A Second look Bishop David Russell It is with sadness that I have to share with you my disappointment and even alarm at certain trends in the body politic. Yes, we have a wonderful Constitution, a wonderful Bill of Rights and this government has put through some good and necessary legislation in seeking to right […]
A new project has the huge task of changing perceptions that history is a dead-end subject Nawaal Deane “In one major Free State town, only three out of 24 schools continue to offer history up to matriculation level,” said Minister of Education Kader Asmal at the launch of the South African History Project this week. […]
obituary: Ken Tyrell The world of Formula One is mourning the death of Ken Tyrrell, the one-time timber merchant who became one of the sport’s major team owners. Tyrrell, who has died of cancer at his home in Surrey, was 77. With Bernie Ecclestone, the late Lotus founder Colin Chapman and Frank Williams, Tyrrell was […]
All women think about is good sex and bad hair, suggests a new survey. BODY LANGUAGE Kate Taylor Asking your lover, “What are you thinking about?” has always been a one-stop route to getting dumped. That’s because you’re only ever prompted to ask it at inopportune moments, like when they’ve just watched you being sick, […]
A new book, Islam’s Black Slaves, details how black Africans were bought and sold by adherents of the Muslim faith comment Khadija Magardie For some time now the Islamic world has been a silent member of the fraternity of the historically sinless a world in which one points fingers, despite similarly bloodied hands. The run-up […]
Ntuthuko Maphumulo Two of the top teams in the Premier Soccer League will face each other in a “best of the best” BP Top 8 final on Saturday at FNB stadium for the R1-million prize money. Sundowns and Kaizer Chiefs are no strangers to million-rand prize money competitions; Kaizer Chiefs won the Rothmans Cup twice […]
analysis Glenda Daniels Even the most orthodox economists accept that there are instances where state ownership of utilities is appropriate. The business of government should be give and take, with the broad view of creating a better quality of life for all, specifically the upliftment of the poor. Unfortunately, the present situation is all take […]
Forestry has an important role to play in the SA economy Ronnie Kasrils Every year we celebrate Arbour Week during the first week of September. This week-long focus on trees and forests is much more than an opportunity to celebrate the arrival of spring. It is a time to reflect on how forestry can contribute […]
Grant Shimmin in Wellington For the neutral, the Tri-Nations could scarcely be finishing on a more exciting note, with a winner-take-all clash at the scene of one of the great encounters in modern Test rugby. Last year Sydney’s Stadium Australia was preparing to host the Olympic Games when the All Blacks and Wallabies opened their […]
A NIGERIAN university said on Thursday that it has expelled more than 100 students for fraud and impersonation. The University of Jos in central Plateau State said in an official statement that 102 students had gained entry into the university “through improper means.” “Some of the students had fake academic entry qualifications, some impersonated other […]
As millions of workers downed tools this week to protest against privatisation of state assets, Howard Barrell, Glenda Daniels and Sipho Seepe spoke to Cosatu president Willie Madisha on the tensions between the trade union federation and the government and ANC leadership Glenda Daniels: What forms of privatisation or restructuring are you objecting to and […]
Congress Mahlangu Minister of Agriculture and Land Affairs Thoko Didiza has launched a R37-million agricultural development scheme to benefit small and emerging black farmers as well as agricultural communal projects all aimed at alleviating poverty in rural communities. Didiza made the announcement when she transferred 241 title deeds to emergent farmers in Nkomazi, Mpumalanga, two […]
GOVANMBEKI Govan Mbeki’s death this week ends one of the longest and most heroic lives in liberation politics. Govan Mvuyelwa Mbeki was born in 1910 in Nqamakwe, Transkei, the son of a deposed chief. After attending various Methodist mission schools he completed a BA at Fort Hare in 1937 and subsequently worked in the Transkei […]
MALAWI’S revenues from tobacco, the nation’s top foreign currency earner, are expected to drop 13% this year. Projected earnings from the 2001 crop are $143-million, 13% less than in 2000 and 23% less than in 1999, said Godfrey Chapola, general manager the parastatal Tobacco Control Commission (TCC). Chapola blamed the drop in earnings on smaller […]
food Lauren Shantall The very first time I tasted one, I was on a seaside holiday and knee-high to my grandmother, who leaned forward into a fading show of dune flowers to pluck a few of their odd, fleshy fruits. These were surprisingly sharp and juicy in all that blurry heat and beach grit. I […]
analysis Judith February Although the dismantling of apartheid signalled the end of legalised racial oppression, South African society remains deeply divided along racial lines. The inequalities reflected in rampant poverty and joblessness continue to be specific to a larger proportion of black people in South Africa. The government, however, has enacted legislation to counter racism […]
Barry Streek The Democratic Alliance has put Cape Town’s controversial mayor, Peter Marais, on compulsory leave and suspended two DA councillors in the city for their role in the “streetgate” affair. The councillors now face a criminal investigation for fraud, which stems from an inquiry by advocate Willem Heath into the saga. Heath has recommended […]
THE Kenyan government has identified six foreign firms to bid for the purchase of state-owned Kenya Reinsurance Corporation, a government official announced here on Wednesday. Finance ministry investment secretary Esther Koimett said in a statement that a total of eight local and international firms had sent in expressions of interest on or before the July […]
We read your report (August 24) on the National Development Agency (NDA) with dismay but not surprise. Anyone in the field of funding and poverty relief knows about the debacle surrounding the transformation of the old Transitional National Development Trust (TNDT) into the NDA. But we had not thought it was so bad. You report […]
Ntuthuko Maphumulo We are just a few weeks into the Premier Soccer League (PSL) season but already some patterns are beginning to emerge. Disputes have arisen, in particular a disciplinary hearing on the alleged intimidation of the referee by Orlando Pirates players that led to the abandonment of their match against Ajax Cape Town. The […]
The union federation has put forward seven principles it deems necessary for informing the Bill to equitably reimburse pension-fund members Ngwako Modjadji The Congress of South Trade Unions (Cosatu) is calling for the estimated R80-billion pension “surplus” to be restituted to beneficiaries, backdated to the 1980s when the federation advocated a “migration” from pension to […]
FIRE-fighters continued to keep a close eye on the Hogsback area on Wednesday after a runaway fire razed a large section of the forest and gutted a home on Tuesday. The fire was brought under control at about 7pm. An estimated 2 000 hectares of pine plantation and a house were destroyed, while three more […]
Organisations caring for the elderly fear that data-sharing is taking place between Cash Paymaster Services and a loan company Paul Kirk An adviser to the government on pensioners has set up a company that offers loans to the aged at an interest rate that the Mail & Guardian has calculated to be more than 420% […]
Last week Robert Kirby presented the Mail & Guardian readership with an attack on Tony Leon’s integrity that was at once gruesome and florid, and altogether rather spectacular. But when one sets aside his searing metaphor, passion for hyperbole, surprising and often impressive tangles of description, it becomes clear that Kirby was really just talking […]
Pressure groups gathered in Durban for the NGO Forum that precedes the main conference Khadija Magardie One can always, legend has it, tell a NGO worker just look at the hair. Though the face of activism in all its forms has changed, and the typical activist is now as at home in a pair of […]
UP to 40 people were reported missing or dead on Wednesday after a river in northern Nigeria burst its banks, flooding dozens of villages. Manir Babba Dangundi, the council chairman of the affected Kumbotso area of Kano State, said 40 people were missing or dead. State government officials were unable to confirm any deaths but […]
Martin Gillingham was at a meeting where some extraordinary records were set The banner read: “EPO cheats out.” A simple message and one that reflects sentiments shared by many fair-minded people in track and field. The young woman holding the banner in the stands at the world championships in Edmonton, as the Russian runner Olga […]
It’s back to the drawing board for labour, business and the government to come up with a strategy for economic growth Glenda Daniels The most significant political strike in the post-apartheid period is over but the government, labour and business appear no closer to a strategy that can repair broken relationships between them. Unions say […]
Paul Kirk Despite assurances to the contrary, one of the Big Brother contestants has not been cleared of all charges relating to his illegal possession of a machine gun and an unlicensed 9mm pistol. This week it emerged that Bradford Wood has a murky history having in the past been charged with several crimes including […]
A NUMBER of children were seriously wounded in the capital of breakaway Somaliland last week when police exchanged fire with a group of civilians accused of holding an illegal meeting, the United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef) said on Wednesday. Police reported one person killed and six wounded in the clashes in Hargeisa last Thursday. Unicef […]
Gregory Mthembu-Salter “Dull. A bit slow. Very slow” is how prominent independent Zambian politician Dipak Patel describes Levy Mwanawasa, Zambia’s ruling Movement for Multiparty Democracy’s (MMD) presidential candidate. Zambia is due to hold general elections in November, but until last week the MMD was without a candidate, after President Frederick Chiluba was forced to abandon […]
The younger Williams sister won the US Open two years ago but has since been eclipsed by Venus Stephen Bierley Two years ago, as the Manhattan traffic crawled across Queensboro bridge towards Queens home of the Mets and, for two weeks in late summer, the United States Open tennis championships New York drivers were confronted […]