Bongani Majola Minister of Intelligence Lindiwe Sisulu and the Department of Justice openly contradicted each other on the whereabouts of thousands of sensitive Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) documents this week, heightening speculation that the documents have been sanitised or shredded by the National Intelligence Agency (NIA). The Mail & Guardian reported last week that […]
Mail & Guardian reporter Food and Trees for Africa, an NGO involved in “re-greening” the townships, launched the Thuthukani permaculture gardening project at the Thuthukani clinic in Ivory Park two months ago. The project was started by a group of volunteers working with HIV/Aids patients in home-based care. Their aim was to help themselves, their […]
Blantyre | Tuesday THE International Monetary Fund has released only $8-million of $55-million earmarked for Malawi because of the government’s failure to account for where the money would be going, a local representative of the organisation said on Monday. The aid money was intended for use over three years beginning in 2000 as part of […]
Former president Nelson Mandela,capped, gowned and glowing, with his Rhodes University honorary doctorate in hand.
Suburbia has been turned upside down
JESSICA HODGSON, THE GUARDIAN, Harare | Tuesday THE powerful head of the Zimbabwe state broadcaster is to be investigated by the government after allegations of homosexuality were made against him, according to newspaper reports. Alum Mpofu, the chief executive of the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corp, has been accused of causing a disturbance at a Harare nightclub […]
Middelburg, Sunday MPUMALANGA police were on the trail of a fourth man on Sunday believed to be linked to the murder of author and television presenter Pieter Pieterse. “We know who he is, he is just in hiding,” provincial police representative Senior Superintendent Theo Du Bruyn said on Sunday. Three men were arrested early on […]
Luanda | Sunday ANGOLA’S slain rebel leader Jonas Savimbi signed an order to his troops’ commanders to effect a unilateral ceasefire two days before his death, a Unita official said on Sunday. General Samuel Kapingana, Unita’s deputy chief of staff, said Savimbi had advised his commanders of his plan for a truce from March 15 […]
Mark Tran | Friday SOUTH African Breweries (SAB) has poured cold water on reports of merger talks with Miller Brewing of Philip Morris. SAB, the world’s fifth-largest brewer, with brands such as Castle and Pilsner Urquell, officially declined to comment on a Wall Street Journal report of a possible $5-billion (R60-billion) deal with Miller. “We […]
SAPA AND TERRY BELL, Friday SEVERAL boxes of apartheid-era documents unearthed by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) during its hearings are in “safekeeping” at the justice department, Intelligence Minister Lindiwe Sisulu said on Friday. She was responding to an article in Friday’s Mail & Guardian newspaper and this website, which reported that the documents […]
DREW FORREST, Johannesburg | Thursday OFFICIAL statistics indicating a significant jump in unemployment have been thrown into relief by Reserve Bank research showing South Africa’s workforce is steadily shrinking – while earning and producing more. Statistics SA reported this week that the official unemployment rate – regarded as conservative by many -rose more than three […]
NAWAAL DEANE and SARAH BULLEN, Johannesburg | Friday THERE could be a technical knockout this week in the prizefight between Discovery Health and the Council for Medical Aid Schemes, but if the previous match history is anything to go by, this bout could go all 12 rounds. This week talks are focusing on whether Discovery’s […]
DREW FORREST, Johannesburg | Friday TWO Markinor surveys point to a steady downward trend in voter approval of the government and its leaders, with waning support on economic policy, HIV/Aids and governance issues such as corruption. The latest survey shows that only 42% of subjects drawn from metropolitan areas “trust” President Thabo Mbeki as a […]
NAWAAL DEANE, Johannesburg | Friday NEARLY a quarter of South African voters would stay away from the polls if they were dissatisfied with the performance of their preferred party. That is one of the findings in a study conducted into voter behaviour released this week by the Independent Electoral Commission. Another is that 46% of […]
Belinda Beresford Tim Modise and SABC-Safm have been cleared by the Broadcasting Complaints Commission of charges of “sedition” and supporting lawlessness for a radio show on the subject of HIV/Aids. The allegations had been made by Anita Allen, one of South Africa’s leading Aids dissidents, on behalf of her husband’s firm, David Allen Associates. She […]
Rick Whitaker Flights OFLOVE by Bernard Schlink (Weidenfeld & Nicolson) It is hard to love a book with as bad a title as Flights of Love. Even “Loveflights”, a translation that more closely resembles the original German title, Liebesfluchten, would give a better indication of what is in store for the reader of this collection […]
Sarah Duguid Samuel Johnson said that the world was full of writers who didn’t care if they were studied they just wanted to be read. But in South Africa dwindling numbers of school libraries and budget cuts for public libraries means that the nation’s access to books is becoming severely limited. Public libraries cannot offer […]
Mail & Guardian reporter Greenpeace, Friends of the Earth and the European Environmental Bureau released a joint media statement last week urging European Union governments and the European Commission to safeguard European agriculture and biodiversity by preventing any genetically modified (GM) crops of beet and oilseed rape being grown in the EU. The statement is […]
SOCCER Ntuthuko Maphumulo The Cape-based “People’s Team” Santos did not win the premier soccer league (PSL) championship with a 1-0 victory over Orlando Pirates on Wednesday but the Bucaneers definitely lost it. An ill-disciplined display by Pirates finally scuppered any hope they might have had of retaining the title they won last year. Santos coach […]
While I concur that males who impregnate girls should be held accountable for their actions, it seems Dot Cleminshaw (Letters, March 8) thinks that the authorities should let the young woman who aborted her baby alone. After all, that is what the morning-after pill achieves DIY abortion. Why worry about the death of a baby […]
The article about the Further Education and Training Curriculum (Grades 10-12) by David Macfarlane (March 22) is misleading, selective and based on misinformation. While it is true learners joining the Further Education and Training (FET) band in Grade 10 in 2003 will not be offered Curriculum 2005, it is reckless to suggest they will be […]
I refer to the article about land redistribution (“Rural revolt threat”, February 15). Like it or not, land redistribution favours big business and big business generates foreign income and therefore jobs. Brazilian studies, compounded by recent Zimbabwean land invasions, clearly indicate that idealistic policies do not and will not deliver. Urban drift continues at an […]
Thebe Mabanga and Mail & Guardian reporters The Myburgh Commission of Inquiry set up to investigate the collapse of South Africa’s currency last year is increasingly being viewed as the product of a struggle between “old guard” bureaucrats in the Reserve Bank and the liberalising regime of Governor Tito Mboweni. Speculation is mounting in government […]
As the Klein Karoo Nasionale Kunstefees reaches its climax, we explore the gap between high art and commercial pop Andrew Gilder Among the new works of Afrikaans drama debuting at the Klein Karoo Nasionale Kunstefees (KKNK) in Oudsthoorn are two (Gert Garrie and Die Goue Seun) that have strong Afrikaans literary connections. The former is […]
David Macfarlane The University of Natal is ignoring its own legal advice and pressing ahead to appoint a new vice-chancellor before its merger with the University of Durban-Westville (UDW). Senior academics at the university are dismayed that the council is persisting with the selection process and express concern at the damage this could cause to […]
Jaspreet Kindra Threats of violence, allegations of hit lists and the murder of a prominent African National Congress councillor in an Inkatha Freedom Party stronghold have further shaken the rocky marriage between the IFP and the ANC in KwaZulu-Natal. In a bid to defuse the tension the ANC leadership in kwaNongoma, the IFP stronghold at […]
After losing a marathon battle over nevirapine the government can no longer use the courts to delay its roll-out of anti-retrovirals Belinda Beresford The nevirapine genie was let out of the bottle this week by the Constitutional Court, which effectively forced the government to provide the antiretroviral drug to save unborn children from HIV infection. […]
Shyaka Kanuma Before Minah Moselani accidentally walked into the helping hands of the Rosebank Homeless Association, her life seemed to have reached a dead end. Moselani’s circumstances were typical of many young women. She had dropped out of school, had no job and the poor relatives she lived with in the Brits area of Pretoria […]
BODY LANGUAGE Kim Majid It’s nothing new that women keep “their” men on sex rations. It’s so common, in fact, that together with having to go to the pharmacy at 11pm to look for Tampax, some men come to expect it’s just one of those things that comes with being in a relationship. But while […]
Ivorienne writer Veronique Tadjo is now living in South Africa. She spoke to Stephen Gray Veronique Tadjo has been resident in Johannesburg since last year, when her first novel, As the Crow Flies, was published in an English translation in the Heinemann African Writers Series. You were saying that your stay in South Africa has […]
I recommend that Thabo Mbeki read The Logic of Scientific Discovery (1959) by Karl Popper and The Methodology of Scientific Research Programmes (1978) by Imre Lakatos. It is logically impossible to verify or “prove” a scientific hypothesis. This is why Popper proposed “falsifiability” as a criterion for good science: a hypothesis is scientific if it […]
Wilhelm Disbergen That the Klein Karoo Nasional e Kunstefees (KKNK) resulted from a disgruntled Oudts- hoorn millionaire, Nic Barrow, unable to find a table at a restaurant during a Grahamstown festival a couple of years back, has been the subject of much local speculation. But speculation aside, few can refute the fact that the 8th […]