Pretoria | Sunday SANCTIONS against Zimbabwe have had little or no effect and are not a viable way to effect change in that country, President Thabo Mbeki’s spokesman said on Saturday. Bheki Khumalo said some countries had followed a policy of “loud diplomacy” — openly criticising the government of Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe — and […]
Commonwealth talks hosted by Nigeria, aimed at pulling Zimbabwe out of international isolation over its violence-wracked land reforms, have been delayed to the first week of September, Zimbabwean state television said on Friday. Nigerian and Zimbabwean officials had announced that the Commonwealth group would be meeting in Nigeria August 15-17 to seek ways to heal […]
DAVID LE PAGE, Johannesburg | Sunday ACCORDING to Independent Online, Willem Heath has wound up a week of hearings into the Cape Town street renaming scandal, in which council members are alleged to have manipulated so-called public petitions in support of the proposal. The proposal was a favourite of Democratic Alliance mayor Pieter Marais, who […]
Pretoria | Sunday PROSECUTORS said Saturday they would not appeal a High Court decision which overturned an order issued to foreign journalists to hand over video material of the killing of druglord Rashaad Staggie. The National Directorate of Public Prosecutions (NDPP), said in a statement they would not further delay the trial of the men […]
DAVID MACFARLANE, Johannesburg | Friday ABOUT 75% of schools expel girls who fall pregnant, but only 25% of schools also expel the father of the child. “There’s not a school in the country that doesn’t have to face the problem of pregnancy among learners,” says Ken Alston, acting rector of the Teachers’ Centre in East […]
A FRENCH tourist was attacked and killed by an angry elepant he was filming in southern Kenya’s Tsavo East national park, officials said on Friday. The Kenya Tourist Federation said in a statement that Jacques Boxberger (52) was trampled to death by the elephant at a picnic site in Tsavo where he had gone with […]
A cricketer’s body was exhumed this week to discover the true cause of death, writes Paul Kirk Tertius Bosch, fast bowler and dentist, died aged 33 from a disease that afflicts fewer than one person in 100 000 and kills just 2% of its victims. Now a series of irregularities and the preliminary results of […]
Stefaans Brmmer and Mungo Soggot Did two well-connected black empowerment firms fraudulently conspire to mislead MTN in a bid for shares? This counts among the dirtier claims that may surface when both companies go to court in an internecine battle over the cellphone company shares, said to be worth more than R200-million. The offices of […]
Arundhati Roy achieved worldwide success as a Booker Prize-winning novelist. But she has given up the glory trail to become India’s most prominent activist. She tells Madeleine Bunting why she now risks jail Arundhati Roy burst on to the Indian national stage from nowhere in 1997. A drop-out architecture student and one-time aerobics instructor, she […]
GLENDA DANIELS, Johannesburg | Friday Striking motor manufacturing workers are about to decide whether to accept intervention by the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA) to reach agreement on a wage deadlock. About 21 000 National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (Numsa) motor manufacturing members went on strike on Monday and about 5 […]
South Africa have five Tests to get things right before they take on Australia Peter Robinson Whatever the claims of men such as Sachin Tendulkar and Brian Lara (not to mention wonderful bowlers like Courtney Walsh, Allan Donald and Shane Warne), it is difficult to dismiss the credentials of Steve Waugh as being simply the […]
Tara Turkington The African National Congress-controlled municipality in the Northern Cape town of De Aar failed to pay an overdue account to a law firm run by a Democratic Alliance leader in the province so the town was brought to a near standstill. The Emthanjeni municipality’s moveable assets from the traffic police’s car to the […]
ANC: Torn between two roles Does it makes sense for a party in power to continue to use the language of liberation, asks Ben Turok Many people find it anomalous that the African National Congress persists in calling itself a liberation movement when it is clearly a party in government. Some ANC leaders say it […]
MOVES led by the World Health Organisation for a global convention to cut smoking will increase poverty and strangle the economy, Malawian farm leaders were quoted as saying on Wednesday. They said that about 80% of the country’s 10 million people live in rural areas and are dependent on tobacco production. WHO is leading a […]
be crushed’ Jaspreet Kindra Minister of Labour Membathisi Mdladlana likens the loss of workers as the restructuring of public enterprises takes place to the sacrifice of human life during the African National Congress’s struggle against apartheid. “I was just remarking that the Reconstruction and Development Programme implies rebuilding and destroying apartheid structures. There is going […]
Harrison Ndlovu In a bid to control public urinating in their neighbourhood, Hillbrow residents are imposing spot fines ranging between R10 and R50 for offenders Central Hillbrow, with its high liquor consumption and many dark alleyways, is worst affected and residents have taken it upon themselves to control the health hazard. On a wall on […]
While Numsa this week lowered its wage increase demand, motor industry employers have refused to budge Glenda Daniels Striking motor manufacturing workers are about to decide whether to accept intervention by the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA) to reach agreement on a wage deadlock. About 21 000 National Union of Metalworkers of South […]
MAIL & GUARDIAN chief photographer Ruth Motau has been honoured for her work at an awards ceremony sponsored by the South African Broadcasting Corporation. This is the second year the SABC acknowledged women who have made a difference in the media and 28 women were honoured last Friday. Motau received the same award last year. […]
Ngwako Modjaji Henrietta Mqokomiso, who was evicted from her house in Alexandra township in June when bulldozers demolished her home of 12 years, is being given a new house by the Gauteng Department of Housing. The Mail & Guardian reported last month that the Legal Resources Centre was preparing a legal battle on behalf of […]
A farm worker claims he was beaten by vigilantes on an executive’s hunting farm Fiona Macleod Police are investigating an alleged sjambok beating carried out by vigilante group Mapogo-A-Mathamaga on a Northern Province hunting farm owned by one of Bill Gates’s right-hand men at Microsoft. A former employee at the farm of senior Microsoft executive […]
protests Marianne Merten Students from the Cape Peninsula joined their colleagues in Soweto in protest against Afrikaans as a medium of instruction and police brutality 25 years ago. August 11 marks the 25th anniversary of the protests by pupils from Langa and Guguletu townships, which spread across the Cape Flats and prompted solidarity demonstrations by […]
ITALY has donated two billion lire (about one million dollars) to help rebuild health services in the Democratic Republic of Congo, the United Nations children’s fund Unicef said on Thursday. This brings to eight million dollars contributions so far received towards Unicef’s appeal for DRC for this year, which totals $15-million. Unicef executive director Carol […]
Possible manipulation of votes on the renaming of two streets is under scrutiny in Cape Town Marianne Merten It was an inauspicious start to the public hearings to get to the bottom of whether and how submissions on the renaming of Cape Town’s two oldest streets might have been manipulated. Inquiry chairman advocate Willem Heath […]
BODY LANGUAGE Julie Burchill If there’s one type of broad I can’t stand, it’s what I call You’re-Not-Going-Out-Dressed-Like-That feminists: older women, past the first bloom of youthful beauty perhaps, who instead of concentrating their fury on patriarchy and its evils make a second career out of attacking younger women, usually stunners or starlets of some […]
RUGBY Andy Colquhoun in Fremantle In 1850 building work began on a new detention centre to house 75 convicts, the first wave of felons despatched to Fremantle to begin a new life as far away as possible from the delicate sensibilities of British society. Today the building is the Esplanade hotel and houses the Springbok […]
EVIDENCE WA KA NGOBENI, Johannesburg | Friday THE Special Investigative Unit (SIU), the state’s premier investigation authority, is to shut down a string of long-standing probes into alleged fraudulent activities involving government officials and private individuals as part of a plan to overhaul its operations. The unit, which has been struggling to cope with its […]
Bongani Majola The word “battle” features prominently when South African graffiti artists talk about their work. This was evident at a recent graffiti competition in Johannesburg. The winning work, which took a R500 prize, was of a man menacingly clutching a little teddy bear in his hand. This is, according to Wealz, the sole judge […]
Alec Hogg Failure to keep losses in check forced South African-owned technology group Ixchange to issue a profit warning on Tuesday morning. But chief executive Derek Kreunen says although the bottom line number for the six months to June 30 came in $3,3-million worse than had been projected, there is enough in the results for […]
It should be noted that, after the government, no organisation in this country is doing more to handle the appalling results of the Aids pandemic, using both local and foreign funding, than the Catholic Church, led by its bishops. These men are fully aware of what is going on. They see and know all about […]
SIERRA LEONE on Thursday released 41 rebels from prison including Paolo Bangura, a former foreign minister, a government statement said. It said the detainees were freed in the afternoon from Freetown’s high-security Pademba Road prison. All were members of the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) rebel group and had been held under a sweeping emergency law. […]
Documents suggest that Chippy Shaik did not withdraw from key arms decisions involving his brother’s interests Paul Kirk Intelligence agencies and the state attorney this week sought to stop the Mail & Guardian from publishing information about documents that expose serious irregularities in the R50-billion arms deal. Shortly after the M&G asked Minister of Trade […]
Q&A musa manzini Thebe Mabanga Musa Manzini, a graduate of the University of Cape Town (UCT) school of music, is one the latest, noticeable arrivals on the jazz scene. With class and elegance he effortlessly alternates between the electric guitar and the double bass. His self-produced, self-titled debut, New Reflections (BMG), earned him a South […]