Staff Reporter

Johannesburg | Monday A South African engineer has invented a hair dryer-type decontaminating device to be used in combatting chemical and biological attacks, a domestic newspaper reported on Sunday. The Johannesburg-based Sunday Times said the device is a hand-held turbine jet that uses hot air instead of water to blow clean contaminated surfaces. It weighs […]

Cape Town | Monday SACKED Cape Town mayor Peter Marais used public money to pay for three newspaper adverts in which he trumpetted his return to office, Business Day reports. Marais said in the advertisements (which cost about R16 000, according to the newspaper) that he had been “fully cleared of all speculative allegations”. His […]

David Macfarlane Incensed senior academics at the University of South Africa (Unisa) have now had enough of the shenanigans of their own council and are fighting back. On Thursday they sent an urgent “memorandum of concern” to Minister of Education Kader Asmal, expressing “no confidence” in the council under its present chair, advocate McCaps Motimele. […]

Evidence wa ka Ngobeni The president of the National African Federated Chamber of Commerce (Nafcoc) has moved the offices of the black business group to the South African Chamber of Commerce (Sacob) headquarters despite claims by senior Nafcoc members that he has been ousted. Last week senior Nafcoc members who are opposed to the organisation’s […]

No one can stay young for ever, but if you’re happy with your body, you’ll always be beautiful BODY LANGUAGE Jeanette Winterson The late Mrs Winterson had a bathing costume made from blackout material. This home-made suit was a descendant of those Victorian beach effects worn by women to conceal their modesty, known in the […]

Matthew de Wet The recent attacks in the United States have placed stock markets under significant pressure. This has opened up a number of opportunities for investors and capital is flowing from the equity markets into the perceived safe havens of money market deposits and bonds. The fact is, however, that interest rates in the […]

MORE than 24 000 people have already died of Aids-related diseases at Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital since 1998, hospital officials announced this week. The Sowetan newspaper reported that the mortality rate at the hospital had more than doubled over the past decade, with a recorded increase from six to 15%. Dr Alan Karstaedt, head of […]

The best teams in South Africa are through to the Currie Cup semifinals, writes Andy Capostagno At half time in Durban on Saturday Western Province were leading the Sharks 10-9. It was at this point that an interesting conundrum was raised in the press box: should Province throw the game? For if they had beaten […]

Suzan Chala Dr Confidence Moloko, the deputy chairperson of the African National Congress health committee, has a reputation among his friends and colleagues as a forthright person. Yet it took two days to get him to talk about the HIV/Aids pandemic. Moloko suspected the motive for this interview was to “character assassinate” him. After what […]

Too many teens are forced to leave state-run homes when they are not adequately equipped with life skills Ufrieda Ho For most teenagers 18 is the magical year of driver’s licences, legal beers and the right to vote. But for teens in welfare, 18 is also the year they’re officially adults – ready or not. […]

The Afghanistan squad saw no reason to cancel their Pakistan tour Luke Harding in Peshawar In a scruffy cricket ground in the frontier town of Peshawar, a group of young men with beards are playing cricket. Things are not going well in their homeland: there is drought, famine and American bombardment. On the cricket pitch […]

Analysis Chris McGreal British Prime Minister Tony Blair has called for a “partnership for Africa” in which the West provides money, expertise and economic opportunities, while Africa gets its house in order by ending conflicts and establishing accountable and decent government. For now, the partnership is largely one between Blair and President Thabo Mbeki, who […]

Jaspreet Kindra The head of the African National Congress’s religious desk, Cedric Mayson, has attacked other South African church leaders for using the HIV/Aids epidemic to make “political attacks” on President Thabo Mbeki, describing them as “a disgusting ploy”. Church leaders, including the Archbishop of Cape Town, Njongonkulu Ndungane, who also chairs the Aids Commission […]

Khadija Magardie A newly released study on attitudes towards foreigners, particularly refugees, shows that public awareness on the human rights of asylum-seekers has still to take root on South African soil. Earlier this year, the World Conference against Racism attempted to raise the issue of xenophobia, or anti-foreigner sentiment in many parts of the world, […]

a second look Faizal Farouk South African NGOs have reached a critical juncture where it has become important for us to engage in local-resource mobilisation. The struggle for democracy in South Africa bred a range of NGOs within civil society that played a prominent role in shaping our Constitution, which has been heralded as one […]

The era ushered in by terrorism will not be a time of freedom analysis Anthony Holiday Odd as it may seem, there is a category of professionals, drawn from every nation, class and creed, for whom terrorism and the global war against it have brought bountiful rewards in terms of profit and prestige and the […]

The minister of finance is determinedly looking on the bright side of the economy, no matter what the unions say Drew Forrest The gulf between the government and the Congress of South African Trade Unions on the economy is starkly highlighted by an upbeat briefing document presented by Minister of Finance Trevor Manuel to the […]

Yet again the management peremptorily issues the edict: “This is the final publication of Doonesbury in the Mail & Guardian.” That’s it, no bargaining, no discussion, no explanation, nada. What is it with you guys? Don’t you know that we liberal leftist leftovers who supported you from when you first put this rag on the […]

The links between Orlando Pirates and Jomo Cosmos which almost amount to a father and son relationship stretch back to the days when Jomo Sono use to play for Pirates. The “Black Prince” left the Buccaneers to go and play for a team known as New York Cosmos in the United States. On his return […]

Analysis Jaspreet Kindra Faced with a high unemployment rate and a president in denial over the causes and effects of HIV/Aids, what would an effective opposition party do in a democratic state? In India, where parties have grown up under the shadow of Mahatma Gandhi’s campaign against the British Raj, opposition leaders would have staged […]

Barry Streek Controversy-dogged land tenure legislation is to be tabled in Parliament next year, after a week-long national conference on land rights at which the government hopes to forge consensus among conflicting actors in the land field. The legislation is intended to give tenants, living under chiefs’ tenure, rights guaranteed in the Constitution. Seen as […]

Who does Robert Mugabe think he is, that he can take over businesses as well? He is a thief, a low-life, someone who looks at others’ possessions with envy and then plots to steal them. I am repulsed to have such an immoral man claiming to be the leader of Zimbabwe. He must have no […]

The SANDF denies hiding apartheid-era military files, but former Truth and Reconciliation Commission officials dismiss this as “pure lies” Evidence wa ka Ngobeni Minister of Defence Mosiuoa Lekota has launched an inquiry into allegations that the South African National Defence Force (SANDF) hid key apartheid-era military intelligence information from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC). […]

Glenda Daniels In a move that could heighten tensions between labour and the ruling African National Congress, the Congress of South African Trade Unions is to stage a national summit on economic reconstruction involving all elements of civil society. The summit, which Cosatu wants to convene by the end of the year, but is more […]

Matthew Burbidge Top hotel chefs in Gauteng feel like frustrated artists: no one appreciates their work, South Africans just want bigger slices and they’ll never be really, really rich, they moaned in the Hyatt’s kitchen this week. Seven chefs, or sevens stars, as they are called, from the South African Chefs’ Association are performing at […]

Niki Moore The use of “employment committees”, which accept fees in exchange for guaranteeing jobs, is creating tensions in Zululand between white-owned businesses and traditional leaders. Several businessmen have confirmed they are victims of the committees, but most were loath to speak on the record for fear of reprisals. Employment committees are run by junior […]

Mail & Guardian reporter The South African Revenue Service (Sars) set the seemingly arbitrary date of October 1 this year as the date that capital gains tax (CGT) came into effect and the base cost of units is determined. But the date turned out to be anything but arbitrary. As fate would have it, just […]

channel vision Robert Kirby Last week’s Special Assignment on the subject of child prostitution opened with a real stinger. In her usual soulful tones, Annaliese Burgess announced that permission to have themselves filmed, interviewed and transmitted had been granted by a collection of child prostitutes. What seems not to have struck Annaliese or her reporters […]

Some South Africans are hoping to introduce a new religion during census month, like their British counterparts David Shapshak All it took was one e-mail and a new religion has been born. Jedi Knight is now on the list of religions for the 2001 United Kingdom census. What seemingly started as a prank has made […]

Paul Kirk A Durban bus company that has gone into liquidation claims a spate of hijackings crippled it. The government-run KZT Transport – which was the major provider of public transport to blacks during apartheid – was half-owned by the Bantu Development Corporation. The company’s operations in rural areas were later subsidised by the KwaZulu-Natal […]

A tougher test than the Dane is needed before Lewis John Rawling After battering the gallant though outclassed Brian Nielsen to defeat, Mike Tyson said he needed two more fights before he would be ready to attempt to regain the world heavyweight title. He is probably right, but the television powerbrokers who dictate the course […]

Nancy Sephairi was 14 in 1966 when the bulldozers moved in and destroyed the homes of her community at Metsimatshwe, near Kuruman in the Northern Cape. The police dumped the families on a patch of dry veld near Reveillo with a packet of salt, a bag of mielie meal and a tent each. “We were […]