Staff Reporter

An entrepeneur plans to provide much-needed infrastructure for small fishing enterprises Barry Streek Costly and time-wasting experiences with larger companies in the fishing industry have provoked Cape Town entrepreneur Sam Montsi, whose company has had a quota for six years, to open a multifaceted service to serve small and medium fishing enteprises. Montsi’s partner, Francois […]

comment Hugo Young At its founding the United States never wanted to run the world. George Washington decreed that commerce not politics was what mattered, and Thomas Jefferson warned against the danger of “entangling alliances”. The treachery and slaughter endemic to the great powers, France and Britain, in their seven years’ war for European and […]

Analysis Iden Wetherell When Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe returned from Libya last weekend he was full of cheer that the Abuja agreement on Zimbabwe’s landreform programme had provided a welcome show of solidarity by African states. By Tuesday that optimism had evaporated as Mugabe had difficulty disguising his resentment of criticism from neighbours. While last […]

Two field rangers are still in a critical condition after being trapped in the fire that claimed the lives of 23 people Fiona Macleod The Kruger Park is looking into reports that disgruntled staff members started the run-away fire that killed 23 people and destroyed 60000ha of the world-famous reserve last week. The atmosphere among […]

comment Khadija Magardie I have it on the strictest authority from one of the interpreters accompanying the Latin American delegation to the World Conference against Racism that the following exchange actually took place. A poor woman from a remote tribe of indigenous people in Peru had just told an assembled panel a harrowing tale of […]

Mail & Guardian reporter To meet Harry Mentor is a delight. He is a small man with a large and irrepressible love and passion for the only thing he knows the sea. A product of his mother’s influence, with more than 40 years of being at sea, he is rock steady in his vision for […]

SOCCER Ntuthuko Maphumulo Africa’s contingent for next year’s World Cup in Korea and Japan has already been decided with South Africa, Senegal, Nigeria, Cameroon and Tunisia to represent the continent but most other regions are still fighting it out to decide who will attend the showpiece. Europe and South America, the only two continents to […]

The FBI is struggling to reconstruct how the hijack operation was masterminded Duncan Campbell The four planes that were to change the way Americans live their lives set off within 12 minutes of each other from three different airports, all of which were on Wednesday examining their security procedures and wondering how four teams of […]

Victor Bondarenko is determined to win some silverware with the Birds this season Ntuthuko Maphumulo Is it a plane? Is it Superman? No, it’s the Dube birds. Moroka Swallows are flying high in the Premier Soccer League, sitting pretty in the top spot in the league. Moroka Swallows seem to have found their wings again […]

Marianne Merten Vito Palazzolo, the Cape-based alleged Mafia boss, has halted an investigation into his possible involvement in international money-laundering and won a stay of prosecution related to his illegal 1986 entry into South Africa. Two Cape High Court orders last Friday effectively stalled years of efforts by South African authorities to investigate the alleged […]

Barry Streek The former managing director of a major fishing company, Tony de Silva, and a Democratic Alliance MP, Antoinette Versfeld, have clocked up more than 7 000km since July 25 to help 16 fishing communities in the Western Cape to form companies to obtain fishing quotas. Versfeld says they have only worked with communities […]

Barry Streek meets the man in charge of changing the face of the fishing industry Horst Kleinschmidt, the head of South Africa’s Marine Coastal Management, faces a difficult challenge: he has the final say over which of the 6 000 to 9 000 applicants will be awarded the 1 200 valuable fishing quotas. Kleinschmidt is […]

Barry Streek In a move to fight corruption, police officers in South Africa are going to be required to submit an annual signed declaration of their personal financial interests including their ownership of property and shares. “We are doing it because we want to run a very clean service,” Minister of Safety and Security Steve […]

Mail & Guardian reporter A fragile truce held Thursday in the Nigerian city of Jos after a week of street battles between Muslims and Christians left more than 500 people dead. Fighting flared on Tuesday after Muslim residents in the city’s Nassarawa district came out to celebrate the attacks in the United States. Community and […]

The elusive G-spot doesn’t exist after all BODY LANGUAGE Tim Dowling So farewell then, G-spot. This well-known if poorly charted bit of female geography, first discovered in 1944 and popularised as the seat of sexual pleasure throughout the 1980s and 1990s, is now said to be a complete myth. A report by Dr Terence Hines, […]

Despite a $5-million reward for information leading to his capture and high-tech tracking, Osama bin Laden has proved elusive Rory McCarthy and Ewen MacAskill The United States has spy satellites over the Indian Ocean capable of providing pictures from Afghanistan so detailed that they can identify cigarette butts. But, for all its technology, the US […]

Mail & Guardian reporter Damelin, one of South Africa’s leading correspondence colleges, is pioneering the installation of a Readwell Project that seeks to improve the reading capabilities of South African learners, including adult learners. Based on the visagraph, an imported computer targeted at the estimated 60% of students aged 10 to 18 who are reported […]

Being a good neighbour is the strategy the United Statess should embrace, writes David Le Page The rhetoric of war arrived within minutes, though war of any kind is unlikely to make Americans much safer. “We will hunt down and punish those responsible,” said United States President George Bush shortly after Tuesday’s attacks on the […]

The US president has tough choices to make, writes Julian Borger in Washington President George W Bush faced a defining moment in his presidency this week, only eight months after taking office, as he sought to muster an international coalition against the terrorists responsible for Tuesday’s devastating onslaught. Talking to reporters after a meeting of […]

Mail & Guardian reporter Xhantilomzi Fishing, a black empowerment fishing company, launched its first vessel, Codesa 1, in August. The word “Xhantilomzi” refers to the main structural pillar of a traditional house, symbolic of a structure in which many participants could find a home. The company is owned by three groups: Rainbow Nation Fishing CC, […]

Mail & Guardian reporter Nearly three months after the Mail & Guardian obtained proof that Cromet Molepo, the CEO of Umgeni Water, had illegally tapped the telephones of his employees, an investigation by Pietermaritzburg attorney Julian von Klemperer has corroborated the M&G’s expos. Molepo has now gone into hiding after he resigned on September 3. […]

Glenda Daniels The government failed to show up at a crucial tripartite meeting to negotiate the country’s industrial strategy at National Economic Development and Labour Council (Nedlac) earlier this week. This comes hot on the heels of the anti-privatisation strike, when labour and the government attacked each other for inadequate consultation. Nedlac and the Congress […]

Mail & Guardian reporter March 1993 signaled the end of an arduous struggle for the shareholders of New South Africa Fishing Enterprises (NSAFE) who were finally granted a hake quota of 1 000 tonnes after 26 years of unsuccessful applications. The company is headed by Pedro Williams and his life and business partner, Diana Williams. […]

WILLIAM O BEEMAN, Providence, Rhode Island | Thursday NEW forms of electronic surveillance, often derided by privacy activists, are being re-evaluated as a means to improve security in the wake of Tuesday’s unprecedented terrorism attacks. Proponents of a new branch of technology known as biometrics — including face-scanning technology, iris recognition and hand geometry — […]

a second look Stephen Corry The Mail & Guardian’s article on the Bushmen of Botswana (“Going back to their roots”, August 31) accurately reports that more than 1000 of them were removed from the Central Kalahari Game Reserve and put in bleak resettlement camps where social and economic problems are rife in contrast to false […]

It will be bloody, but Hewlett-Packard and Compaq were left few options other than a merger and radical surgery Edmond Warner As they strode into work last Tuesday morning, Wall Street’s finest must have believed that at long last they were witnessing the turn in the investment banking cycle. The New York Times was carrying […]

Gavin Willacy speaks to Manchester United manager Alex Ferguson, who is in his final season at Old Trafford You’ve bought some world-class players, which means a couple of others are going to have to sit out matches. How do you think those star names will cope with being left out? Well, it’s not easy for […]

Giles Foden Stories about him are legion. How he was known as one of the “Gucci muj”, the scions of rich Arab families who poured into Afghanistan in the late 1980s to help the rougher-hewn mujahedin fight the Soviets. How, having won his spurs, Osama bin Laden led an assault in the siege of Jalalabad […]

Kabul | Friday AS US strikes against Afghanistan appear more and more likely, the whereabouts of terror suspect Osama bin Laden remain a closely guarded secret. Rumours are rife that he has been on the move since Tuesday’s horrific terrorist attacks on New York and Washington, but no one outside his inner circle of close […]

Noam Chomsky The terrorist attacks were major atrocities. In scale they may not reach the level of many others, for example, Clinton’s bombing of the Sudan with no credible pretext, destroying half its pharmaceutical supplies and killing unknown numbers of people (no one knows, because the United States blocked an inquiry at the United Nations […]

Drew Forrest The government and labour are on the brink of an agreement that would mean the dropping of a state plan to break up and concession a major part of Spoornet’s freight business to private operators. Earlier this week the Department of Labour’s head of restructuring, Leslie Maasdorp, suggested that the listing of SAA […]

There is a view among some South Africans that the United States had its just desserts when hijacked airliners cannoned into the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon this week. Some even suggested that the attacks marked the beginning of the end of the “American empire”. The idea that US military and economic muscle has […]