Mail & Guardian reporter and AIM The children of assassinated Mozambican editor Carlos Cardoso and a journalist of his now-defunct journal Metical have won a first minor victory against a legal onslaught from the son of President Joaquim Chissano. The way prosecuting authorities have pursued the matter has led to questions being raised about the […]
David Erasmus’ call for a Tannie Krisjan (Letters, March 8) is also a call for discussion. The contents of his letter suggests ambivalence is his own allegiance to feminism frustrated by the modesty of female achievement, or is he a sophisticated manifestation of the common woman hater? In the latter case he should know that […]
Marianne Merten National Police Commissioner Jackie Selebi is awaiting the outcome of a Constitutional Court hearing before setting detailed guidelines on how officers may use their firearms under the new Section 49 of the Criminal Procedure Act, which restricts lethal force in arresting fleeing suspects. The amended section which replaced an apartheid law giving police […]
David Shapshak After Mac users, the most fanatical followers of a computing platform must be those who own a Palm handheld. Like Apple, Palm has been around longer than their combined competitor Microsoft and pride themselves on their simpler, more robust operating systems (OS). In Palm’s case, neither are idle boasts. Still the dominant force […]
The trucking industry, whose rates in the spread of HIV/Aids in Southern Africa are among the worst, is being targeted.
THE Nigerian government on Wednesday denied ordering the arrest early this month of a controversial preacher who had hinted at a change of government in the country. Pastor Tunde Bakare was freed on May 4 after being detained for two days, when he was interrogated about his predictions and “critical prophesies”, his lawyer said last […]
THE acquittal of the four men accused of murdering Rashaad Staggie showed that the state had lost key skills, said Hennie Bester, leader of the Democratic Alliance in the Western Cape. The loss of these skills “weakened the capacity to secure successful convictions in cases critical to the welfare of the nation,” Bester said. “Simply […]
LARRY ELLIOTT | Friday SOUTH Africa has escaped United States tariffs of up to 30% on imported steel as it is classed as a developing country that exports only small amounts of steel to the US. Disastrous. Unacceptable. Deplorable. Regrettable. Wrong. President George W Bush has been left in no doubt as to what the […]
Brazzaville | Monday CONGO’S outgoing military ruler General Denis Sassou Nguesso is well ahead of his rivals in the country’s presidential election, according to early partial results reported by state television and witnesses on Monday. Sassou Nguesso has been tipped to win the March 10 poll, the first presidential vote in a decade marred by […]
GIRASSOL, the world’s largest offshore oil platform with a production capacity of 200,000 barrels of crude per day, has been inaugurated at an Angolan site, the state oil company Sonangol announced on Thursday. The Girassol deposit, operated by TotalFinaElf, was discovered in 1996 some 200 kilometres northwest of Luanda, but installation did not begin until […]
An Italian judicial probe into doping during the 2001 Giro d’Italia has used hidden TV cameras which have caught cyclists obtaining banned substances for their use during the race, La Repubblica newspaper reported Wednesday. In the recordings cyclists openly asking a doctor for substances before their evening meal after the conclusion of one stage and […]
Mail & Guardian reporters Zimbabwe was on a razor-edge on the eve of presidential elections this weekend that promise a violent outcome whether the incumbent Robert Mugabe or opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai emerges victorious. Tension rose as opinion surveys showed majority support for Tsvangirai, leader of the Movement for Democratic Change, and Mugabe’s government tinkered […]
You managed to cut the guts out of my reply to the critics of the government’s water policies and left it meaningless. What you cut out was as follows: “We (the government and NGOs) know we can work together. We demonstrated that internationally, at the recent Bonn Water Conference. The government’s delegation, with strong support […]
Riaan Wolmarans ‘Anybody who watches three games of football in a row should be declared brain-dead,”said author and satirist Erma Bombeck of gridiron soccer in the United States. If this were true the mortality rate in South Africa would rise drastically when the 2002 soccer World Cup, to be held in Korea and Japan, hits […]
If all the soccer were not enough, the other two of South Africa’s big three sports, cricket and rugby, are also getting more time on the box. It will be interesting to see how many masochists tune in to watch the home side take on the Australian cricketers again in the second Test, followed almost […]
Sarah Duguid Humans have long known the healing properties of different plant species. From pounding roots and berries into cures, to using plant extracts in powerful pharmaceuticals, we have harnessed the power of nature to our own advantage. We are, some of us neurotically, aware of what we put into our bodies and how we […]
Marianne Merten The Democratic Alliance and the Inkatha Freedom Party diverged sharply on “floor-crossing” legislation approved by the Cabinet this week, underlining the different impact the package of laws may have on different parties. The proposed measure stems from last year’s split in the DA and the subsequent co-operation pact between the New National Party […]
World superbike’s biggest star tells Jim White that his new team will make its debut in June and prove the sceptics wrong Carl Fogarty’s house would be a pushover if featured on Through The Keyhole. Sitting on top of a Lancastrian hill, with astonishing views across the plains to Blackpool Tower, it is what greets […]
Some government departments are helping to break the poverty cycle Angela Field Last year James Mlawu’s team although he sees himself as part of the team, not its leader won the top Impumelelo Innovations Award for the KwaZulu-Natal government. Since then delegations from all tiers of government and even from the United States have come […]
BODY LANGUAGE Catherine Bennett With characteristic determination, Mary Archer has exempted herself from the Orwellian rule to the effect that everyone, at 50, “has the face he deserves”. At the age of 57, Archer would seem to have, instead, the face she has bought. After 36 years as Jeffrey Archer’s helpmeet, an experience that might […]
In Oom Krisjan we get a white male take, sublime as it is, on the South African situation. What we don’t have though, is a female take, unless we like it in drag that is. For that we have Evita. She pisses standing up, though. For women that means she has terminal trouble with the […]
Kevin Scott In survival terms, the elephants of the Greater Addo Elephant National Park are booming. The Addo elephants have increased their population thirtyfold in just 71 years. But increasing a population so drastically has its dangers not only to the ecology of the park but also to the biology of the animals. Today inbreeding […]
Mike Marqusee Dancing shoes is dead: A TALEOFFIGHTINGMENINSOUTHAFRICA by Gavin Evans (Doubleday) Ever since the ringside cry of “Don’t let the nigger win!” went up at the epic 1810 bout between the black American ex-slave Molineux and the English champ Cribb, the theatre of boxing has been infused with the politics of race. Not surprisingly, […]
Andrew Taynton of the Safe Food Coalition refers to NEWSWISEAfrica as the “biotech industry’s media PR company”(Letters, February 15), We do not have one biotechnology client and we are not a “PR company”; we are media liaison agents in greater Africa and we operate as journalists. Farmers’ Monthly is a non-profit endeavour and one of […]
Chris McGreal in Harare President Robert Mugabe has put Zimbabwe’s army in charge of this weekend’s presidential election and vote count, compounding fears that his government’s campaign of intimidation will follow voters right up to the ballot box and that widespread vote tampering will be used to try to keep him in power. Almost every […]
Glenda Daniels and David Macfarlane With just six months before Johannesburg hosts the World Summit on Sustainable Development, the civil society process is in tatters and its leadership a source of confusion. A new forum to lead South African civil society’s input at the summit has been set up by the Congress of South African […]
Jaspreet Kindra The lobbyist widely believed to have shaped President Thabo Mbeki’s off-beat views on HIV/Aids has now attached herself to another senior African National Congress Aids dissident MP Peter Mokaba. It emerged this week that Anita Allen, a former journalist at The Star, has been corresponding with Mokaba and sending him dissident literature. Mokaba […]
Three lead headlines involving names have coerced this letter: “Big Brother Gatsha, he’s gonna watch ya” (February 22) disgusting at the most; “The muzzling of Madiba” March 1 endearing; “King of cockroaches” [King Goodwill Zwelithini), January 2001 terrible! I note that it has become an acceptable habit for the M&G to “nothingfy” what is of […]
Thebe Mabanga and Sarah Duguid Several hundred Alexandra residents who spent part of this week sleeping in the rain outside their homes were, by late yesterday afternoon, still in limbo awaiting yet another round of relocation and potential rejection by their future neighbours. The residents of Marlboro Transit camp, also known as the TzuChi village […]
Nawaal Deane Whether or not prostitutes can ply their trade freely or be thrown in jail for selling sex was a debate that packed out the courtroom at the Constitutional Court this week. The main arguments focused on the rights of sex workers to do their job against the moral consequences legalising the profession could […]
South Africa is home to many rare species of beetle that need special protection and conservation Sheree Russouw When asked what God’s design pattern for organic revolution revealed, biologist JBS Haldane, simply said: “An inordinate fondness for beetles.” One fifth of all macrofauna are beetles, and it is estimated that there are 200-million beetles for […]
Seventy years after the first two-way radio was fitted in a Chicago police car, a revolutionary new system is linking Cape Town’s emergency services David Shapshak The City of Cape Town last week launched the first digital public radio system in Africa, which seamlessly connects all public safety departments into one secure, high-speed network. Bringing […]