Unilever is spreading the message of the importance of water conservation Sheree Russouw Deep in the rural hinterlands, classrooms in Khula village in northern Dukuduku are becoming true reservoirs of learning. The faces of children attending school here are animated as they discuss the importance of conserving water. The teachers and the eager pupils are […]
Only political change will put the economy back on its feet, writes John Robertson Like the front-runner in a demolition derby, Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe has left behind a trail of destruction as he races for the finishing line, frantically trying to avoid being overtaken. Whoever wins, a massive amount of restoration work will have […]
Basic mathematical and scientific skills can be learned through the art of bell-ringing Pierre du Bois If you ever wanted to hear what mathematics sound like, listen closely the next time you hear church bells ring. The music made when ringing the bells is a string of different possible mathematical combinations called “changes”, which may […]
A Harare-based film company is using movies as a unique brand of social activism Julie Goodman It is early evening and thousands of people are gathered at an old bus stop in Dzivaresekwa, a congested township in Zimbabwe’s capital, Harare. Rap music pulses through large speakers, women stand with babies tied to their backs, teenagers […]
Kevin Scott It will always influence you. No one can avoid it, some have even worshipped it, and whether you hate it or love it depends on your location. Good or bad, there’s no argument that the weather always serves as an excellent conversational gambit. And so it’s no surprise that Mnikeli Ndabambi, deputy director […]
Fringe Events: The South African Institute for Aquatic Biodiversity Something Fishy When: March 13, Time: 11h30 to 12h30 Nadine Strydom: Baby fish, so what! This talk will take you through the developmental stages of larval fishes, exploring their growth cycle, how they look and what they eat.
Wisani wa ka Ngobeni The Southern African Catholic Bishops Conference (SACBC) has slammed the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (Nepad), calling some of its proposals “dubious” and criticising a lack of consultation with those it would affect. Speaking at the end of a one-day SACBC conference in Pretoria attended by Nepad representatives, the church leaders […]
Jaspreet Kindra An imbongi (praise-singer) heralding Inkatha Freedom Party leader Mangosuthu Buthelezi has fuelled African National Congress-Inkatha Freedom Party tensions by hurling insults at senior ANC members, including Nelson Mandela. The IFP insisted on the imbongi’s inclusion at the recent opening of the legislature, despite official ANC pro-tests. At last year’s legislature opening the singer […]
Lynda Gilfillan Mention Meerlust, and something of a South African myth is conjured up. So much so, that in JM Coetzee’s award-winning novel, Disgrace, a bottle of Meerlust wine is mentioned as part of a crucial seduction scene. Marry Meerlust with grappa, and, well, who knows what might happen! Hannes Myburgh, 8th generation proprietor of […]
Business is chafing as the new Immigration Bill is held up by party politicking Marianne Merten The long-delayed Immigration Bill is set for a further round of public opinion sounding by Parliament’s home affairs committee, prompting complaints of “paralysis by consultation”. It is understood that Minister of Home Affairs and Inkatha Freedom Party leader Mangosuthu […]
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 […]
Tracey Farren Exactly a year after 20-year-old Juan van Minnen was stabbed to death on a homebound train, a Western Cape organisation the Railway Commuter’s Action Group (RCAG) is taking Metrorail to court for failing to protect train passengers. Also summoned to a hearing in Cape Town’s High Court in June are the South African […]