Staff Reporter

THE Nigerian government said on Wednesday that it was considering closing down its diplomatic missions in seven countries either because they are unnecessary or because of problems funding them. The plan follows a recommendation of a committee set up by President Olusegun Obasanjo that some of the missions considered either unnecessary or too expensive to […]

A NEW combination of antimalarial drugs, tested in Tanzania, has proven remarkably successful against resistant strains of the disease, according to a study reported in Saturday’s issue of The Lancet. The combination is a mixture of two existing drugs, chlorproguanil and dapsone, the British medical weekly said. A team led by Theonest Mutabingwa from the […]

London | Friday BRITAIN has provided the most detailed outline yet of the case against Osama bin Laden, but the evidence which it says indicates his guilt over the September 11 attacks raises as many questions as answers. Crucially, what has been made public so far does not appear to contain the elusive “smoking gun” […]

Bongani Majola The initial enthusiasm shown by South African media consumers in the wake of the United States terror attacks two weeks ago is dwindling markedly, judging by circulation figures. Given to trumpeting their “rise in sales” the country’s major newspapers were uncharacteristically coy, confirming only that their sales are back to where they were […]

Suzan Chala The Arts & Culture Trust Cultural Development Project of the Year Award seeks to reward individuals and groups that devote a significant portion of their time, often without remuneration, to nurturing the country’s future stars in historically disadvantaged communities The judges look at the implementation and sustainability of the project, as well as […]

REVIEW Gavin Foster Jeep Cherokee Sport, R229900Jeep Cherokee Limited Edition, R266900 Unlike many luxury 4x4s, Jeep products always offer top class performance even in the worst off-road conditions. The Jeep Cherokee has been with us for the best part of two decades and has been a class leader throughout that time, even though its styling […]

The problem with a Palm handheld, I hear most often, is that it doesn’t have a keyboard. It’s pointless explaining to the uninitiated why Palms are the techno-wonder they are; why its operating system is crash proof while being only a few hundred kilobytes, why the device is light enough to be carried in my […]

Marianne Merten The Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA) has ordered the University of the Western Cape (UWC) to reinstate a lecturer whose contract was not renewed in the wake of his complaints against the head of his department. When Brian Williams, formerly the director of the Western Cape Department of Labour, arrived at […]

Matthew Krouse Children’s theatre producer Joyce Levinsohn is the fourth individual to win the coveted Arts & Culture Trust Lifetime Achievement Award. Levinsohn, who began her career in London in the mid-1950s, has noted that she graduated from the Royal Academy of Dancing in the year that “coincided with the iniquitous Bantu education laws that […]

MARIETTE LE ROUX, Pretoria | Wednesday THE government put its foot down on Thursday, imposing a five percent pay rise on public servants following months of inconclusive wrangling with labour unions. By the state’s final deadline of midnight on Wednesday, a majority of unions had still not accepted its three-year pay rise package, which includes […]

A new book shows how on-court talent seems secondary to off-court shenanigans Stephen Bierley Here is a reminder: Anna Kour-nikova is a star. This might have escaped attention since she has played three competitive tennis matches only in the past eight months and lost them all. But it is of little or no consequence. For, […]

Drew Forrest Researcher Ryan Coetzee calls for a Democratic Alliance “branding” of the Cape Town council in his survey of city opinion but concedes certain key DA initiatives may be hard for Capetonians to swallow. Arguing that the unicity government under mayor Peter Marais is alienated from the citizenry, Coetzee says it has allowed “unimportant […]

Barry Streek The controversial Medical Research Council (MRC)report on the extent of HIV/Aids is to be released to the public next Tuesday and the MRC is sticking to its figures and methodology despite reservations expressed by an interdepartmental task team and Statistics SA. The MRC estimated that between five and seven million South Africans would […]

Peter Makarube A racist brawl between two women marred the success of the Aardklop Arts Festival in Potchefstroom last week. The organisers of Aardklop sought to change the town’s image from that of a conservative community to a model of the new South Africa. Instead, they were treated to an unusual racial incident involving two […]

For the world summit next September the Paris-headquartered International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) and the World Business Council for Sustainable Development have set up a joint committee called Business Action for Sustainable Development. South African business is affiliated to these two bodies, which would like to see a formalised outcome at the world summit for […]

South Africa’s first entirely online bank has had a storming start, writes David Shapshak For a bank without any branches, new online banking service 20twenty has ironically garnered a lot of brand and consumer awareness. This is due in no small part to its high-profile outdoor advertising campaign, which featured a quote from Microsoft chief […]

Cape Town | Friday TONY Leon goes into battle on Friday with his co-leader of the Democratic Alliance, Marthinus van Schalkwyk, armed with detailed research on Cape voters that does serious damage to the New National Party’s record in the Cape Town council. The full report, leaked to the Mail & Guardian, shows that Cape […]

For 40 years Private Eye has enraged and amused. As it enters its fifth decade, can the magazine keep pace with the newer, darker satire of TV’s Brass Eye or is it trapped in its own tweedy past? asks Geraldine Bedell Sneering, smug, homophobic, vicious and parochial: Private Eye has been accused of being all […]

I condemn, without reservation, terrorism and murder. Terrorists choose violence rather than the ballot box to inflict death and pain on innocent civilians. They justify their action by flying the banner of religion, race or political sovereignty. Islam is a way of life for more than one billion people in this world. Millions of these […]

Nawaal Deane The Minister of Housing, Sankie Mthembi-Mahanyele, launched a R3-million defamation action against the Mail & Guardian in the Johannesburg High Court on Thursday in response to how she fared in the paper’s 1998 Cabinet “report card”. The report card, which gave Mthembi-Mahanyele an F, referred to how the controversial Motheo housing saga and […]

1961 Founded on 450 by Richard Ingrams, Paul Foot, Willie Rushton and Christopher Booker with the intention of waging war on “cant and humbug”. 1964 Saved from bankruptcy by Lord Farringdon (believed to be the only homosexual Communist peer in the Lords). 1975 An article linking Sir James Goldsmith to the Lucan Affair kicked off […]

Is the West waging another war by proxy? Comment Tabish Khair Fifteen bombers, 25 fighter planes and 50 missiles. That is all it took to launch the first phase of what United States President George W Bush has promised will be a long war on terrorism. Evidently, the first phase is not an expensive one. […]

the world, but they are among the dangerous leaders and key suspects, the planners and strategists … they must be found. They will be stopped and they will be punished.” – US President George W Bush, unveiling posters of 22 “most wanted terrorists” during a visit to the FBI. “This inhuman and profitmaking action by […]

Richard Calland Abuja Domestic airport, September 21. He sees me coming and, as I hand him my case, informs me that I must pay him 500 naira due to “excess weight”. I point out that he has not yet actually weighed my case. He shrugs: “It’s too heavy. You must pay me.” His airline carried […]

channel vision Robert Kirby ‘The paradigm of privilege must be communicated exponentially so that, at the end of the day, an interface and the aforementioned synergy can be utilised, hopefully to set up empowerment, albeit in terms of the previously disadvantaged and underprivileged, but of which fortuitous input can be maintained and feedback perused at […]

Director General of the Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism Dr “Chippy” Olver was a key author of the Reconstruction and Development Programme. He spoke to Chris van der Merwe about the strategy underpinning the world summit Chris van der Merwe: Is sustainable development about redistribution of wealth? Chippy Olver: There have been three big […]

The Arts & Culture Trust Awards recognise excellence in those strategic areas without which the arts cannot develop and thrive. All entrants and the finalists for the 2001 awards are therefore commended for their fine work and their participation. The winners, judged by an independent panel to represent the highest levels of professionalism, dedication, leadership […]

Marianne Merten Cape Town councillor Una Pick, under police investigation for her role in the Cape Town street-renaming fiasco, has been promoted. The Democratic Alliance councillor now heads one of the unicity’s 16 sub-councils at an annual package of R388829, including allowances. This is equivalent to the salary of an executive committee member and almost […]

Thebe Mabanga and Evidence wa ka Ngobeni One of the freebies supplied to the delegates of the Black Management Forum’s (BMF) 25th anniversary conference this week was a huge sweet dispenser crammed with jelly babies, liquorice and lozenges. At the end of each speech by high-profile black academics and lieutenants of industry with aspirations to […]

Marianne Merten About 5 000 Capetonians on Thursday marched in protest against the United States-led bombings of Afghanistan to the razor-wire-surrounded American consulate, bearing posters like “Stop the Oppression”, “Stop the War” and “No Difference Hitler and Bush”. The peace march was jointly called by the Muslim Judicial Council (MJC), the Congress of South African […]

REVIEW Gavin Foster BMW X5 3.0i, from R370 000 BMW X5 3.0d, R391 000 We loved BMW’s X5 launched last year. The problem was that the price ticket of R471 000 for the 4,4 litre V8 model is a little rich for all but the very well-heeled. At the time it was believed that the […]