Staff Reporter

There is widespread support for Bantu Holomisa to become leader of the MDM, but for now he’s still trying to stay an ANC member. Gaye Davis and Joshua Amupadhi report DISAFFECTED African National Congress members want Bantu Holomisa to lead the so- called Mass Democratic Movement (MDM), under whose banner he has been speaking at […]

Absa may have jeopardised its case against Bob Aldworth, following the disclosure that the bank’s counsel helped frame the charge sheet, report Mungo Soggot and Andy Duffy THE Amalgamated Bank of South Africa’s (Absa) legal battle with Bob Aldworth has taken a startling twist, with the disclosure that counsel acting for the bank helped frame […]

A SERIES of speeches in the past week has encapsulated the debate over the role of the media in this country’s transformation. The Reverend Frank Chikane, addressing a forum of 60 editors from around the Commonwealth, was quick to say he was not speaking on behalf of the deputy president’s office, where he is a […]

Marion Edmunds NEWLY elected Stellenbosch student leaders have held talks with Minister of Education Sibusiso Bengu to discuss the university’s future, and whether Afrikaans should be its sole language of instruction. The meeting comes in the wake of a row between African National Congress MP Jannie Momberg and members of the university council over the […]

An archaeological find that takes us back to our roots 3,5-million years ago is disappearing. But a Cape Town engineer has used a unique method to capture it for the future, writes Lesley Cowling MORE than 3,5-million years ago, three of our ancestors wandered north across the Tanzanian grasslands, following traditional game trails. Like the […]

Equipment that reveals if people have received electric shocks has forced the police to fork out or face the courts, reports Angella Johnson HUNDREDS of thousands of rands have been paid out to victims of police torture in cases settled out of court in Gauteng over the past year, following new forensic initiatives by the […]

Derek Brown watches the only Arab soccer team playing in Israel’s premier division BY the side of a sprawling refuse tip, at the end of a twisting dirt track, stands the pride and joy of Tayibeh. A stadium they call it, but they jest. The real joke is that this patch of weeds, with a […]

After the Francois Pienaar debacle Springbok coach Andre Markgraaff has been dubbed `Saddam Hussein’ by the players, and it’s not just because they both have moustaches RUGBY:Jon Swift IN examining the Francois Pienaar debacle it must be understood at the outset that South African rugby is, and always has been, reliant on the FU factor. […]

T HERE is something ironic about the fact that the first census to be conducted in the new South Africa – a society born out of a commitment to end racial discrimination – should include a question about the respondent’s race. No one, of course, is suggesting racial categorisation in this instance is motivated by […]

Automakers Mungo Soggot AUTOMAKERS, the embattled manufacturer of Nissan and Fiat Uno cars, confirmed this week that a delegation from Nissan Japan had been in South Africa amid speculation that the Japanese were eyeing a substantial stake in the local company. Industry sources said the Japanese company was seriously considering an acquisition, adding that if […]

Rehana Rossouw THE massive manhunt and successful capture this week of Dawid “Doggy Dog” Ruiters, suspected of killing five people in Nieuwoudtville, has focused national attention on crime in the Cape’s rural communities. Ruiters’s capture followed the murder of two women and a four-year-old child in Niewoudtville in the Northern Cape last month. For months, […]

While the road ahead is long and hard, Burundi’s Tutsi and Hutu leaders have at last agreed to talk of peace. Chris McGreal reports form Arusha BURUNDI’S Tutsi military leader has bowed to regional sanctions and agreed to unconditional negotiations with Hutu rebels. But a weekend summit of East African presidents remained suspicious of Major […]

YOUSSOU N’DOUR, possibly the most famous African musician in the West due to his appearance in the Amnesty International Human Rights Now world tour in 1988 and a smash hit with Neneh Cherry in 1995, says he has no real problems with fame. The only difficulty, as far as he’s concerned, was that it took […]

Paul Murphy and Patrick Donovan in London GOLDMAN SACHS, one of the world’s most powerful investment banks, has been secretly “unwinding” the huge holdings of copper owned by Japan’s Sumitomo Corporation in the wake of this year’s market-rigging scandal on the London Metal Exchange (LME). The American bank was handed in June what is perhaps […]

higher gear Mungo Soggot A TRIP to Australia has triggered a fresh tussle between lawyers and the state over planned reforms to South Africa’s state-run car accident insurance fund. The Multilateral Motor-vehicle Fund (MMF) has sent four officials to Australia to examine an insurance scheme, despite a government pledge to freeze reform of South Africa’s […]

Lesley Cowling LAST week saw the unusual (though gentlemanly) spectacle of South Africa’s science councils justifying their work and its relevance to the country in open hearings. The hearings are unlikely to have a significant effect on the councils’ budgets for the 1997/1998 financial year, but the process marks the beginning of a new role […]

Gaye Davis THE row over a woman’s allegations that the Catholic church paid for an abortion when she fell pregnant during a love affair with a priest escalated this week when it emerged no sanction has yet been taken against the priest. Bishop Mansuet dela Biyase, head of the Eshowe diocese, confirmed he was telephoned […]

Robin Wright in Luanda UNITED STATES Secretary of State Warren Christopher flew into this war-ravaged capital this week to try to jump-start the process to end one of the world’s deadliest conflicts. But the visit from the highest-ranking US official since Angola became independent in 1975 was marred by the non-appearance of Jonas Savimbi, leader […]

Max Gebhardt AN appeal was lodged on Thursday with the Publications Appeal Board in Pretoria against the controversial banning of the movie Kids. In his submission to the Appeal Board, Anant Singh, whose Videovision Entertainment owns the South African distribution rights to the film, stated that the banning by the censor board is unconstitutional and […]

clinics A report describes the serious lack of basic facilities at many hundreds of health clinics, writes Andy Duffy THE grave lack of basic facilities in clinics around the country, undermining the government’s new health policy, is revealed in a report to be published next month. Hundreds of clinics have no access to electricity and […]

Andy Duffy A funding crisis has virtually paralysed the South African Human Rights Commission just six months after it was launched. The commission, set up to police the Bill of Rights, began swinging the axe earlier this week after failing to secure an increase in its R6,4-million budget, which is a third of what it […]

Radio listeners will have much more choice after the second wave of licence applications, reports Jacquie Golding-Duffy IMAGINE a radio station solely dedicated to sport coverage or jazz or classical music. Imagine tuning in your radio and discovering a station which broadcasts only horse racing or predominantly local music by African artists. Strange as these […]

Judith Watt spoke to Clive Hassell and Adam Levine, who set up a studio at Gay Pride that became the venue for interactive photographic theatre. DRAG is alive and well and living in South Africa. That we know – but what is less well known is the cutting-edge gay subculture of cross dressing, body decoration […]

ON the bank of Manhattan’s East River stands an unprepossessing memorial to graffiti artist Keith Haring. Painted on a fragment of concrete wall, it shows blue doves circling above replicas of Haring’s exuberant images. And below, scrawled in dayglo colours is a simple epitaph: “Kiss, Kith, Keith. All are ephemeral.” On the surface none of […]

Mark Gleeson looks at the mythical potential of Zaire, who play Bafana Bafana in a World Cup qualifying match next month ZAIRE’S soccer team is as elusive, enigmatic and potentially dangerous as the animal they claim as their mascot. The Leopards will be in town on November 9 to play South Africa at Soccer City […]

Julian Drew THE National Sports Council (NSC) said this week it will investigate allegations of fraud against Athletics South Africa (ASA) which arose during the “rigged contract” scandal exposed by the Mail & Guardian three weeks ago. The allegations concern a fax sent on October 2 by ASA to Tommy Tesnar, the coach of Olympic […]

Jacquie Golding-Duffy A THREE-PART documentary on transformation at the South African Broadcasting Corporation – Going Live! – was pulled off the air at the last minute by the corporation’s management, who offered no explanation to executive producers Shane Mohabier and Saths Cooper. Ironically the documentary, which was due to be aired on SABC 1 on […]

Bennie Bunsee THAT the Pan Africanist Congress has been going through a trying time is well known. But the M&G’s response to the PAC’s recent convention (“PAC convention achieves little,” September 27 to October 3) misunderstands a genuine attempt to correct the organisation’s problems arising from decades of leadership mismanagement. Getting the PAC right will […]

IN its ongoing search for innovative solutions to the housing crisis, the Ministry of Housing’s special task team this week proposed new approaches to break the deadlock between financial institutions and developers, which is holding up housing delivery. In a report released this week, it also urged the various arms of the government involved in […]

forever In the heart of the Karoo, three killings came out of the blue, reports our guest writer Mike Nicol THIS is about malevolence. Or killers from the veld. It’s about random, gratuitous, inexplicable violence. More specifically about what happened at Nieuwoudtville on Tuesday evening, September 24 1996. It’s about what police Captain Paul van […]

Katy Bauer PIGEON racing: boring “hobby” or mystical love story? Belgium’s national sport may fuel the first argument, but it is the second that has real substance. Johan van Deventer, a building contractor from Elandsfontein, enters one of the avaries at the smallholding of friend and fellow pigeon fancier Norman Gruar. “Kom nou. Kom nou […]

Nomboniso Gasa writes how as a child in rural South Africa she discovered what abortion was, in an open letter to ANCmembers of Parliament LIKE many of you, it was not at university or as a result of “Western influence” that I learnt of abortion. I was seven years old when I first heard the […]