Staff Reporter

Killing the (M)other and Borderlines Goodman Gallery January 19 to February 9 While Johannesburg waits for its art scene to awaken from its summer stupor, we can look forward to what January’s forthcoming exhibitions have to offer. The Goodman sets a serious tone with its first exhibition, a two-woman exhibition by Gail Iris Neke and […]

comment Shirley Mabusela We feel we should provide clarification on the supposed misunderstanding that has resulted from the Human Rights Commission’s decision to withdraw as a friend of the court in an action brought by the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) aimed at challenging the government to provide free nevirapine to all pregnant mothers with HIV/Aids […]

Shyaka Kunuma’s article “It’s time to stop whining” is a great piece of work, and I am not only saying that because I agree with the message. I have been trying to say the same thing for 10 years, with very little success. May he be more successful at getting the message across. The fundamedntal […]

Marianne Merten Statues of Cape Town’s colonial history stand cheek-by-jowl with symbols of the new South Africa for example Parliament but memorials commemorating the anti-apartheid struggle are mostly off the beaten tourist track. An abstract creation by renowned Cape artist Tyrone Appolis commemorates the October 1985 “Trojan Horse” killings in Athlone on the Cape Flats. […]

A very intelligent, socially committed young man murdered a young woman and is now serving a 10-year jail sentence; a worker almost drowned in the river while removing bramble; a 24-year-old woman hit a fellow worker on the forehead with a plank; an unemployed young man with matric exemption knocks at my door and before […]

In the first of two articles David Shapshak reviews 2001 and tells us what to expect in 2002 After Stanley Kubrick’s eponymous film, the year 2001 was tipped for mighty things. Although 2001: A Space Odyssey heralded technological marvels such as the talking computer called HAL and the scenes of space travel they would prove […]

Kevin Scott Not many museums expect visitors to go on a 40-minute walk in the scorching semi-Kalahari sun to see their main exhibit in summer, temperatures can easily blast past 40. But this is exactly what a visit to the Wildebeest Kuil rock art site 15km outside of Kimberley demands. The expectation is justified, though. […]

What you need is your own sexual revolution BODY LANGUAGE Jeanette Winterson Sex who needs it? You do. New Year’s resolutions are wasted on diets and good works. Forget the year ahead and make 2002 the year to come. Why do I say this? Not because I want to turn Body Language into a cover […]

Congratulations to Sipho Seepe on another brilliant article (“Challenged by our times”, December 14 2001). It is difficult to add a word to his exposure of the inadequacy of President Thabo Mbeki. The time has arrived for the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) to confront this president instead of pleading with him. Once again they have […]

The government killed two birds with one stone this week when it announced a crafty deal to raise $479-million from Transnet’s stake in M-Cell, writes Bongani Majola. The transaction, with Dutch finance company Ice Finance BV, provides a welcome cash injection for the state’s coffers, and also signals to the markets the government’s commitment to […]

Lagos | Thursday THE Nigerian government will on Thursday open bidding for potentially lucrative licences to set up and run privately-owned oil refineries in Africa’s largest oil producing country, officials said on Wednesday. The potential investors, said to include a number of Nigerian and foreign firms, have all paid a non-refundable deposit of $50 000 […]

MICHEL SAILHAN, Cairo | Thursday TUTANKHAMUN’S golden treasures are due to be moved from downtown Cairo to a new state-of-the-art museum complex which will be built near the Great Pyramids in the next few years, officials said on Wednesday. The collection, including the famous pharaonic boy king’s gold funerary mask, has been on display for […]

Johannesburg | Wednesday SOUTH Africa’s transport utility Transnet has sold its 20% stake in mobile operator M-Cell to a Dutch company, Ice Finance BV, the Public Enterprises Minister Jeff Radebe said on Tuesday. The proceeds from the sale are about R5,7-billion ($475-million), representing an 18-percent premium over the share’s current trading price. “This transaction is […]

A PIETERMARITZBURG man – dubbed by the Road Traffic Inspectorate the “Silliest Driver of the Year” – appeared briefly in the Camperdown Magistrate’s Court outside Pietermaritzburg in KwaZulu-Natal, SABC radio news reported on Monday. Kennedy Msimang was not asked to plead on two counts of speeding and two of drunk driving. Msimang was apparently trapped […]

ALMOST 12 000 ships used the Suez Canal in the first 10 months of 2001, up on the same period of last year when a record was set for revenues, the head of the canal authority said Tuesday. A total of “11 823 ships transporting 385,5-million tons used the Suez Canal in the first 10 […]

THE president of Somalia’s transitional government on Tuesday ruled out any US strike on his country, which he said no longer harbours terrorist organisations, the Al-Zaman daily newspaper reports. “We have succeeded in opening a direct dialogue with the Americans and we do not think the United States will carry out any kind of strike […]

Pretoria | Wednesday SOUTH African President Thabo Mbeki is to host a meeting of pro-peace Palestinian officials and Israelis in support of existing Middle East peace initiatives, starting on Wednesday, Deputy Foreign Minister Aziz Pahad has announced. He added however that the Israelis at the talks would not be representing their government, and that the […]

POLICE have arrested 138 people after Egyptian traders in the Mediterranean city of Port Said staged a violent protest over the revocation of duty-free privileges, judicial sources said on Tuesday. Twenty of the protestors were accused of inciting an illegal gathering and of damaging public property during the riot late Sunday, while 118 others remained […]

THE Nigerian police late on Tuesday said they were investigating the death of a man identified as a senior aide to the country’s top judge, but were still to determine whether he had been murdered. The Abuja police command confirmed that the man, identified as SA Awonusi, the secretary to Chief Justice Muhammadu Uwais, head […]

THE body of a South African National Defence Force (SANDF) finance clerk, who was apparently murdered in Burundi last week, arrived at the Waterkloof Air Force base late on Tuesday. The body of Elvis Azwefawi Makhado (42) was received with full military honours, after being offloaded from an aircraft in a coffin. Makhado, a civilian […]

THE United States has deployed a special air force plane to deliver mail to its embassies in Africa following a threat from mail containing anthrax, aviation sources said in Kampala on Sunday. Sources at Uganda’s Entebbe Airport said that a C-141 transport plane has been flying into the airport to deliver and pick-up diplomatic bags […]

Kabul | Monday AFGHAN officials were confident on Sunday of capturing the elusive Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar, as US bombers pounded hills near the eastern city of Jalalabad in a bid to wipe out al-Qaeda stragglers. US forces questioned Abdul Salam Zaeef, the toppled Taliban regime’s former ambassador to Pakistan, for information on Taliban […]

SEVEN people were killed and 80 others wounded on Monday in a gun battle and fighting between prisoners and guards putting down a riot at a prison in Khartoum, the interior ministry said. The ministry said that five prisoners and two guards were killed in the clashes that raged during the afternoon, while another 23 […]

A Briton has appeared in a Malawi court charged with sodomising boys from a local orphanage to whom he sometimes gave food, clothes and shelter, court officials said on Friday. The officials said a magistrates’ court here heard testimonies on Thursday from three boys among a dozen who allege to have been molested by Edward […]

A 72-year-old white South African woman was shot dead on Sunday on her farm near Tzaneen, in the Northern Province, police said. Two men tied up Susan van den Heever before shooting and killing her, breaking into a safe, stealing three firearms and escaping, according to inspector James Ngoepe. More than 1 000 people, mostly […]

AT least 13 people died when a river ferry carrying a truck turned over in eastern Senegal, emergency services said on Sunday. An undetermined number of people were also missing from the tragedy, which occurred on Saturday night in Fongolomby in the region of Kedougou, a correspondent for Walf-FM radio reported from the region. Emergency […]

MAX HAMATA, Windhoek | Monday IMMIGRATION officials at Luderitz have discovered four stowaways from Congo-Brazzaville who were dumped off the Namibian coast about 200 kilometres from Luderitz just over a week ago. Officials in Luderitz told The Namibian that the four youths aged 21, 16, 17 and 14 were discovered after an aircraft flying from […]

THE driver of the truck being blamed for 48 deaths near Roossenekal on Sunday appeared at the Middelburg Magistrate’s Court on Wednesday, Mpumalanga police said. Captain Malculm Mokomene said the driver was released and would appear again in court on January 24. The truck around 8pm on Sunday was transporting about 120 people — mostly […]

SOUTH African police has confiscated more than 1,5 million tablets of the hypnotic drug Mandrax worth $8,5-million dollars in an upmarket suburb north of Johannesburg. Police on Thursday raided two homes in Sandton, about 12 kilometres north of the city centre, which had been used as a Mandrax factory, the Johannesburg-based The Star reported. Inside […]

The former chief executive of the Lesotho Highlands Development Authority was pushed into court in a hospital bed to hear a judge convict him on 13 counts of taking bribes from international firms.