Staff Reporter

Negotiated transition averted mass bloodshed COMMENT Saeb Erakat and Yossi Beilin These feel like the worst of days. Last week saw Israeli air raids on the Palestinian headquarters in Tulkarm, in retaliation for the killing by a Palestinian gunman of six Israeli civilians at a bat mitzvah or coming-of-age party. That was a revenge attack […]

A SECOND LOOK Brian Ndoda Biyela Anthony Holiday’s perplexing article in the Mail & Guardian last week reveals how he fails to discern President Thabo Mbeki’s shrewd leadership of the government. Mbeki’s call is bigger and more noble than just pleasing the new black elite and their counterparts from Houghton and Constantia. When black arrivistes […]

David Macfarlane Months of hostilities between Unisa and the Ministry of Education reached boiling point this week when they faced each other in court on Thursday after negotiations to reach a settlement failed. There is now mounting alarm within the university that the turmoil Unisa’s court application has generated is obscuring, and worsening, a long-standing […]

The troubles of Baixinha, the “pretty” rhino who became world famous, are far from over Fiona Macleod Veterinarians say Baixinha, an extremely rare and rather famous East African black rhino being kept at a game farm near Brits, may die of bleeding stomach ulcers before “canned” hunters can get to her. A professional hunter offered […]

Bongani Majola and Thebe Mabanga Johannesburg’s Nelson Mandela Theatre is host to an uneasy mix of audience members. Zulu-speaking hostel residents from surrounding settlements rub shoulders with black and white suburbanites keen to learn more about Zulu history. All have come to watch the life story of Zulu king Shaka in the musical Bayede Shaka: […]

theatre GuyWilloughby Cape Comedy Collective, Armchair Theatre, Observatory. Every Sunday giggle at a line-up of comics at their home venue. On Sunday January 27 guffaw at the first of a new Month That Was series, a monthly comic look at current events (and non-events) with Stuart Taylor, Petra Sheiber, Nik Rabinowitz, Melanie Jones, Warren Harding […]

Glenda Daniels With a week to go before the latest deadline for settlement, a draft accord between unions and the government, leaked to the Mail & Guardian, highlights key outstanding differences on retrenchments and staff transfers in the state bureaucracy. The government has been pushing for a deal since last year’s public service job summit, […]

Mail & Guardian Reporter Each of Gauteng’s 2 409 schools will be equipped with 25 networked computers in the next five years if the Gauteng Online initiative meets its goal. And every one of the 1,5-million learners will be assigned personal e-mail addresses, while more than 12000 educators will be trained in information and communication […]

Drew Forrest The recent pow-wow between the top brass of the African National Congress and the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu)was “one of the most constructive since 1994”, National Union of Mineworkers’ general secretary Gwede Mantashe insisted this week. Mantashe was among the union chiefs who met President Thabo Mbeki and a team […]

Thebe Mabanga The Pan Africanist Congress plans to broaden its support base by pitch- ing to the white community and specifically Afrikaners. This interesting shift in a party famed for its slogan “one settler, one bullet” was disclosed by PAC secretary general Thami ka Plaatjie this week. Ka Plaatjie said the appeal to Afrikaners would […]

Microsoft chooses security to increase consumers’ trust in computers, writes David Shapshak The computer world entered a new era last week, if Bill Gates is to be believed, when the Microsoft boss announced that “trustworthy computing” is now the “highest priority for all the work we are doing”. It couldn’t come any sooner for beleaguered […]

Never mind losing the plot, did Harry Viljoen ever have one? Andy Capostagno Harry Viljoen resigned as Springbok coach at the weekend citing intrusions into his private life and media pressure, particularly from Supersport. He lasted just over a year in the job and won eight of his 15 matches in charge. If the final […]

Thebe Mabanga The general secretary of the Pan Africanist Congress, Thami ka Plaatjie, has reiterated his party’s support for Robert Mugabe, and attacked the media and “right-wing liberals” for exaggerating the Zimbabwean president’s woes. The PAC’s support for Zimbabwe’s ruling party has been unwavering since early last year when Ka Plaatjie told news agency Reuters […]

Jockey Karl Neisius rates Australian-bred Laisserfaire the best filly he has partnered and the ice-cool rider has the chance to guide her to her tenth win from just 14 races in the R250 000 weight-for-age grade 1 Cape Flying Championship over 1 000m at Kenilworth on Saturday. The brilliant daughter of Danehill, from the string […]

Nawaal Deane The Road Accident Fund has embarked on ambitious changes to put an end to large-scale corruption by some attorneys and by syndicates operating in the fund. The new projects are in response to an audit report last year that slammed the running of the fund and found that “systematic fraud is being perpetrated […]

In your report card for Minister of Arts, Culture, Science and Technology Ben Ngubane (December 20 2001) you commend the department for milestones in science and technology. You cite the South African Large Telescope (SALT) and the Innovation Fund. A more complete review would also have tracked new initiatives. Although we achieved many things last […]

Thabo Mohlala Andrew Feinstein, a former African National Congress MP who resigned from his post over the arms deal imbroglio, has found a new job in London with Investec, a South African bank with a significant presence in Britain. His new responsibilities seem to dovetail with the central plank of his party: development of the […]

The surprise of the Spier Opera Season has been an Africanised adaptation of a Purcell opera with Amampondo and the Free Flight Dance Company Guy Willoughby The Spier Arts Trust set up in the mid-Nineties at this magnificently appointed estate in the choicest part of the Stellenbosch valley resembles its companion wine industry more and […]

Neil McKenzie is the ideal replacement for Shaun Pollock, whose leadership has been cruelly exposed Peter Robinson So one swallow even a pair of them quite obviously doesn’t make a summer. Come to think of it, those victories over New Zealand and Australia at the start of the one-day series hardly seem swallows any longer. […]

Paul Kirk A key member of Parliament’s public accounts committee and a local arms company boss are squaring up for a fight with the auditor general that may well test the Promotion of Access to Information Act in court for the first time. The pending battle looks certain after Auditor General Shauket Fakie dismissed their […]

Glenda Daniels Collect-a-bag scheme? Biodegradable plastics? Spot fines for litterbugs? Brown paper bags? Ten cents for your own plastic bag? These proposals are probably not up for negotiation before the government uses its big stick on environmentally unsound plastic bags. Regulations were passed last year, and from January next year stiff penalties up to R10 […]

In his letter “Come back to us, Brother Seepe, all will be forgiven” (January 18) Rabelani Dagada mentions a number of academics who he claims would not be what they are had it not been for the African National Congress’s contribution. He mentions people such as Vincent Maphai, Chris Landsberg, Xolela Mangcu, among others. I […]

Millions believe 4 000 Jews stayed away from the World Trade Centre on September 11. Harmless conspiracy theory? Or sign of a virulent new anti-semitism? Linda Grant on how the Arab world is exporting an old hatred to the West On September 18 Al-Manar television based in Beirut broadcast a news item that subsequently appeared […]

Suzan Chala It seems South Africans are better businessfolk than Germans. In this country, women who are looking for “fun” pay in advance. Media reports last week quoted German police saying a brothel catering for women in that country had closed because female clients refused to pay in advance and afterwards paid only what they […]

I was very interested in “Naval officer shielded by arms report changes” by Paul Kirk (January 11). While I stand by the first quoted statement attributed to me (“I know that the drafts were altered. I do not suspect it, I know it.”) I deny that the second observation attributed to me is accurate (“Young […]

Through partnerships and hard labour, a small community has improved its children’s education, writes Kerry Swift The air of resignation that hung over Chief Zenzile Daluxolo’s lands in the Transkei region during the reign of the Matanzimas has given way to eager expectation. Political emancipation has come for the chief and his wards, but with […]

I agree with most of Margaret Legum’s argument (“Footloose Capital Must be Brought to Heel”, January 18), but I cannot agree with her conclusions. A basic income grant (even if it is affordable to the country) is a passive remedy. Humans need work, not only to satisfy material needs, but also to fulfill their need […]

A leading diamond merchant’s heavily discounted sale to the minerals and energy minister has posed serious questions of a conflict of interest Mungo Soggot and Nawaal Deane The Minister of Minerals and Energy, Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, has opened herself to a serious conflict of interest charge by purchasing a traditional tiara from a prominent diamond merchant […]

Jaspreet Kindra Disillusioned by the apparent reconciliation between the trade unions and the African National Congress, United Democratic Movement president Bantu Holomisa now doubts any alliance can be forged between opposition groupings before the 2004 general elections. “I don’t think parties are ready or that our political process is mature enough,” he said this week. […]

A number of mentoring programmes are helping change the behaviour of teenage offenders Tracey Farren The people of Eersterus, near Pretoria, were disgusted when David*, a 15-year-old gangster found guilty of assault, was allowed to do community service at the local life-skills training and counselling centre. After three months of group training and special time, […]

Suppression of human rights continues in Mauritania, one of Africa’s poorest and least-known nations, writes John Matshikiza I flew into Nouakchott, capital of the Saharan state of Mauritania, on November 26 1994. I remember the date precisely, because it was my 40th birthday a watershed moment, celebrated in a land without water. I was leading […]

Mail & Guardian reporter The Mail & Guardian’s literary editor and film reviewer Shaun de Waal has been awarded the 2001 FNB/Vita Thomas Pringle award for his film reviews. The judging committee praised De Waal’s “exceptional way of dealing with a diverse range of subject matter” and noted that his “skill as a reviewer brings […]