Staff Reporter

Investment and development is improving the lives and industry of South Africans Mail & Guardian reporter From the explosive power of deep-level gold mining to the intricacies of drug development and vaccine research, investment and development in South Africa’s economy continues. International chill winds may upset the financial markets, but investors are still putting money […]

analysis Raymond Suttner By the time this article appears, the United States and Nato might have launched an offensive against targets alleged to bear responsibility for the attacks last week on thousands of US civilians. At any rate, a climate has been created preparing for such attacks, with loose references to “war” and “civilised” and […]

Belinda Beresford The release this week of the most up-to-date projection analysing the impact of HIV/Aids on South Africa shows that cumulative deaths from Aids-related illnesses are expected to exceed one million in just three years time if there are no interventions. And it confirms that the epidemic may be too firmly entrenched for its […]

The national government might take over education in some areas David Macfarlane and Nawaal Deane The national government is seriously contemplating invoking powerful constitutional measures that will allow it for the first time to take over certain provincial government functions. Minister of Education Kader Asmal last week expressed serious dissatisfaction with a number of provincial […]

AN Mpumalanga man found his brother-in-law’s decapitated body on a riverbank on Wednesday, just two months after he disappeared, police reported on Thursday. Michael Mgwenya of Blinkwater Farm, near White River, was fishing when he saw a large object wrapped in green cloth on the edge of the river. “He unwrapped the cloth and found […]

New divides are emerging among the residents of Gauteng: insiders correspond to areas of affluence, outsiders to areas of disadvantage Richard Tomlinson Cities in Gauteng, once notorious for the disadvantages created by apartheid planning, are seeing the creation of still greater disadvantage as the province becomes one of insiders and outsiders. In places like Soweto […]

The health department has admitted that it neglected a large number of people with HIV Belinda Beresford The Department of Health has warned that it is “politically dangerous” to fail to provide treatment to millions of people affected by HIV/Aids, and has recommended drug trials that could lead to the supply of anti-retrovirals to all […]

Carolyn Frost The fruit and flower industries are a major earner of foreign exchange for South Africa, and an obvious potential export growth area. Creating the pre- and post-harvest technology to keep South African products competitive in the demanding overseas market is the focus of a University of Stellenbosch programme, headed by Professor Karen Theron. […]

Sean O’Connor The ancient art of winemaking is being revolutionised in biotech- nology laboratories around the world and leading the way are a group of scientists and students from Stellenbosch University, the nerve-centre of South Africa’s R3-billion a year wine industry. Although steeped in tradition, wine production is now a hi-tech enterprise. This is largely […]

ABOUT 208 000 Malawians still suffering the after effects of devastating floods and drought earlier this year will soon receive about 1 000 tons of food from the World Food Programme . The food – which included maize, beans and salt – had been fortified with micronutrients and would benefit communities from seven districts in […]

Football’s focus this weekend is on a revived cup competition Ntuthuko Maphumulo It’s back, hotter than Mexican chillies and Indian spices. It’s the Coca-Cola Cup, nicknamed “ya chesa (its hot)”. It is the second-richest cup competition in Africa, with the winning team taking home R2-million making the Premier Soccer League title seem small change. The […]

By regulating the plea-bargaining procedure, the government is attempting to make it more efficient Judith February The Department of Justice and Constitutional Development is introducing a Bill to fast-track the criminal justice system through a plea-bargaining arrangement. Such an arrangement entails an agreement whereby the accused pleads guilty to a charge before appearing in court, […]

David Macfarlane Wilma Wessels took the education high road and successfully completed five Damelin Management School courses in four years. The top student in her class last year, Wessels says: “After studying the first, second and third modules in credit, I completed both business management and advanced business management as well.” Wessels’s choice of courses […]

Seven years into our democracy the poor still appear to possess only the right of access to courts to ensure that the government treats them with respect. The latest illustration of this sad manifestation of our politics occurred in the case of Ngxuza and others v The Permanent Secretary, Department of Welfare, Eastern Cape Provincial […]

THE United Nations offices in Pretoria were evacuated on Wednesday after police sniffer dogs reacted to two vehicles in the basement car park during a routine check, UN official John Ohiorhenuan said. The bomb squad was brought in and police evacuated everyone as a precaution, he said, but after a thorough search nothing suspicious was […]

Comment Larry Elliott The response to the attacks in the United States last week has been instant. Old ways of thinking have been ditched to fight the threat to the West. Life after September 11 may never be quite the same again. No, you haven’t missed something. The armchair generals who were demanding knee-jerk retaliation […]

CRICKET Peter Robinson South Africa need to sort a few things out before they take on Australia. This, I hasten to point out, is Shaun Pollock’s view, although I’m inclined to agree with him. It’s difficult to be critical of a team that has just won a two-Test series by one match to nothing and […]

China Major religions: Buddhism, Christianity, Islam, Taoism China has said it will join the fight against terrorism. But it is unlikely to let United States forces use the narrow strip of its territory that borders Afghanistan. Tajikistan Major religion: Islam Tajikistan is the only country in the region which accepts a Russian military presence. It […]

Jaspreet Kindra Moves are afoot to force two top South African Communist Party officials, general secretary Blade Nzimande and his deputy, Jeremy Cronin, out of the African National Congress’s national executive committee (NEC). A senior SACP central committee member, who asked not to be named, said the ball was set rolling at the ANC’s inner […]

AMERICANS who don’t support calls for war have started a petition which appears on the web here. The petition calls for the US to use moderation in its response to the terror attacks on New York and the Pentagon, to respect international institutions in makings its response, and to judge carefully the level of accountability […]

CD of the week Ash:Free All Angels Betty Clarke Nowadays it’s not cool to be young and enjoy it. Instead, adolescence is surrounded by negativity and teenagers bemoan the fact that they have their whole lives in front of them. Where are the head-spinning thrills, the heart-stopping lust, the celebration of golden summer holidays that […]

Mail & Guardian reporter Aids and tuberculosis (TB) are the two ugly sisters, together ravaging ever increasing numbers of South Africans. Although TB is curable if the drug-resistant form of the disease is not present the medication must be used timeously and correctly. One project at the Research Institute for Industrial Pharmacy (RIIP) at Potchefstroom […]

It had been months in the planning, and within moments of the attack on September 11 old certainties had crumbled as surely as those mighty towers. We trace the arc of terror, from its secret beginnings and deadly actions, to the fallout that will affect us all Ed Vulliamy and Anthony Browne in New York, […]

“Further consultation over proposed amendments to the Constitution is needed” Barry Streek In an unusual move, the African National Congress head of Parliament’s local government committee, Yunus Carrim, has publicly urged further consultation on planned constitutional changes that have controversial implications for local government. Carrim’s intervention signals for the first time that the ANC is […]

There are fears that Zimbabwe’s reorganised Supreme Court might rubber-stamp ‘fast-track land reform’ Michael Hartnack Zimbabwean civil society went on trial this week when the country’s new Chief Justice, Godfrey Chidyausiku, branded criticism of himself “racist”. He refused to withdraw from the first constitutional test case brought before the country’s newly reorganised Supreme Court. The […]

Analysis Anthony Holiday It should surprise no one that the real culprit behind the acts of terror that have traumatised the United States and the global hamlet it effectively governs is not some group of Islamic fanatics but a philosophical doctrine, wholly occidental in origin, which is now rampant, not merely in academia but in […]

BOXING Deon Potgieter “Prince” Naseem Hamed has pulled out of a proposed featherweight bouton November 10 in London withSouth Africa’s Mbulelo Botile. Hamed said he felt that under the present political climate it would be better for him to delay his return to the ring until next year.Hamed, a devout Muslim,has made it clear he […]

Mail & Guardian reporter “Every day, in every community throughout South Africa, an elderly person is being emotionally belittled, isolated, punished, threatened with harm, and physically and sexually abused. In the vast majority of cases, the abuser is the victim’s spouse, partner, child, grandchild, primary care giver, or a person in the position of trust, […]

The following is a translation of the text of an edict issued by an Afghan grand Shura, or council, of Islamic clerics in Kabul on Thursday. “This meeting of ulema [scholars] expresses its anguish and sorrow over the attacks in the United States and hopes that America will not launch any attack against Afghanistan, and […]

Carolyn Frost South Africa is the world’s 10th-largest exporter and 13th-largest producer of sugar cane, but a group of scientists at the University of Stellenbosch hope their research will help push the country up the rankings. Although South Africa is the third most productive grower of sugar cane, sugar yields have plateaued since the 1960s […]

Is the evidence against Osama bin Laden sufficient to unleash a war? Julian Borger in Washington and Ewen MacAskill As far as President George W Bush is concerned, Osama bin Laden is “wanted dead or alive” for the September 11 outrages. The phrase harked back to a bygone Texan age when a lawman’s strong hunch […]

GOLF Martin Gillingham and Andy Capostagno Details of thing being reviewed Next year’s President’s Cup is poised to become the first South African sporting victim of last week’s terror attacks in the United States. Sunday’s decision to postpone next week’s Ryder Cup until next September is almost certain to create a knock-on effect with the […]