The future role of the Land Bank is fraught with conflict and vested interests, reports Aspasia Karras AS South African institutions face transformation under the Government of National Unity, the Land and Agricultural Bank has been singled out for major reform. Established in 1912 to ensure preferential loans and subsidised protection to white farmers, the […]
Despite equivocation by its provincial leaders, it is clear the ANC in KwaZulu-Natal is trying to delay the local government elections, reports Ann Eveleth THE African National Congress’s effective call this week to delay KwaZulu-Natal’s local government elections masks serious concerns about the outcome of the poll under current conditions. Motivating for a postponement in […]
CINEMA: Shaun de Waal THE Cuban film Fresa y Chocolate (Strawberry and Chocolate), directed by Tomas Gutierrez Alea and Juan Carlos Tabio, sheds a unique light on the world’s longest-running experiment in socialism. Based on Senel Paz’s novella The Wolf, the Woods and the New Man, it tells the story of the relationship of a […]
Hezekiel Sepeng hasn’t broken the South African record yet, but he’s running into form at the right time ATHLETICS: Julian Drew EVER since Hezekiel Sepeng burst onto the scene as a fresh faced junior in 1993 to inject some much needed life into a stagnant local 800m scene the pressure has been on him to […]
Jacquie Golding-Duffy The conventional belief among commercial radio stations that education programmes lose rather than gain listeners has been challenged by the popularity of educational programmes on community radio stations. Siven Maslamoney, director of Ulwazi educational radio project, a non-profit, pilot educational radio project for adults, says it is “encouraging to see that the commitment […]
Baby Jake Matlala has shown once before that he can take care of Paul Weir, but on Saturday night he’ll also have to deal with a referee of dubious reputation BOXING: Gavin Evans BABY JAKE MATLALA has made a good living in recent years by beating up the best little men Britain can provide, and […]
The African National Congress and the ANC Youth League have taken it upon themselves to attack the Mail & Guardian over its coverage of the recent cabinet re-shuffle, in particular the apparent differences between President Nelson Mandela and Pallo Jordan which led to the dismissal of the former minister of posts, telecommunications and broadcasting. To […]
Rehana Rossouw ONE of Cape Town’s most notorious gang leaders, Rashied Staggie, was caught red- handed breaking into a Woodstock home last year. Last week, he walked free out of court after the charges against him were dropped. The police investigating officer could not produce the three witnesses lined up to give evidence against Staggie, […]
Bafana Khumalo IT had to happen to me. Only I would have such perfectly lousy timing. I do tend to ramble on, don’t I? I do tend to get involved in things that do not affect the price of butter, don’t I? You’re right, I do do that, but that is my calling. Some of […]
RUGBY: Jon Swift THERE has to be a realignment when this inaugural round of rugby’s new Super 12 competition is over. The programme — even for sides from the southern hemisphere’s top three countries — is just too tough. Certainly, the inconsistencies — some old, some newly raised — need to be evaluated before any […]
Ann Eveleth The African National Congress in KwaZulu-Natal is bringing a Constitutional Court action aimed at settling the question at the heart of the region’s political conflict: how much power should traditional leaders hold? The ANC is challenging the Inkatha Freedom Party-led provincial government’s interpretation of a constitutional clause guaranteeing traditional leaders ex-officio representation in […]
Gaye Davis A HIGH-POWERED group of African intellectuals, professionals, trade unionists and corporate high-fliers are spearheading a bid to pull the Pan Africanist Congress back from the brink and provide South Africa with a left-of-centre party promoting Africanist ideals. Known as the Concerned Africanists, the group spearheaded the notion of a historic national convention of […]
Philippa Garson and Jacquie Golding-Duffy THE South African Police Union (Sapu) has called for the resignation of controversial South African Police Services communications director Craig Kotze who was recently given a permanent job in the force. Sapu secretary general Peter-Don Brandt said Kotze was “running a union-bashing” exercise and had acted in bad faith by […]
Eddie Koch No one can say the tacticians of the truth commission did not expect a battle. Only it came with surprising speed and ferocity from an unexpected quarter. For months, commissioners have been warily watching the movements of what has become known as the sleeping dragon, agents of apartheid’s death squads, for signs it […]
The green jacket that comes with winning the Masters at Augusta is the most sought-after prize for golfers GOLF: Jon Swift THERE is surely no professional golf tournament which concentrates the mind of the world’s top players more than the Masters at Augusta National. There is little time to stop and smell the azaleas along […]
The corporate gravy train: South African company directors regard their remuneration as nobody’s business but their own South African companies are lagging behind international standards of boardroom transparency, reports Stefaans BrUmmer SOUTH African business, still steeped in the secrecy of apartheid isolation, is lagging behind international trends of boardroom transparency — including disclosure of directors’ […]
Nelson Mandela asked Washington for help in rescuing South African journalist Phillip van Niekerk from Liberia after he was trapped in the fighting this week. When the guns began firing in down-town Monrovia, Van Niekerk, the Southern African correspondent for the M&G’s sister newspaper The Observer, was the only foreign newsman left in Liberia. South […]
Mail & Guardian reporter The independence of the South African Broadcasting Corporation will be in the balance in the next few weeks as the political haggling over the appointment of a new board of directors gets under way. According to the Parliamentary Porfolio Committee on Communications,105 nominations have been received for positions on the board. […]
Conflicting defamation judgments have served to confuse the issue Pity any journalist in Gauteng who is sitting on a controversial story and wants to know whether he can publish it; pity also his legal advisers, who must correctly predict for him what the consequences will be if he does. His dilemma arises from two recent […]
The need for electrification may outweigh the environmental factors, but there is a trade- off between economics and the social costs. Madeleine Wackernagel reports South Africa pays a high price for its cheap electricity, according to a new report published by the Industrial Strategy Project, a Cosatu-linked think-tank. Clive van Horen of the Energy and […]
Reforms aimed at turning Zimbabwe into Africa’s first ‘newly industrialised country’ have missed their mark, argues economist Richard Saunders IN the latest round of adjustment-related shocks in Zimbabwe, government health facilities have been brought to the brink of collapse iby funding cuts which have seen Harare hospitals asking patients’ families to supply relatives with food. […]
Desmond Tutu, chairman of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, in The Mark Gevisser Profile WONDERFUL! Wonderful! Wonderful! Ever since I spent time with Desmond Tutu a few weeks ago, I have caught myself, repeatedly, doing The Arch whenever something has pleased me. Head thrown back, arms extended upwards in an angelic “V”, spasms of praise […]
HOCKEY: Julian Drew SOUTH AFRICA eagerly awaited the 1993 Africa Cup of Nations tournament in Nairobi as their first step back into international competition, but this year’s version has come at an awkward time for a side preparing for greater things. In three months time South Africa will take part in the Olympic Games in […]
Phillip van Niekerk in Monrovia AGAINST the insistent rattle of gunfire, people sheltering in Monrovia’s diplomatic enclave of Mamba Point speak of something as threatening as the war: hunger. Once United States helicopters airlift Westerners and diplomats, those left behind in the Liberian capital will have to forage for something to eat in a city […]
South African journalism gets a fresh boost next week with the participation of many of the country’s most exciting authors in the Mail & Guardian’s Special Writers Series. The newspaper has harnessed top South African talent to the difficult task of capturing and interpreting the extraordinary transition we are all living through. We have asked […]
NORTH KOREA’S unsettling manoeuvres in the Demilitarised Zone (DMZ) recall a similar performance in another East Asian tension spot. Then it was Beijing, trying to ratchet up the pressure on President Lee Teng-hui in the Taiwanese elections. Now it is Pyongyang, seeking to destabilise President Kim Young-sam ahead of Thursday’s National Assembly elections. The Chinese […]
If the calls of solidarity and support are anything to go by, ousted Cabinet minister Pallo Jordan’s political career is far from over. Gaye Davis reports OUSTED Cabinet minister Pallo Jordan cleared his desk this week and formally handed over to Jay Naidoo, his successor as minister of posts and telecommunications. Jordan was due to […]
The social costs involved in losing skilled immigrants has led to complaints about the ineptitude of home Affairs officials, reports Marion Edmunds Department of trade and industry officials revealed this week they had to intervene to ensure skilled foreigners are not prevented access to the South African job market by inept members of the Department […]
Olympic bid Cape Town’s Olympic Bid Company has closed the doors to public participation in the process of winning the Games for the city, critics told Rehana Rossouw CAPE TOWN’S Olympic Bid Company is a farce which pays lip service to transparency and accountability to the public, but is structured to exclude them from real […]
Ann Eveleth ANC MP Billy Nair is the next witness to take the stand in the trial of General Magnus Malan and his 19 co-accused which gets going again in the Durban Supreme Court on Monday. Nair — an ANC and South African Communist Party stalwart — was one of four targets allegedly chosen by […]
New soapie The Burning Issue just doesn’t wash, says ANDREW WORSDALE WHY are South African sit-coms and soapies so strained and dreadful and boring? My belief is it’s because they try to serve as education and as drama, with teaching and issues always taking the upper hand. Apart from the critically acclaimed hit series Soul […]
A philosophical Greg Norman returns this week to the Augusta course that broke his heart GOLF:Bill Elliott BY any of the usual standards applied to this varied life, Greg Norman should have been contemplating his arrival at Augusta in Georgia this week with all the rampant anticipation of a politician approaching his current mistress to […]