Staff Reporter

PAUL KIRK, Durban | Friday AUDITOR General Shauket Fakie’s hunt for arms deal leaks has taken a new turn with his investigators seemingly intent on discovering who blew the original whistle to the then Heath special investigating unit. It was to the special investigating unit, at the time headed by Judge Willem Heath, that whistle-blowers […]

Bafana Bafana’s first match under the Black Prince was not convincing Thebe Mabanga And thus, a new era dawned in South African international football with the second coming of the Black Prince. Jomo Sono began his second temporary stint as Bafana Bafana coach in neutral territory in Italy against Saudi Arabia with a 0-1 loss. […]

A team has been set up to make the World Summit environmentally friendly Fiona Macleod When more than 50 000 delegates descend on Gauteng in August for the World Summit on Sustainable Development, one of the things they should not be asked to do is drink out of polystyrene cups. Pollution-causing fossil fuels are used […]

Mail & Guardian reporter The United Nations Commission for Sustainable Development, acting as the preparatory committee for the World Summit on Sustainable Development, will open its third session (PrepCom III]) at the United Nations headquarters in New York on March 25. PrepCom III will consider the chairperson’s paper transmitted from the commission’s second session (PrepCom […]

JASPREET KINDRA, Johannesburg | Friday A DOCUMENT – entitled Castro Hlongwane, Caravans, Cats, Geese, Foot & Mouth and Statistics: HIV/Aids and the Struggle for the Humanisation of the African – that is being sent out by the African National Congress to its structures implies that Mankahlana had Aids; it claims he was killed by antiretrovirals. […]

South African rugby is not as far into the doldrums as some fear Andy Capostagno In the week that the South African Rugby Football Union (Sarfu) celebrated its 10th birthday it could be argued that the game is at its lowest ebb in this country since readmission. All four of our Super 12 franchises lost […]

Glenda Daniels Big Brother interference or just sour grapes? This is the latest fracas tearing South Africa’s already tattered civil society process apart with less than six months to go before Johannesburg hosts the World Summit on Sustainable Development. Some leftist NGOs want out of the present process because “the government has taken control of […]

Tracey Farren Devil thorns grow like wildfire in Lavender Hill on the Cape Flats. Winter rains, bone-dry summers and the constant pounding of boots leave the soccer fields deeply scarred and uneven. Residents from a dilapidated landscape of flats assemble on the periphery, to warm up for a match or shout for their teams, and […]

FIFTY people have died from the deadly Ebola virus since the epidemic broke out four months ago in northwestern Gabon, the health ministry said in a statement on Tuesday. Ten people are infected with the virus and 12 suspected cases of Ebola have been identified, one of which has been included in the death toll. […]

Bongani Majola and Justin Arenstein Paranoia ran rampant in Mpuma- langa this week, with Premier Ndaweni Mahlangu and other African National Congress leaders scrambling to secure nominations ahead of the party’s provincial conference on Friday. A record five nominations are expected for the coveted chairperson’s seat, with Mahlangu facing challenges from powerful ANC Youth League, […]

Shyaka Kanuma What are Joe Nkosi and Lawrence Ngubane doing on the Bafana Bafana technical bench? New South African head coach Jomo Sono chewing on a chicken drumstick at a media conference last week said no African should ask such questions about muti people; or “special projects” men, as Nkosi and Ngubane have euphemistically been […]

Mail & Guardian reporter If Potchefstroom joins the recent trend of renaming cities, perhaps the most appropriate name will be the “clean-up” city of South Africa. The Potchefstroom City Council recently signed a memorandum of agreement with the International Council for Local Environment Initiatives (ICLEI), allowing the city a position in the ICLEI’s coveted Cities […]

Mail & Guardian reporter Women environment ministers and other women leaders engaged in sustainable development have ensured that women won’t be left out of the picture at the World Summit. A meeting of Women Leaders on the Environment, held in Helsinki on March 7 and 8, drew up a draft environmental position endorsed by women. […]

David Macfarlane South Africa’s schools are heading for a crisis that could already be too late to avert completely. No new curriculum is yet in place for next year’s grade 10 learners; and it follows that no teacher training at this level has taken place, and no new textbooks and other support materials have been […]

At 15 Mario Vargas Llosa was a crime reporter. Still in his teens, he eloped with his aunt and later turned the story into a comic novel. He has been attacked by fellow Latin American writers for his right-wing views, and his political ambitions reached their peak when he stood for president in his native […]

Computer viruses are as dangerous as their health-threatening equivalents and the focus of one of the world’s largest software industries, writes David Shapshak The word “virus” originally comes from Middle English and was used to denote snake poison. Filtered through Latin where it meant “slimy, liquid, poison” it arrived in English to describe the sub- […]

BODY LANGUAGE Amelia Hill Laura Penny was never aware of making a choice. She and her husband always wanted children; they just didn’t want them this year, or the next, or, when it came to it, the year after that. “It never occurred to us we were risking not having children at all,” she said. […]

Nawaal Deane The lesbian and gay community had much to celebrate on Human Rights Day following its groundbreaking victory in securing full pension benefits for same-sex partners of state employees. This puts the state pension fund in the same position as private pension funds, which are subject to the Pension Funds Act of 1999, which […]

Sussana Coleman Sixty-year-old Thoko Ndlovu has just seen an optometrist for the first time in her life. For five years she has had excruciating headaches and each time she sees a doctor she is referred for an eye examination. Living outside Stanger on the KwaZulu-Natal North Coast, her only option was the R60 round trip […]

Mail & Guardian reporter Today more than one billion people live on less than one dollar a day. Levels of inequality continue at unsustainable levels: for example, about 25% of the world’s people receive 75% of the world’s income. It is clear that if the world continues along this unequal growth path, the threats of […]

In accordance with labour and health regulations, the state currently provides health workers with anti-retrovirals for needle-stick injuries. However, a statement issued by the African National Congress national executive committee after its weekend meeting said that anti-retrovirals would not be dispensed in public hospitals because the drugs’ efficacy was “unproven” in cases of sexual assault […]

Thebe Mabanga The Steve Biko Foundation, under the leadership of renowned academic Xolela Mangcu, has used this week to launch a year-long programme to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the death of the black consciousness icon Steven Bantu Biko. The foundation works with various youth organisations such as Sharpe- ville native and playwright Gama- khulu […]

Kampala | Friday A UGANDAN army officer collapsed and died in southern Sudan while fleeing a rebel attack on a Sudan army unit with which he was working, army representative Major Shaban Bantariza said on Friday Captain Kheril Magara, a representative for the Ugandan army’s northern region who was serving as a liaison officer with […]

Is there an answer to this million-dollar question? It’s what World Summit 2002 is all about Mail & Guardian reporter Sustainable development is being defined as social and economic development within biophysical environmental constraints that meets the needs of the present without compromising the potential of future generations to meet their own needs. A high […]

Thebe Mabanga and Drew Forrest The government’s Growth and Development Summit will be postponed until at least July and possibly until much later, amid signs that big business has grave misgivings about the event. There are also indications that the labour movement and the government see the encounter in a very different light. The Congress […]

Virus protection is now as vital a cog in your computer’s functioning as any other software, writes David Shapshak. A virus can debilitate your machine or, worse, annihilate its data, rendering all the other productivity tools or Internet software pretty useless. Fortunately virus packages themselves have come a long way. The biggest problem with them […]

Paris | Wednesday THREE top members of Angola’s armed opposition, the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (Unita), including its secretary general Paulo Lukamba, have been taken prisoner by the army, Unita representative Georges Sandengue said in Paris on Wednesday. The two other officials were the movement’s secretary for external relations Alcides Sakala […]

World Summit 2002 is convened on decisions and set requirements of the United Nations. These include: All stakeholders should be part of the preparatory process; The summit should strike a balance between the economic, social and environmental development components of sustainable development. The UN Trust Fund should set up a vehicle for member countries to […]

Paul Kirk Auditor General Shauket Fakie’s hunt for arms deal leaks has taken a new turn with his investigators seemingly intent on discovering who blew the original whistle to the then Heath special investigating unit. It was to the special investigating unit, at the time headed by Judge Willem Heath, that whistle-blowers first turned when […]

analysis Judith February The main focus of the Electronic Communications and Transactions Bill that was tabled in Parliament last week is “to enable and facilitate electronic transactions by creating legal certainty around transactions and communications conducted electronically”. The idea is that once such legal certainty exists there will be greater use of this type of […]