Staff Reporter

Getting together to solve common problems is the African way. The rise of vigilante group Mapogo a Matamaga is rooted in this tradition, reports Evidence wa ka Ngobeni The reception afforded him by his loyal, sjambok-wielding followers would have made a royal welcome seem a gloomy affair. Horns started blaring hours before his arrival. The […]

Mail & Guardian reporter Drew Forrest has joined the Mail & Guardian as its political editor. Forrest, formerly political editor of Business Day, joined the M&G at the beginning of the month. He will drive and oversee all aspects of the newspaper’s political coverage. Forrest worked for the M&G in its earlier incarnation as The […]

Power struggles at the huge university are jeopardising distance education in South Africa David Macfarlane The future of distance education in South Africa hangs in the balance following extraordinary turmoil at Unisa this week. The shock resignation of Unisa vice-chancellor Professor Antony Melck exposes massive power struggles at the country’s largest university. Events leading to […]

The turbulent history of Durban’s Indian community is on show in two theatre productions and a photographic exhibition in the city Alexander Sudheim The World Conference against Racism provided a moment for the international community to take a long, hard look at difficult issues. The climate also provided an opportunity for local communities to reflect […]

Tara Turkington A bus operator in Kimberley has retrenched half his staff and is facing bankruptcy after an empowerment deal set up by the provincial government went sour. Sabbatha Mathiba once owned the thriving Rainbow Bus Company, ferrying commuters to and from work at the De Beers diamond mines. But now the company is in […]

obituary: christiaan barnard Surgeon Christiaan Barnard, who has died aged 78, led the surgical team that performed the first human-to-human heart transplant on December 2 to 3 1967. The operation captured public imagination around the globe, and, literally overnight, Barnard became one of the best-known people in the world. Although his achievement, courage and vision […]

Khadija Magardie Several pressure groups attending the World Conference against Racism in Durban have complained bitterly that their plight has been drowned out by the hype over the Israeli/ Palestinian impasse and the debate over reparations for slavery and colonialism. With the full title of the conference including “Racism, Xenophobia and other forms of Related […]

Evidence wa ka Ngobeni The Pan Africanist Congress in the Eastern Cape has slammed the provincial administration for failing to spend funds earmarked for service delivery programmes in the rural areas. Speaking after the party’s Eastern Cape regional congress at the weekend, PAC leaders said the party was concerned about the provincial government’s failure to […]

Hellenic, usually very consistent, have started the season on the wrong foot Ntuthuko Maphumulo What have Hellenic done to anger the gods? That’s the question coach Steve Haupt is asking himself after a number of defeats at the beginning of the season. The Cape Town-based side, known as the “Greek gods”, are languishing near the […]

RUGBY Andy Capostagno The southern hemisphere international season is over and the Springboks came through with a record of played seven, won three, lost three, drew one. One of the best cures for a sense of inadequacy is to follow the old dictum and “pick on someone your own size”. Accordingly, it is time to […]

Comment Charles Leonard I have been mauled publicly by a 12-legged, designer-label-clad, Mother Africa-idolising, American-talking hip-hop machine. And while it was ear-glowingly embarrassing, maybe I asked for it. I am at a media conference at a casino for the first-ever “Black August” tour in South Africa a three-city tour by some of the top exponents […]

Glenda Daniels Half-a-million public service workers cast strike ballots this week in a wage dispute that masks the real tensions between labour and the state. “The wage issue is not the fundamental one here. The issues are really about human development, restructuring and retraining of staff,” says Vusi Nhlapo, president of the National Education, Health […]

Issues have emerged in Durban that will not be stopped by logical debate Comment Margaret Legum The NGO gathering at the United Nations’s World Conference against Racism was a good place to test the future in terms of ideas that will not go away. Such ideas represent movements of people that have a universal moral […]

Drew Forrest Humorous, animated, speaking in a blur, Neva Makgetla seems an improbable Svengali. Yet in the aftermath of last week’s general strike, unnamed government officials have reportedly portrayed her as the minence blanche behind the Congress of South African Trade Union’s (Cosatu) hardening anti-privatisation stance. Not everyone in the government sees the federation’s public […]

Congress Mahlangu The improvement of agricultural education will receive priority when the Association of Principals of Agricultural Colleges (Apac) an organisation representing all the agricultural colleges in this country meet with their counterparts in an international conference at the Kruger National Park next month. According to Allison van Niekerk, chairperson of Apac, the conference will […]

l According to Queeney by Beryl Bainbridge l If the Invader Comes by Derek Beaven l A Son of War by Melvyn Bragg l True History of the Kelly Gang by Peter Carey l Shamrock Tea by Ciaran Carson l The Element of Water by Stevie Davies l The Pickup by Nadine Gordimer l Dogside […]

Members of the party have been accused of irregularly allocating council houses to family members Barry Streek Two new corruption scandals have rocked the Democratic Alliance in Cape Town this week, as the party battles to control the damage caused by the street renaming saga. Affidavits have surfaced alleging that a DA councillor was involved […]

Mail & Guardian reporter A library donated to the Joe Slovo squatter camp in Johannesburg was closed last month because a residents’ committee was not informed about its opening. This week supporters of the library threatened legal action against the committee if it did not allow residents access to the facility. The library was started […]

Jaspreet Kindra The Gauteng government’s proposed multibillion-rand fast train project linking Pretoria and Johannesburg to be funded largely by the private sector has a catch. Should the project fail to achieve its expected target of 60 000 passengers a day, the government will have to compensate the losses of the private sector operator in terms […]

REVIEW David Shapshak LG DVD 3251P The only problematic thing about owning an MP3s collection is that you can only play them on your computer. The highly popular music file format, which reduces an average song to a 10th its size, has taken the world by storm but playing them is very limited outside of […]

Where do we draw the line between opinion and racism when it comes to reporting? Peter Robinson Sooner or later, I suppose, it had to happen. Minister of Sport and Recreation Ngconde Balfour turned his mind away this week from trying to pick the South African cricket and rugby teams to denounce three South African […]

TEN people were wounded when gunmen in a vehicle fired on a cinema in the southern Somali town of Jowhar. Eight of those wounded during the attack late on Monday were moviegoers and two were assailants shot when cinema guards returned fire. The motive for the attack was said to be revenge as the gunmen […]

Johannesburg | Wednesday THE rand hit a record low value against the dollar early on Tuesday because of concern in South Africa about the political and economic situation in neighbouring Zimbabwe, dealers said. The rand fell to 8,48 to the dollar shortly after South African markets opened on Tuesday, but soon recovered to 8,46. The […]

Abuja | Thursday A COMMONWEALTH conference on the situation in Zimbabwe was due to get under way in Nigeria early on Thursday with arriving delegates expressing a cautious optimism after an offer from white farmers aimed at resolving the country’s land dispute. Ministers and officials from Australia, Britain, Canada, Jamaica, Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa and […]

Skukuza | Wednesday A DEVASTATING bush fire whipped through South Africa’s Kruger National Park overnight, killing at least 19 people, among them three park rangers, an official said on Wednesday. Firefighters were still battling the blaze in the country’s premier game reserve Wednesday morning, but officials said it had been brought under control and the […]

SOUTH African financial services firm Old Mutual Plc have announced that Eric Anstee, Director and Chief Executive of Financial Services, had resigned from the board and the company. His responsibilities had been reassigned to Jim Sutcliff, present head of London-listed Old Mutual’s life businesses who will become CEO from November 1. Anstee joined Old Mutual […]

RICHARD WADDINGTON, Durban | Tuesday HOSTS South Africa are seeking to compromise wording on the Middle East that could save a UN conference on racism from failure after the United States and Israel pulled out. Both countries withdrew late on Monday in protest at language in conference drafts that branded Israel as racist for its […]

A NORTHERN Province man’s passion for soccer killed him at the weekend when an argument about the contentious Kaizer Chiefs and Mamelodi Sundowns BP Top Eight final erupted into violence. Shadrack Sekgobela watched the televised match with fellow farm workers during a party at Richmond Farm near Hoedspruit on Saturday. “Sekgobela appears to have got […]

THE hopes of a tiny Northern Province village died last week when the hamlet’s star student drowned while studying medicine in Cuba. Thabo Skhosana (20) was considered Glen Cowie village’s goodwill ambassador and was the first local resident to ever go abroad. Almost the entire village turned out for his emotional funeral and memorial service […]