Staff Reporter

ONE hundred of the world’s top photographers will descend upon Africa on February 28 to take photographs of the vast continent to be published in a book entitled “A Day in the Life of Africa,” organisers said on Thursday. From the Congo river to Morocco and Rwanda, the photographers will attempt to capture a day […]

DREW FORREST, Johannesburg | Friday IN a powerful parliamentary speech full of veiled signals and undercurrents, Minister of Home Affairs and Inkatha Freedom Party leader Mangosuthu Buthelezi gave notice of his anger with his African National Congress coalition partner this week. Buthelezi was not alone in using the debate on President Thabo Mbeki’s state of […]

A SENIOR Northern Province magistrate charged with statutory rape pleaded not guilty in the Louis Trichardt Magistrate’s Court on Tuesday. The 47-year-old magistrate was arrested after patrolling police allegedly found him and two girls, aged 15 and 19, naked in a car along the road. Inspector Patricia Rakhadani said Magistrate Ailwei Mudau was released on […]

A Sudanese health worker and four other Sudanese civilians were killed when at least three bombs were dropped by government aircraft on the village of Nimne in southern Sudan, the international medical aid organization Doctors Without Borders said Friday. James Koang Mar, who was employed by the organization, worked in a primary health care unit […]

MARIANNE MERTEN, Cape Town | Friday AFTER numerous delays – including a probe into alleged tender improprieties, redrafted tender requirements and an escalation of costs from R800-million in 1996 to perhaps R3,5-billion – the first part of the Home Affairs National Identification System (Hanis) is set for an official hand-over on Monday. Minister of Home […]

David Macfarlane With the ink barely dry on proposals that could see South Africa’s 36 tertiary institutions slashed to 21, it is already clear that massive resistance can be expected from universities and technikons the proposals target. And it is equally clear that Minister of Education Kader Asmal now faces a torrid political battle to […]

The NGO Working Group on Reparations represents a number of NGOs concerned about reparation for and the future welfare of victims of gross human rights abuse. One of these concerns has been government’s long delay in finalising policy and payment to victims identified by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. The TRC’s “final” final report must […]

Kevin Scott Eskom health manager Carl Manser spends more than two of every three of his working days dealing with HIV/Aids. Producing and overseeing counselling services, developing education policies and training staff in ethics, human rights and government policy are all part of Manser’s daily routine. Recent research suggests a fifth of the workforce is […]

The first phase of a billion-rand computerised identification system is to be handed over next week Marianne Merten After numerous delays including a probe into alleged tender improprie-ties, redrafted tender requirements and an escalation of costs from R800-million in 1996 to perhaps R3,5-billion the first part of the Home Affairs National Identification System (Hanis) is […]

BOXING Deon Potgieter The irrepressible Baby Jake Matlala will have his last professional fight at Carnival City on March 2. In October 1988 the question was first put to Matlala: “Are you going to retire now?” That was after his fourth defeat in two years, at the hands of Vuyani Nene. “No” said Matlala. “I’ve […]

Glenda Daniels The explosion in media studies over the past few years in a rapidly shrinking market has not made the University of Port Elizabeth (UPE) shy away from introducing a new master’s programme in this field this year. But the course director of the MA in media, communication and culture at UPE, Professor Danie […]

colloquium Pule Radingwana Apartheid was created to further the particular norms and values of the white community. Taxpayers’ money benefited that group at the expense of black people. Since 1994 there has been a misconception that transformation merely means reformation. Transformation should have a political philosophy, with the aim of meeting the needs and aspirations […]

South Africa needs more than Steve Waugh’s one-day axeing to win Peter Robinson Say what you like about Australians, you have to defer to a nation able to enrich the English language with expressions like “cockheads”. All being well, as Steve Waugh (and someone else) and the Australian cricketers trundle around the country, they might […]

Gideon Mendel is currently exhibiting A Broken Landscape as part of the exhibition Positive Lives in the South African National Gallery in Cape Town. This is his body of work depicting HIV/Aids across Africa, shot over the past decade. From February 16 the gallery will be filled with a vibrant installation that will both challenge […]

Bongani Majola In a document entitled Is the Revolution Safe in Your Hands? the African National Congress Youth League has fiercely attacked the party’s Mpumulanga leadership and the national ANC’s management of party affairs in the province. The document, penned on the eve of the Mpumalanga provincial congress, is a clear attempt to assert the […]

analysis Drew Forrest Last Friday I experienced a creeping sensation every hack knows and dreads publication remorse. The Mail & Guardian was spot on when it reported that there is no immediate prospect of cabinet posts for the New National Party in African National Congress-dominated provinces, as provided for in its pact with the ANC. […]

On Friday we heard the grandiose President Thabo Mbeki speaking (in sonorous phrases, with long pauses for effect) about the alleviation of poverty and the awesome gap between his poor black constituents and whites. He will not, of course, speak about the awesome per capita expenditure gap between himself and those same constituents. This is […]

David Shapshak Ultimately, 20twenty’s most famous billboard pay-off line, a quote from Microsoft chief Bill Gates “Banking is necessary, banks are not” has come back to haunt it and most certainly its parent, Saambou. Despite being a rising local Internet star, the virtual bank is now part of the Saambou meltdown. Like Absa last month, […]

It surprises me that businesses are not getting together to fight Telkom on their criminal price increase at the very least businesses and government departments should refuse to pay Telkom until further notice. How can we develop our economy when we have a single entity essentially stealing millions from the public? Every year Telkom spins […]

Three Southern African countries have sold out the region’s peasants in favour of quick profits and short-term political expediency, a new hard-hitting academic study warns Sizwe samaYende and Justin Arenstein The University of the Western Cape’s school of government claims the systematic betrayal of small-scale and subsistence farmers in Mozambique, South Africa and Zimbabwe is […]

Dear Agony Aunt Honours is over, I have a great idea for a master’s dissertation, and I’ve scraped up money for fees. But am I good enough? Will they accept me? Should I apply to my old university where they know me, or should I change? What about the stress? Is a humanities research degree […]

Thebe Mabanga Three television shows on air reflect the level of sophistication of the country’s young at heart and the diverse, intelligent way in which they consume popular culture. Around 9pm on weekdays is definitely a time for young adults when Bassiq (Wednesdays), The Phat Joe Show (Thursdays) and Castle Loud (Fridays) bring a lively […]

David Macfarlane The University of Natal has been pressing ahead with plans to appoint a new vice-chancellor, Professor Malegapuru Makgoba, despite Minister of Education Kader Asmal’s requests that institutions earmarked for merging refrain from making senior appointments. Following months of turmoil at Unisa, another extraordinary, top-level university fiasco looks set to unfold. Makgoba, president of […]

Ngwako Modjadji The Eastern Cape is the next province in line to consider a name change, now that the Northern Province has announced its new name, Limpopo. A task team is looking into possibilities. Among them are: Kwantu, Robert Sobukwe, KwaXhosa and Kei. North West province Premier Popo Molefe says his province is “too poor” […]

BODY LANGUAGE Robin McKie Doctors are developing artificial wombs in which embryos can grow outside a woman’s body. The work has been hailed as a breakthrough in treating the childless. Scientists have created prototypes made of cells extracted from women’s bodies. Embryos successfully attached themselves to the walls of these laboratory wombs and began to […]

The president has called on communities to work for peace and stability by volunteering to help their local police. Some are ahead of the game with varying reactions from government Pierre du Bois Crime-fatigued South Africans are employing police reservists to protect their towns, despite efforts by police National Commissioner Jackie Selebi to stop them. […]

South Africa’s rapidly changing higher education system makes the Mail & Guardian’s education supplements essential reading for all considering any form of post-matric study whether you’re a matric student wondering what to study after school, a graduate thinking of postgraduate study, or a mid-career professional wanting further qualifications. The next education supplement will be Beyond […]

President Thabo Mbeki should just keep his mouth shut, leave Zimbabwe alone and divert his energy towards saving the rand. Mbeki is so pompous he is now acting god to the suffering Zimbabweans and we should pray to him until we run out of prayers before he can whisper something to Mugabe. After all, it’s […]

Nawaal Deane The Law Society of South Africa has slammed a controversial move by the state-owned Road Accident Fund (RAF) to pay compensation direclty to claimants and not through their attorneys. In a memorandum to the fund, the society says the move will curtail access to justice and is likely to deny compensation to thousands […]

Jaspreet Kindra A Democratic Alliance letter, stipulating that aspirant candidates for the 2004 general elections must pay the party a R10 000 deposit, has sparked a war of words between the DA and its former New National Party ally. At an NNP gathering in Evaton at the weekend, the Nats cited the letter as an […]

comment Itumeleng Mosala The report of the national working group led by Saki Macozoma is simply a disgrace. It is an intellectual disgrace, a political disaster and an educational catastrophe, especially with regard to the rights to higher education of black people in general and African people in particular. Above all, though, the report is […]

Donwald Pressly Minister of Public Enterprises Jeff Radebe announced on Thursday a national sweetener after months of inertia on the privatisation front and ironically he referred to it jokingly as a “nationalisation”. Radebe, who was suffering from flu, was nevertheless unable to contain his pleasure at announcing that South Africa in the form of Transnet […]