Staff Reporter

Glenda Daniels and Nawaal Deane Amid signs that half a million public service workers have voted to strike, government upped its wage offer in state sector wage talks to 8,5% for lower paid workers and 6,5% for others. Indications from a nearly completed ballot process show that the majority of union members has voted in […]

The article by Belinda Beresford (R2,7-billion needed to fight Aids”, September 21) missed the point of the government’s pathetic HIV/Aids policy. At the root of the President’s attempts to block the use of anti-retroviral drugs for the poor are his desperate attempts to privatise the public health services. Reports that contradict his view are suppressed, […]

channel vision Robert Kirby I’ve spent a rather pleasant week being escapist, reading stories about a fascinating young fellow called Harry Potter. I don’t know why I’ve waited this long to have a peep at what’s earned JK Rowling such obscene amounts of money, at the same time wondering like every other writer why I’ve […]

Bongani Majola Vista University continues to appoint senior management personnel despite its imminent dissolution. This is prompting Vista academics to question the institution’s commitment to the National Plan for Higher Education. And Vista unions have formally declared a dispute with the university over the management appointments. Minister of Education Kader Asmal’s national higher education plan […]

crossfire Evidence wa ka Ngobeni Sipho Seepe’s No Blows Barred column (September 21 to 27) lacked focus and was difficult to follow. Most of the issues raised amounted to his usual tirade against President Thabo Mbeki and the African National Congress. The most interesting point to come out of it was, perhaps, that the Mbeki […]

Kenya boasts a phenomenon that every lover of Africa and its wildlife should get to see, writes Angus Begg It is a story that has been told, filmed and read on numerous occasions: of the million-plus wildebeest that every year make the trek north from Tanzania’s Serengeti to Kenya’s Masai Mara. More than a million […]

Sean O’Toole “I am married to the idea of the symbolism of this place,” explains Reverend Deon Snyman. Yet it is not merely the symbolic that connects this mild-mannered Afrikaner, a minister with the Unifying Reformed Church, to the Emakhosini Valley in northern Zululand. “In a certain sense it feels as if I am coming […]

Preying on public sentiment is the new line of virus attack Sarah Left It took just two weeks for the inevitable to occur: someone has written an e-mail virus that exploits the World Trade Centre tragedy, disguising itself as a call for peace. Security experts say that distribution of the virus is limited at this […]

Jaspreet Kindra Moses Mayekiso is vague when asked whether he has the blessing of many African National Congress leaders for the launch of a civic association in opposition to the South African National Civic Organisation (Sanco). Rumour has it that key members of the ANC’s national executive committee, angered by Sanco’s support for the union […]

Nicolette Sampson remembers a time when abstinence wasn’t a big deal, simply the right thing to do BODY LANGUAGE It’s time for some 50-something wisdom. High time. Too late maybe. I suddenly know I’m a woman with a past and that I’m proud of it. So listen up and learn because you don’t see much […]

Jaspreet Kindra Eskom is battling under a mound of more than R1-billion in unpaid electricity bills, with Soweto alone accounting for R670-million of this. Municipalities, which also supply electricity to ratepayers, are also facing a financial crunch because of non-payment. The total debt owed to municipalities across the country is believed to be R500-million. The […]

I entirely agree with Robert Mattes (September 17) that there is no logic to blaming the United States for the terrorist attack on itself. It is contrived (by long-standing axe-grinders) and disingenuous to do so. The litany of sins usually brought against the US stem from, among others, real and perceived abuses during the Cold […]

Barry Streek South African Airways (SAA) has indicated to the government that it will approach it for assistance to cover the increased insurance costs of its aircraft following the terror attacks in the United States. A government spokesperson on Thursday said the plea would be sympathetically considered. Business Day reported this week that SAA stood […]

France, a country that does things differently, is worth paying attention to contretemps Richard Calland It’s 2.10pm September 11. The TGV Paris-Bordeaux Express leaves the Gare de Montparnesse on time. No surprise there. Nor that the carriage is so clean; the engine so smooth and quiet; and its motion so rapid. You can, I believe, […]

Barry Streek Thousands of pensioners and other grant recipients will receive payments totalling at least R1-billion after the government accepted a court order invalidating a 1998 regulation that limited back pay to three months. The government decision to limit back pay made in March 1998 by the then minister of welfare, Geraldine Fraser-Moloketi was challenged […]

Analysis Ian Urbina The United States is about to run into a minefield that could have catastrophic ramifications across the globe. Escalating military threats are increasing regional instability as many populations are growing resentful of US ultimatums. Terrorists have vowed to widen their attacks beyond US territories if a war ensues. It may be time […]

First it was Virodene, now it’s “oxihumate-K” the University of Pretoria is at the centre of a new saga about another state-backed Aids treatment Nawaal Deane, David Macfarlane and Mungo Soggot The South African government’s oil agency, the Central Energy Fund, has pumped at least R80-million into an unproven, coal-based HIV/Aids treatment that is being […]

Jubie Matlou The creation of a technology-free regulatory regime for information and communication technologies is what occupies the mind of Victor Moche most of the time. “The law is still technology specific. There is a need to move towards the licensing of services as opposed to the licensing of technologies,” he says. For Moche, flexibility […]

Glenda Daniels and Jaspreet Kindra The Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) is to put the Reconstruction and Development Programme (RDP) back on the table at its 10-a-side “tripartite alliance” meeting with the African National Congress, now set for November. The RDP has been a flashpoint between Cosatu and the government, with the unions […]

Americans are a great people, but do they have the vision to lead the world? asks Drew Forrest “The tempest bursting from the waste of time On the world’s fairest hope linked to man’s foulest crime” The lines, by American writer Herman Melville, capture the complex nature of the United States far more accurately than […]

An Aids care facility performs “miracles” by keeping patients on a regimen of vitamins and fresh food Niki Moore Lana Oatway is quite smug about the fact that she can work miracles. “People arrive here on the back of a bakkie, showing all the symptoms of full-blown Aids, more than half dead,” says Oatway, manager […]

Mail & Guardian reporter Liberty Life Learning Channel the television programme popular among the country’s matric pupils and teachers is expanding its reach to thousands of its audiences by using multimedia platforms such as the Internet, video and print media materials. The educational channel is also reaching out to niche audiences, such as adult basic […]

South Africa would be unwise to underestimate the Indian tourists Peter Robinson Even before South Africa started to trample their way around Zimbabwe, there was a generally held view that Zimbabwe constituted a warm-up for Sourav Ganguly’s Indians who, in turn, were designed to act as sparring partners ahead of the real business against Australia. […]

Minister of Land Affairs Thoko Didiza is a charming person and no fool. But even she must concede the deeply worrying shortcomings of the government’s land reform programme. South Africa is not Zimbabwe and there is no real possibility of violent, large-scale, land-related upheavals in this country. But the Bredell invasion and sporadic illegal land […]

Barry Streek The heavily indebted Road Accident Fund (RAF) paid more than R68,5-million including nearly R6-million in attorney’s fees to a legal firm in which its deputy chairperson George Maluleke is a partner. In addition, a secret R3,2-million audit report, leaked to the Mail & Guardian, has found “systematic fraud” against the fund. According to […]

Thebe Mabanga The East Rand town of Benoni could lose the annual World of Music and Dance (Womad) festival if it fails to attract a large crowd. This weekend Benoni will host Womad for the third year, and the event has been plagued with criticisms on issues like audience demographics, timing and choice of venue. […]

Pick ‘n Pay proves a point by coming late to the Internet party David Shapshak There are many advantages to coming late to the Internet party, as late-comers to the Internet boom were fond of pointing out. This line of argument was popular at the height of the dotcom mania often to boost shareholder confidence […]

UGANDAN President Yoweri Museveni has warned the United States against “arrogance and behaving as a bully” in its fight against terrorism and encouraged Washington to instead work towards solving the Palestinian question and attaining democracy for the whole world. “The US should not be tempted into using dirty methods at all that cause unnecessary tension […]

A CONSORTIUM of Canadian and South African companies, Heritage Oil and Gas and Energy Africa, are to start oil exploration in the Ugandan Rift Valley in March, officials said on Sunday. Uganda’s Commissioner of Petroleum Exploration and Exploitation Reuben Kashambuzi said the consortium had adopted the name Eagle Drill, in which each of the two […]

Cape Town | Wednesday GLOBAL warming will cause summer rainfall in some areas of South Africa to decrease by up to 25% over the next 50 to 100 years and kill off dozens of species of plants, a report published on Tuesday warned. The report, entitled “The heat is on” and funded by the World […]

SOUTH African Nick Rowe has been discovered dead amongst the rubble of the World Trade Centre, according to a statement released on Thursday by the Department of Foreign Affairs. Rowe did not work in the World Trade Centre, but at the time of the attack was making a presentation to employees of Canter Fitzgerald in […]