Staff Reporter

analysis Duncan Hindle Khulekani Mathe raises important issues about the role of adult learners in policy formulation processes, and the extent to which their needs are addressed in those processes (“Is anybody out there listening to the learners?”, October 5). The Department of Education appreciates his comments in this regard, but wishes to respond. Mathe […]

analysis Judith Streak In principle all children in South Africa have a set of socio-economic rights that includes social security. The Bill of Rights and signed international treaties give children the right to social services, including social security, basic health and nutrition, basic housing and shelter, and basic education. A recent study commissioned by the […]

Khadija Magardie “It is said the measure of the quality of a democracy is the state of its prisons but I say it is through the diversity of its media,” says veteran journalist Anton Harber, the newly appointed head of the University of the Witwatersrand’s School of Journalism. Although in terms of diversity Harber gives […]

Mail & Guardian reporter Food becomes theatre this month when Gauteng launches its annual Gourmet Festival in an attempt to steal some of the limelight from the Cape as the fine dining province of the country. Indeed, the festival aims to promote itself as a positive part of what its press release refers to as […]

Marianne Merten At the end of a week of bizarre zig-zags in the Western Cape politics, Premier Gerald Morkel stands alone in the political wilderness while axed Cape Town mayor Peter Marais looks set to stage a political comeback. Hours after Morkel was suspended from the New National Party for defying his political bosses and […]

spirit level Cedric Mayson The telephone exchange in Heaven has been suffering from overload. Both United States President George W Bush and Osama bin Laden have been using their hot line to God on an hourly basis. Israelis and Palestinians both report direct contact on high. Christians and Muslims in Nigeria are fighting for fibre-optic […]

Three cheers for the bravery of our communications minister comment Suzanne Vos Very early last Thursday morning, the day of Parliament’s debate on the Telecommunications Amendment Bill, I received a telephone call at home from African National Congress MP Nkenke Kekana, the (genuinely excellent) chairperson of the National Assembly’s Portfolio Committee on Communications. He uttered […]

The truncated version of my letter, published under the provocative title: “Pious Seepe hasn’t read the literature on political parties” (October 26) contributed little to an important debate. My point was that Sipho Seepe’s sweeping claim that the “silence” of members of the African National Congress on important issues “is a reflection on either their […]

CRICKET Neil Sonnekus Back in the Seventies there was a heavily Expressionist-type style of black art in magazines like Staffrider and on record covers by the likes of one of our greatest bands, Sakhile. It was deeply political in subject matter but highly original in conception. To reconstruct an image from memory and imagination: a […]

Reigning Horse of the Year Celtic Grove makes his third appearance in five weeks in the R500000 grade 1 November Handicap over 1600m at Gosforth Park on Saturday, and his legion of followers will be hoping he picks up the winning trail again. Certainly, the David Ferraris-trained gelding seems to have a better chance at […]

Jaspreet Kindra The New National Party’s fears of being outmanoeuvred by the Democratic Party in the Democratic Alliance were raised by NNP leader Marthinus van Schalkwyk in the party’s provincial structures as early as March this year. This emerges from the minutes of a meeting of the NNP provincial executive committee in the Northern Province […]

SOCCER James Richardson As football crises go, the one running at Fiorentina right now takes some beating. Tuscany’s top team are up to their teeth in trouble: without an owner, stripped of their best players, and threatened by both relegation and bankruptcy. And to top it off, this week there’s the real risk their own […]

Simon Kuper Luxembourg were on a roll. They had just taken a 2-1 lead in Belgrade and were being cheered on by the Yugoslav fans. But then, in an unfortunate 14-minute spell, they conceded five goals and it was all over. Last month, just three days after that match, Luxembourg manager Paul Philipp was called […]

Mungo Soggot The family of African National Congress stalwart Thomas Nkobi has implicated ANC heavyweight Joe Modise in an allegedly fraudulent ploy by a businessman embroiled in the arms scandal to use Nkobi’s name in bids for defence contracts. Shabir Shaik, whose Nkobi Holdings company was raided last month by the Scorpions as part of […]

Sundowns have to overcome Petro Atletico to reach the Champions League final Ntuthuko Maphumulo Some teams make history, others are part of history, and Sundowns will be looking to add a new chapter to the history books of the African Champions League this weekend. Only one team from Southern Africa has won the continent’s top […]

NO blows BARRED Sipho Seepe To defend the indefensible one must resort to some twisted logic. To maintain and reproduce its values the apartheid government relied on the big lie of white supremacy. To sustain this big lie it had to marshal other lies. This included misrepresentation of the Bible to provide theological justification of […]

Marianne Merten The chance discovery of two hidden cameras and a listening device in the Cape High Court has again put the spotlight on the state’s conduct in prosecuting five high-profile members of People against Gangsterism and Drugs (Pagad) for the 1996 murder of Cape gang boss Rashaad Staggie. Only three months ago state prosecutor […]

North American responses to anthrax highlight the apparent hypocrisy of the developed world’s position on patents Belinda Beresford Faced with the threat of a killer disease invading its borders, the Canadian government acted with commendable swiftness, acquiring a stockpile of one of the best antibiotics to treat it. But because the patent holder couldn’t supply […]

Matt Haig One thing to have survived the dot.com slump intact is the obsession for e-business acronyms, and B2T, referring to the business-to-teenage online market, is the latest. As teenagers are typically receptive to new technologies, companies targeting this market are being advised to use the Internet not only as a medium to communicate their […]

The residents of one of the Cape’s most popular coastal towns are working together to find solutions to conflict Tracey Farren Muizenberg, the once-grand town near the point where two seas meet, is back from the dead. This time it has a blacker face and speaks a multitude of languages. Writers, artists, tradespeople and refugees […]

Granite: Granite, like the gladiators of ancient Rome, is the toughest of the tough, the meanest of the mean. His motto is: “You can achieve anything in life as long as you believe in yourself.” Spider: Take heed of what this “hanging man” has to say: “Make as many friends as possible and have lots […]

It is with much disgust that I note your lack of professionalism as an editor of a major South African publication when you tell Hansie Cronje to “fuck off”. A more objective and insightful view is what I would expect from an editor like yourself, but what should I be expecting from someone as crass […]

Charlene Smith Should women stop on isolated roads for unmarked vehicles occupied by men who may or may not be wearing police uniforms? In a country where police vehicles and cars are routinely stolen and women are often forced off the road and gang-raped, I think any woman who stops her car in a lonely […]

Niki Moore In a high-tech, sealed room in the Sugar Experimental Station at Mt Edgecombe, human figures move around in white lab coats and sterile coverings. No, they’re not developing a new killer virus to wipe out mankind as we know it they’re actually breeding thousands of caterpillars. The caterpillar in question, however, has the […]

GLENDA DANIELS AND DAVID MACFARLANE, Johannesburg | Friday A “cowboy style” management dictates the running of e.tv, causing a massive staff turnover that threatens the survival of the free-to-air broadcaster, staff members say. The controversial three-year-old TV station is racked by infighting. This, the shenanigans of top management and an ongoing financial crisis, say e.tv […]

PEDZISAI RUHANYA, Harare | Thursday ZIMBABWE’S Deputy Minister of Transport and Communications, Christopher Mushowe, has acquired a masters degree in Public Administration, but he failed the exam. High Court judge Elizabeth Gwaunza slammed the vice-chancellor of the University of the Zimbabwe, Professor Graham Hill, for awarding Mushowe a pass mark, even though he failed the […]

THE Nigerian government on Wednesday decided that the country’s budget for 2002 should be based on a price of $18 per barrel of crude oil, as against $22 for the current year, a minister said. The government plans to spend about 843-billion naira ($7,5-billion) in 2002, with capital expenditure accounting for 414 billion naira ($3,7-billion), […]

THE Zimbabwe government has approved the commercialisation of the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation (ZBC) into a public company wholly owned by the government. The Herald reported that the ZBC commercialisation Bill will soon go to parliament. The Bill intends to split the public broadcaster into two separate companies: one responsible for Broadcasting and the other for […]

TWO South African Airways flights were grounded on Thursday night, after flight attendants and personnel in Cape Town discovered a latex glove and “white powerdery substance” on a plane being readied for flight to Johannesburg. According to SAA, all personnel were ordered to leave the aircraft. The police were called, and chemical decontamination specialists Waste […]

THE South African government is concerned about the deaths of civilians in Afghanistan, and has called for constraint in the use by the US of military strikes, an official said on Tuesday. “While South Africa recognises the right of the United States government to track down the perpetrators of the September 11 terrorist attacks to […]

SIX staff members at the US consulate general in Durban, South Africa, were taken to a hospital for tests after an anthrax scare Tuesday, said public relations officer Amelia Broderick. She said the secretary to consul general Craig Kuehl opened a typed envelope, addressed to the consulate general, which contained “an unidentified white powder”. “We […]

EGYPTIAN President Hosni Mubarak offered support to the United States in its war on terrorism, but reiterated his opposition to a prolonged conflict that goes beyond Afghanistan, in an interview with Newsweek magazine. “I support the United States in fighting terrorism,” Mubarak said in the interview to appear in the weekly’s Monday edition. “We suffered […]