Staff Reporter

David Macfarlane Thousands of schoolchildren look set to start their school year in January without textbooks but provincial education departments are refusing to admit this. And although budgeted expenditure on textbooks and stationery for the coming year is R1,1-billion an increase of about 15% questions are being raised about how much of this will actually […]

Barry Streek The Democratic Alliance has started picking up the pieces after the “great schism”, broadening its top leadership structure to keep New National Party members on board and make it more racially representative. The party’s national management committee decided this week to co-opt four black Democratic Party members MPs Donald Lee, Dan Maluleke and […]

Immigration legislation needs to be passed urgently to facilitate the flow of finance managers, IT personnel and engineers into the country Glenda Daniels Over the past year South Africa lost more professionals than during any similar period in the past 60 years, according to the South African Institute of Race Relation’s latest report on the […]

Barry Streek The South African Police Service confirmed this week that it is investigating alleged irregularities in the Thabo Mbeki Crossroads Education Fund as well as the theft of R30 000 from the African National Congress’s Western Cape provincial caucus. Police gave no further details about the probe into the education fund. The fund’s chairperson, […]

I have recently arrived in the New South Africa, and I was wondering what is the point of your column entitled “Body Language”? As a gender specialist, I do not see the purpose of employing an archaic “inyour-face” tone as a method toward greater awareness in tackling gender-related issues. It is more likely that you […]

Barry Streek Chinese explorers travelled to Southern Africa 150 years before their European counterparts were able to find a sea route to East Asia, National Assembly Speaker Frene Ginwala told a conference in Japan this week. The Chinese connection has been demonstrated by a map drawn by Ming cartographer Ch’uan Chin in 1402 at the […]

Paul Kirk A favoured daughter of the African National Congress looks set to face criminal prosecution for the alleged theft of trust funds while she practised as an attorney. Police this week told the Mail & Guardian that Durban socialite and former attorney Linda Zama could also face charges involving alleged irregularities involving both tax […]

Evidence wa ka Ngobeni A spate of disciplinary actions against South African ambassadors abroad has sparked a major row in the Department of Foreign Affairs over the chastising of political appointees by lower-level civil service functionaries. The Foreign Affairs Department has in the past few months instituted disciplinary action against five top diplomats, including heads […]

MARIANNE MERTEN, Cape Town | Friday AMID condolences and warm tributes to murdered former first lady Marike de Klerk – initially thought to have committed suicide after years of depression following her divorce and singledom – her dark side has been largely forgotten. Apparently a reluctant politician’s wife, she had tried to persuade her former […]

Mungo Soggot A leader of the right-wing underworld, Johan Niemoller, has been sentenced to jail for trading in R1,1-million worth of illegal diamonds. Niemoller was arrested and charged in 1998 in the Krugersdorp Magistrate’s Court for selling the diamonds, but his conviction and sentencing now have special poignancy as his name has come up in […]

Ngwako Modjadji The South African Certification Council (Safcert) has asked to meet Minister of Education Kader Asmal in the wake of a spate of leaks during this year’s matric exams. The leaks have prompted Safcert an independent oversight body established by an Act of Parliament to take a number of unprecedented measures to ensure the […]

Motorola’s new top-end cellphone would not look amiss in William Shatner’s hands David Shapshak Motorola’s clam shell cellphones have always reminded me of the Star Trek communicator, none more so than the latest top-end phone that features a powerful personal digital assistant (PDA). The Accompli 008, which features a Palm-like touch screen, would not look […]

Kabul | Monday HEAVY fighting flared on Monday for a second day close to the Taliban’s southern bastion of Kandahar as tribal forces backed by intense US air raids tried to storm the airport, anti-Taliban officials said. Afghanistan’s diehard Taliban fighters were on notice to surrender or die as the Americans and their Afghan allies […]

Q&A: Peet pienaar Guy Willoughby Multifaceted artist Peet Pienaar was one of the prime movers behind the edgy, boundary-blurring Nescaf Post Festival of Art, Theatre, Video and Music at the revamped Bijou Theatre in Observatory, Cape Town, last week. One of your chief aims was to cross art and media divides. Did this happen? Absolutely. […]

Richard Williams The key words were these: “They regard him as a kindred spirit, someone who takes on all-comers and does things his way …” His way. It was impossible to miss the significance of that particular phrase. It appeared in Sunday’s Observer, as part of a piece speculating on the possibility that the members […]

Senegal are drawn to play the opening game against France Simon Kuper We can already predict most of the next World Cup: the vilification of the coaches, footballers disgruntled at missing their summer holiday, and one of the five usual suspects winning the trophy. In fact, it will be such a familiar event that we […]

Men grow old disgracefully so why not women? BODY LANGUAGE Katharine Whitehorn The sight of Cilla Black in fishnet tights and spangled hearts at the Royal Variety Performance, not to mention the equally glittering Barbara Windsor, gave an entirely new meaning to the admiring phrase “endless legs”. Also long-life bosoms, immemorial smiles and a valiant […]

Cape Town | Friday A SECURITY guard who worked at the home of Marike de Klerk, the 64-year-old ex-wife of former South African president FW de Klerk, has confessed to her murder, police said on Friday. Investigating officer Mike Barkhuizen said: “The man we were holding has confessed to Mrs de Klerk’s murder.” A post […]

Mail & Guardian Reporter Five NGOs walked away with R50 000 each in Ashoka’s Citizen Base Initiative Awards earlier this week. The winners were the Joubert Park Neighbourhood Development Association, the Western Cape Blind Association, Fair Trade in Tourism South Africa, The Kids Care Project Trust and Agape Copeland Train. The competition is held in […]

Offshore listings, speculators and the situation in Zimbabwe have handed the currency a thrashing Mungo Soggot Shocking figures released by the Reserve Bank this week show that an annualised R45-billion left South Africa in the third quarter because of the major local companies that have listed offshore, exacerbating the collapse of the rand. The figures, […]

Group B, made up of South Africa, seeded team Spain, Paraguay and Slovenia will be based in Korea. Korea is a peninsular country, with rugged mountains, that dangles from the south-east corner of Asia. What the Koreans lack in natural resources such as oil and other minerals they make up for in technology and business. […]

The ANC has made its clearest statement yet of the ‘denialist’ position on HIV/Aids associated with President Thabo Mbeki Jaspreet Kindra In a briefing document posted on its website last week, the African National Congress says there are still disputes about whether an infective agent exists, whether it is a virus, and whether a virus […]

THE Southern African Development Community (SADC) is to hold an emergency meeting on the crisis in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) in mid-January, Malawi President Bakili Muluzi said on Wednesday, saying his country would host the meeting. “There is need for continued efforts if genuine peace is to be ensured in the DRC,” Muluzi […]

Why is the world’s media so inconsistent when reporting on the military occupation in Palestine? When 26 Israelis were killed in bombings this weekend it created a crisis that mobilised the world and saturated the media, while the targeting and killing of hundreds of unarmed Palestinian civilians, a third of them children, and the suffocation […]

Bongani Majola The Freedom of Expression Institute (FXI) has condemned a decision by Jonathan Ball publishers not to let Robert Kirby’s Songs of the Cockroach see the light of day at least not under its imprint. Renowned for his scathing satire, the Mail & Guardian’s television columnist’s book was refused publication on the basis that […]

The Kimberley Process campaign to stop trade in conflict diamonds is swinging into gear Mungo Soggot The South African Diamond Board has set up a special office in Kimberley to monitor “conflict diamonds” amid speculation that the diamond town has become a key laundering point for illicit gems from war zones like Angola. Abbey Chikane, […]

David Macfarlane One in two South African adults cannot read or write, but the government continues to allocate dismally low resources to this national scourge and to adult education generally. Basic education for adults is being increasingly sidelined in government priorities, a major conference last week in Johannesburg repeatedly heard. One of the country’s largest […]

NIGERIANS on Wednesday gave a rousing welcome to the 2001 Miss World, their compatriot Agbani Darego, shortly after she arrived at the Abuja international airport. Her reception in the presidential wing of the airport was transmitted live on national television. Women ministers in President Olusegun Obasanjo’s cabinet, including the minister of women’s affairs, Aishat Ismail, […]

Glenda Daniels Zimbabwe can be saved from economic collapse only if its President, Robert Mugabe, is removed from power at the next election, general secretary of the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) Zwelinzima Vavi said this week. Speaking after a three-day meeting of the Southern Africa Trade Union Co-ordination Council (Satucc) in Johannesburg, […]

Barry Streek The public protector is investigating alleged unlawful conduct by National Council of Provinces secretary Lulu Matyolo, after a top parliamentary official declined to act against her. Public Protector Selby Baqwa confirmed this week that he was investigating the matter. The inquiry was also confirmed by the secretary to Parliament, Sindiso Mfenyane. Matyolo was […]

Barry Streek The much-heralded two-day grilling of the arms deal investigators by Parliament’s public accounts committee has turned out a damp squib, with little of significance emerging. Facing Parliament’s public accounts committee, Auditor General Shauket Fakie admitted he had submitted the investigators’ draft report to the Cabinet but said only he and Speaker Frene Ginwala […]

The parallels between Israel and the South Africa of PW Botha grow daily more striking. Since besieged Israeli voters installed militarist Ariel Sharon as leader, security considerations have replaced politics, violence and counter-violence have spiralled out of control, state assassination has been sanctioned, whole communities are punished for individual crimes, voices of reason are systematically […]