Staff Reporter

Mail & Guardian reporters “South Africa’s success stories of tomorrow are not yet in business today,” says Hugh Herman, chairperson of the Investec Group. “If meaningful empowerment comes with the creation of sustainable employment, then we all have a role to play in helping small business take root.” Investec feels strongly about stimulating a vibrant […]

Mail & Guardian reporter The importance of conserving water and treating it with respect is vital to Rand Water’s corporate social responsibility programme, involving educational, hands-on projects that are fun and informative while turning children into “water-wise warriors” who share the message with communities. Other important initiatives in the organisation’s corporate social responsibility programme include […]

Corporate social investment has evolved over the years, although there is still much that can be done Jubie Matlou A great deal of resources continues to flow into communities and to individuals as a form of empowerment and support be it the imparting of skills, the provision of bursaries and amenities, or even donations. These […]

Bongani Majola Africa has the most restrictive laws relating to trade unionism, according to this year’s online survey by the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU). While South Africa and Ghana have arguably First World labour relations, the overall picture for the African continent is increasingly grim. Africa has the third-highest rate of trade […]

David Macfarlane The South African Universities Vice-Chancellors’ Association (Sauvca) announced this week that it has secured the support of all universities for a code of conduct to regulate partnerships between public and private providers of higher education. New Sauvca chairperson Professor Njabulo Ndebele says Sauvca wants to build good relationships with the private sector. “There […]

Niki Moore It took a series of natural disasters before the Zululand Chamber of Business Foundation (ZCBF) was established. In 1985 a cyclone swept away rural dwellings in Zululand and left thousands homeless. Local businesses jumped in to help, led by Richard’s Bay Coal Terminal CEO Mike Dunn. They raised R200000 in relief and founded […]

Ntuthuko Maphumulo No South African team has yet managed to win the African Cup Winners’ Cup, which is also known as the Mandela Cup. This weekend Kaizer Chiefs trek to Tunisia to meet Club Africain in the semifinal second leg of this continental competition. Chiefs won the first leg 2-0 a few weeks ago through […]

Mayor Giuliani shares a Yankee victory that leads on to Arizona Rob Steen The Big Apple just got bigger. Willed on by a nation as well as a city, and in a manner that bordered on the pre- ordained, the New York Yankees displayed consummate professionalism in brushing aside the Seattle Mariners, sweeping into what […]

analysis Jeremy Rifkin For the first 10 days we worried about commercial aeroplanes being hijacked and used as missiles. Now the American people are worried about a new, even more deadly threat: bacteria and viruses being released in populated areas, infecting and killing millions of people. Policymakers are scurrying to catch up, by allocating funds […]

Paul Kirk The total cost of providing bodyguards to politicians may amount to more than R250-million a year. This week the office of police National Commissioner Jackie Selebi confirmed that a total of 2 740 bodyguards are placed at the disposal of politicians. Mail & Guardian sources estimate that their salaries amount to about R200-million, […]

Townships are being uplifted through the efforts of Food and Trees for Africa Thabo Mohlala Martha Boshomane grew up liking trees, so when Food and Trees for Africa donated trees to the people of the newly developed Tsutsumani All Africa Games housing project she was naturally over the moon. Martha is one of the beneficiaries […]

HIV/Aids and the war against terrorism vie for space in the South Africa media these days and it was good see that the tragic case of Sibongele and Baby Tinashe was your cover story last week. President Thabo Mbeki and his compliant associates (not least the minister of health, who should have been booted out […]

Stefaans Brmmer ponders the mysteries of this sad and enigmatic land “Asia is a living body, and Afghanistan its heart. In the ruin of the heart lies the ruin of the body. So long as the heart is free, the body remains free. If not, it becomes a straw adrift in the wind.” Mohammed Iqbal […]

Experts also warn that south-eastern Zimbabwe is sitting on a foot-and-mouth time bomb Jenny Sharman In the excitement about the formation of the Gaza-Kruger-Gonarezhou trans-frontier park, a looming problem has been overlooked: land invasions in the Zimbabwe section of the park. The planned “peace park” includes Zimbabwe’s second-largest game park, the Gonarezhou National Park and […]

The Movement for Multiparty Democracy is unpopular, but it is still likely to win in the upcoming elections Gregory Mthembu-Salter As Zambia prepares to go to the polls in landmark presidential and parliamentary elections, President Frederick Chiluba marked the country’s 37th independence anniversary on Wednesday with a strong warning to the international community not to […]

REVIEW David Shapshak All Africa Internet Guide by Libby Young (M&G Books) Despite being a part of the so-called Third World, all 54 countries in Africa have a Web presence and you can access the Internet from them. But finding out about websites and navigating the Internet is as difficult as doing it physically. Thankfully […]

About 90 children who have been affected by HIV/Aids recently had a chance to tell their stories Barry Streek “Please can I have a doll and a dummy for my doll, because then I can play with my doll in my mother’s room and near her grave. The doll will be my friend because I […]

Jaspreet Kindra African National Congress secretary general Kgalema Motlanthe is to step into the row between the party’s head of religious affairs, Cedric Mayson, and Anglican Church leaders over Mayson’s accusation that they are politicising the HIV/Aids issue. In a letter this week to the Anglican bishops, Mayson says he “regrets” that Anglican Archbishop Njongonkulu […]

There were more surprises in store for competitors in the recent Brait Grace to Grace 42km mountain bike challenge in the Magaliesberg than just the treacherous inclines and rocky and sandy terrain, writes Ntuthuko Maphumulo. They also had to contend with a redoubtable mother-and-son team who pedalled off with the top prizes. Jean Paul Pearton […]

Jaspreet Kindra Gauteng Premier Mbhazima Shilowa is facing unexpected competition for the post of African National Congress chairperson in the province, to be filled at the Gauteng ANC conference next weekend. The conference will elect office-bearers to replace the “interim” ANC leadership installed after the national ANC disbanded the Gauteng executive committee 17 months ago […]

Needy pensioners in the Western Cape are being provided with full sets of teeth for free Rob Davies Most of us take having a full set of teeth for granted. We pay no thought to crunching up a packet of crisps, navigating our way through a mealie or pulverising a pizza. Yet there are many […]

South African firms must adapt to a new role for their corporate social responsibility programmes Hamann and Paul Kapelus A Mail & Guardian article by Colleen du Toit (“New directions for donors”, October 12) and the news- paper’s supplement on the 2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development were a treasure trove for those interested in […]

Thabo Mohlala When it started the mission was simple: to drive all bakhalangas a term used to refer to non-South Africans, particularly Zimbabweans from Zandspruit. Although it was the murder of a local resident, allegedly by a Zimbabwean, a month ago that set off the violence, it emerged this week that xenophobia was not the […]

Jubie Matlou If you were thinking of where to erect an informal market to sell fruits and crafts to tourists passing between South Africa and Mozambique you couldn’t find a better place than the N4 highway in the Maputo Development Corridor. Informal markets at Mataffin and Matsulu preceded the multimullion-rand development at Nelspruit. For many […]

Drew Forrest and Jaspreet Kindra Business leaders across the racial spectrum reacted with caution this week to the labour movement’s plans for an economic summit, while a key representative of big business was positively disparaging. There was little indication that organised business believes much can be achieved by its participation on economic matters, but there […]

BODY LANGUAGE Nona Cummings Self-delusion is one hell of a mirage. At least with the latter, when you arrive at the point where you thought you saw an oasis, it sinks in. But there are just some times when the evidence is there for all to see, but you still don’t get it. Just ask […]

This indigenous fruit is the source of an income-generating project in the Northern Province, writes Thuli Nhlapo A plan hatched by retrenched union members and their employer in 1998 to promote job creation in Northern Province’s poverty-stricken communities has started to bear fruit. In the past year R340 000 has been spent on buying an […]

What the US Federal Reserve chairperson was going to say analysis Larry Elliot For years codebreakers have been struggling to unravel the secret language of Alan Greenspan. But to no avail. Greenspan scrambles his thoughts in his own personal Enigma machine, from which they emerge as incomprehensible gobbledegook when he surfaces from the depths of […]

The record reveals President Thabo Mbeki ‘s true stance on Aids, writes Drew Forrest “And thus does it happen that others who consider themselves to be our leaders take to the streets carrying their placards, to demand that, because we are germ carriers and human beings of a lower order that cannot subject their passion […]

INVESTIGATIONS into thousands of criminal cases at Windhoek’s main police stations have ground to a standstill, while others are moving at snail’s pace, because only three vehicles are operational in an area with more than 200 000 inhabitants. One of the excuses given by the National Police Headquarters for the long-running transport problem is that […]

There is no way of knowing who is responsible for threats against Congress of South African Trade Unions president Willie Madisha. But given the mounting conflict between the union movement and the government, and perceptions in some African National Congress circles that Madisha is a dangerous radical, it is possible that state agents or members […]

Evidence wa ka Ngobeni It’s an ordinary Monday morning at Kaditswene in the Northern Province, where villagers are wearing construction helmets and sun hats not to avoid the scorching African sun but to fight off the thick dust and rocks propelled by blasting operations at the nearby red-granite mines. At this village near Potgietersrus two […]