE disastrous Melville 100th birthday party in Johannesburg two weeks ago has run into money troubles. A meeting between creditors and the Melville Organising Committee was held at a lawyer’s office last week but no one from the committee would talk to the press. This week creditors were told the Melville Organising Committee […]

Lara Marlow in Algiers IN the manner of Michael Collins, invisible to British security as he rode his bicycle through Dublin, Abu Mohammed blended into the hotel, passing under the noses of dozens of armed plainclothes men in the lobby. In his twenties, cleanshaven and in stylish clothes, he looked more like a member of […]

Mungo Soggot THE latest batch of temporary judges appointed to the Transvaal Bench includes two leading lights from the Black Lawyers Association, one of whom has seven years’ experience at the Bar. Johannesburg advocates say the appointment of Vincent Maleka and Ismail Semenya, who started at the Bar in 1989 and 1986 respectively, confirmed that […]

revamp Andy Duffy THE Gauteng provincial government is to revamp its maternity services – a move which could lead to the closure of poorly supported units in Soweto. The plans, to kick in next year, include attaching new maternity facilities to overloaded hospitals and, according to department sources, closing some of the 20 existing outlying […]

We have a lift-off – of a multitude of satellites and enormous profits. Adam Sweeting looks at the amazing growth of the space business THE Apollo programme is history now, and Neil Armstrong’s “giant leap for mankind” seems about as newsworthy as the Gettysburg Address, but there is still a mystique about Cape Canaveral, like […]

The nature of SA art awards is changing to fit new realities. HAZEL FRIEDMAN reports THE FNB Vita Art Now Award exhibition will soon be a thing of the past due to “the closure of many art galleries in South Africa”, says Vita director Phillip Stein. But there is no need as yet to write […]

KwaZulu-Natal farmers who have resorted to radical private security measures “are fuelling racial tensions, reports Ann Eveleth EX-KOEVOET soldiers are patrolling the rugged terrain of Weenen after a spate of farm murders in the KwaZulu-Natal Midlands, say prominent farmers and police in this frontier town. The Weenen Farmers’ Association hired the guards after the son […]