Staff Reporter

Joshua Amupadhi THE Angolan government has called on Southern African countries to exert pressure on Unita to implement the Lusaka peace protocol. The call followed the forth extension of the United Nations Angola Verification Mission (Unavem) last week. The Security Council agreed to extend Unavem IIIfor only two months – from the set withdrawal date […]

Stefaans Brmmer THAT former bastion of Afrikaner nationalist education, the University of the Free State, declared 1996 “MK year”. But the change of heart is not quite as radical as the name – usually short for the African National Congress army, Umkhonto weSizwe -suggests. The university fathers (for it remains a university where most top […]

This week the South African team took their first steps on an arduous tour in a country that regards them as no less than brothers CRICKET:V Roger Prabasarkar THE pervading national atmosphere on the three occasions that South Africa’s cricketers have visited India has been characterised by an uncommon free-wheeling of spirit. A significant percentage […]

Oliver Hill, on South Africa’s most wanted list, faces possible extradition from Britain, reports Mungo Soggot A LANDMARK extradition case in London will decide next week whether one of South Africa’s most wanted fugitives will be returned home to face fraud charges of more than R100-million. Oliver Hill has eluded the South African Reserve Bank […]

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 […]

Bill When Eddie Mhlanga said he was a born-again Christian, a gynaecologist and pro-choice, it caused a walkout at a parliamentary hearing. Gaye Davis reports ONE of the most forceful advocates for the Termination of Pregnancy Bill during three days of public hearings in Parliament this week was Dr Eddie Mhlanga, director of maternal health […]

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 […]

Angella Johnson SOON after the young couple moved into 75 Reitz Street with their three children, Daphne Kolesky knew these were no ordinary neighbours. Within days teenage boys, some still in their school uniforms, started arriving in groups of three or four at the house in the quiet Potchefstroom suburb near the university, where FW […]

Race scientists say intelligence is built into our genes – should we believe them? Gary Younge reports from London CHRISTOPHER BRAND is proud to be a racist. Not a mad, bad racist who sticks lit fireworks through Asian people’s letterboxes, or a violent nutter who attacks black people on the streets with broken bottles. Brand […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

The team behind Trainspotting is fast becoming the most formidable of talents in British cinema. They talk to Adam Sweeting about their great adventures on the big scereen FROM the team that brought you last year’s black and sardonic thriller Shallow Grave, Trainspotting is certain to be one of the cinematic hot shots of 1996. […]

Madeleine Wackernagel THE appointment of Khaya Ngqula, managing director of Norwich Unit Trusts, as chief executive officer of the Industrial Development Corporation (IDC) has raised eyebrows among the labour constituency, which is due to present its report on restructuring the IDC this week. Says an insider close to the investigation: “The timing of this announcement, […]

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 […]

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 […]

THE government’s planned tax holiday scheme will be up and running by the end of the month, says the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI). The regulations outlining the Act will be finalised by the end of the month and published in the government gazette. The tax holiday scheme will, in essence, provide for a […]

Africa Investments Ltd, in THE MARK GEVISSER PROFILE Rhodes, Rupert, Ramaphosa WHEN Nthatho Motlana ann-ounced that Cyril Ramaphosa was to join his New Africa Investments Ltd (Nail) and lead the bid to acquire Johnnic from Anglo American, the Sowetan – wholly owned by Nail – put out a 40-page souvenir edition to commemorate the fact. […]

Jacquie Golding-Duffy A CABAL of about 15 staffers at the Independent Broadcasting Authority (IBA) have hauled the management of the regulator before the public protector for an investigation into allegations of financial mismanagement and misappropriation of taxpayers’ funds. A memorandum from this group, which outlines grievances and alleged malpractices by some top IBA executives, will […]

Lesley Cowling talks to a UCT professor who is introducing the world to new galaxies TONY FAIRALL greets questions on his subject with a wry smile and the deceptive simplicity of a Zen master. When your daily work combines the task of mapping the unimaginable – our universe – and a job as director of […]

THE ill-fated South African Everest expedition has come under fire again – this time from an American mountaineering journalist who claims that expedition team leader Ian Woodall refused to allow stricken climbers use of his radio in the midst of a catastrophe near the Everest summit on May 10 and 11. The allegation is made […]

A new series of corruption allegations has hit South Africa’s public broadcaster write Mail & Guardian Reporters A BATTLE between two of the three most powerful women in the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) has broken into the open over an expenses claim for a cheap lunch and transport in London. The two who have […]

Current government communications was lambasted by Comtask, reports Anton Harber GOVERNMENT communications will go through a massive overhaul and fundamental restructuring if the recommendations of the task group on government communications (Comtask) are accepted. Comtask, which outlined the findings of its eight-month investigation at a conference in Caledon in the Western Cape last weekend, was […]

HAZEL FRIEDMAN went to two exhibitions that explore the latent art of historical documentation SO many stories to be told. So few ways of really telling them. This is the conclusion some viewers will draw after seeing Roger Meintjies’s visual essay on the Suez/Aida Project and Chinchona Project. Now don’t get me wrong. Meintjies, a […]

FILM: Hazel Friedman THE ground-breaking local television series, Ghetto Diaries, won the award for best documentary at the 1996 Southern Africa Film Festival, held recently in Harare. The brainchild of filmmaker Teboho Mahlatsi and M&G Television Productions, the series provided a refreshingly gritty visual diary of township life and the aspirations of its residents. What […]

Travel and leisure company Aventura looks set to be the first model for restructuring, writes Eddie Koch AVENTURA, the state-owned travel and leisure company, is being primed for privatisation, the culmination of three years of transformation from a loss-maker to a streamlined commercial enterprise. The Department of State Enterprises is planning to complete a draft […]

Maurice Hamilton charts the line of succession of Sunday’s rivals for the Formula One world championship as they prepare to dice wheel to wheel in a make-or- break charge for glory in Japan GRAHAM HILL and Gilles Villeneuve did not race in the same era, never mind being team- mates and fighting for the world […]

An operation code-named Skrik vir Niks was a lost opportunity which could have saved the country four years of bloodshed, political unrest and economic damage, reports Marion Edmunds A SECRET document which throws new light on the origins of the reform process and undermines the reputations of key reformists in the National Party has been […]

THIS new weekly section in the Mail & Guardian will highlight the scientists, technicians, researchers and engineers whose work will decide whether South Africa forever lags behind the global economy, or can move to the cutting edge. Statistics released by the Foundation for Research Development (FRD) this month show that South Africans score badly in […]

A healthy dose of chutzpah could transform the civic organisation into a leading empowerment company, writes Mungo Soggot THE South African National Civics Organisation (Sanco) has stopped throwing stones and is going into business. The radical anti-apartheid civic organisation is poised to move into the heart of capitalism when it branches out into direct insurance, […]

MUSIC: Bafana Khumalo LAST weekend’s Soul Invasion Tour at the Johannesburg Stadium was a memory lane affair rather than a young-and-with-it bash where the latest trends in dance and music ruled the night. What with Randy Crawford leading the pack of late Sixties and early Seventies crooners; The Stylistics; those kings of funk Kool and […]