There have been unprecedented gains for workers following the recent volatile industrial action around South Africa Glenda Daniels Organised labour flexed its muscles a week ago and won some far-reaching gains, including medical treatment for HIV-positive miners, training for women, narrowing of the wage gap, meal intervals, leave benefits and a commitment to minimum wages. […]
A European tour led to overseas distribution and now this local band is being remixed in Prague Adam Haupt When Moodphase 5ive released their debut album, Steady On, they won Cape Town over big time. Who could forget their phenomenal performances at this year’s Up the Creek and North Sea Jazz Festival? They also toured […]
Glenda Daniels Development studies in South Africa are to receive a major boost as Wits University prepares to launch a new postgraduate initiative in the field. “This will entail the largest development network in the country and the continent,” says Professor Belinda Bozzoli, head of social sciences, who is spearheading the project. Three faculties will […]
Paul Kirk A series of Mail & Guardian articles on corruption within the Durban Unicity Municipality has resulted in an investigation being launched into a senior council official to stop employees being “subject to trial through the media”. Felix Dlamini, the municipal manager of the city, promised to investigate whether acting CEO Sandile Thusi held […]
Nawaal Deane Next week the Johannesburg Bar will decide who gets custody of its library the majority of its members who have fled the city centre to Sandton or the small group who are sticking it out downtown. It will be the final round of an epic struggle over the future of South Africa’s most […]
Ben Summers The Internet may be the most powerful advance in technology of recent years, but the past has never been more easily revisited. Nostalgia has never been so much fun. Witness the toys of your childhood for example, such as Mr Potato Head. In production since 1952, Mr Potato Head had a resurgence of […]
The aim of education should not be merely to reproduce things such as family and society as they are at present, but to use our energies to generate something better, argues Donald Moerdijk Coline Serreau is a feminist film director whose work deserves more attention than it has so far received. In a series of […]
analysis Dianne Black Richard*, a part-time employee of very long standing, had been steadily losing weight and suffering from recurrent bouts of illness. When he told me that he had had swollen glands for weeks and they would not go down despite the medication he had been receiving, I didn’t have to be a physician […]
analysis Rembrandt Klopper Soon after Afrikaners handed power to the black majority in 1994 curious anecdotal reports emanating from black communities in the greater Durban region suggested that instead of being stigmatised by black youths as the language of the oppressor, Afrikaans had a surprisingly positive image. According to these anecdotal reports, increasing numbers of […]
Jaspreet Kindra The African National Congress national executive committee (NEC) meeting at the weekend is expected to formulate a hard-hitting stance on the United States’s threats to boycott the United Nations conference on racism to be held in Durban at the end of this month. The US has raised concerns about the inclusion of reparations […]
comment Mbuyiselo Botha The South African Men’s Forum is one of the stakeholders organising the Gender Summit and has been playing an advocacy role in the Commission on Gender Equality. For Women’s Day, on August 9, the forum has called on men to move away from the sidelines and to become a greater presence in […]
Zimply the best Shaun de Waal On his new CD, Zim Ngqawana, perhaps our leading new jazz composer, continues to meld tradition and innovation to create a specifically South African sound. As he notes in the booklet, among other “aphorizims”, Zimphonic Suites (Sheer Sound) is about “harmony between antiquity and modernity”. Ngqawana draws on both […]
Developing countries must use their resources to stimulate growth worm’s eye view Steven Friedman We must take care lest growth plans become Africa’s chief growth industry. President Thabo Mbeki is investing much in the Millennium Africa Recovery Plan (MAP) he authored with Nigerian President Olusegun Obesanjo and Algeria’s President Abdelaziz Bouteflika and which has been […]
Fred Esbend The South African Human Rights Commission has expressed the “gravest concern” at the growing number of racial incidents taking place in South Africa. With the United Nations World Conference against Racism due to kick off in Durban in three weeks, three racial incidents made media headlines this week. In Port Elizabeth on Saturday […]
Niki Moore The KwaDapha camp at Kosi Bay where slain academic David Webster lived while he did his anthropological research a monument to the anti-apartheid martyr is again the focus of controversial activities. Unlawful tourism developments have sprung up next to Webster’s camp, destroying pristine coastal forest. KwaZulu-Natal wildlife officials are powerless to prevent five […]
The second Caine Prize for African Writing has been won by Nigerian Helon Habila, for Love Poems. The result was announced by the writer and chairman of the panel of judges, Dan Jacobson, at a dinner at Oxford University. The award ceremony will take place in Nairobi in September, to coincide with the Kenya Book […]
Roshila Pillay and David Macfarlane If you’re not online, you’re heading for oblivion. For public and private education institutions, whether traditionally contact or distance, this is the clear message. A sampling of recent innovations shows that the formerly distinct categories of contact and distance learning are increasingly merging. And it’s a buyer’s that is, learner’s […]
Last season’s champions might be rudderless but their ship is not in any danger of sinking Ntuthuko Maphumulo Orlando Pirates begin the defence of their BP Top 8 title against Supersport United at their new hunting ground of Johannesburg stadium on Saturday. Pirates are still without a coach but will be hoping that caretaker Augusto […]
Tread carefully or you will find yourself starting a course that doesn’t suit you, says Jeremy Hoad If you are thinking about doing a postgraduate degree there are some basic questions you should ask yourself. Why do I want to do a postgraduate course? What sort of course should I consider? How will the course […]
Braam van Straaten’s kicking was a revelation at Loftus last week Andy Capostagno In the bowels of Loftus Versfeld on Saturday evening Harry Viljoen could have been forgiven for starting the press conference by thumbing his nose and saying, “Yah, boo, sucks to the lot of you.” That he did not suggests both that he […]
LONDON CALLING Martin Spring The currency to back now could be the euro. Does that come as a surprise? For the long haul the dollar is a better bet as it reflects the superiority of the United States economy, offering higher risk-adjusted returns and greater breadth of opportunities. The US is better managed than Europe […]
BOXING Deon Potgieter Zolani Petelo, the humble former International Boxing Federation (IBF) mini flyweight champion of the world has been given the opportunity to realise every fighter’s dream. He will be fighting a boxing legend at the Wimbledon of boxing, Madison Square Garden, on September 15. Although Petelo was the first South African boxer to […]
Northern Cape Premier Manne Dipico appeared before the South African Human Rights Commission this week and denied tapping the telephones of his employees, although he had been given a copy of a taped conversation of one staffer, writes Ngwako Modjadji. Dipico had been subpoenaed to appear at the commission, which is investigating whether tapping a […]
Feelings are running high over the decision by local bishops of the Catholic Church to maintain their long-standing objection to the use of condoms. A writer in our Letters section this week has eloquently summed up this anger in one, brutally frank sentence. The bishops have taken their position in opposition to the best scientific […]
Akin Ojumu The Grateful Dead singer Jerry Garcia has been the subject of numerous tributes after his death, but perhaps the most flattering came last year when he inspired the character of God in the short-lived animated series God, the Devil and Bob. Given tongue by a languid James Garner, God, who seemingly hails from […]
Garth Abraham Jurisprudence: A South African Perspective by David Johnson, Steve Pete and Max du Plessis (Butterworths) Following the inauguration of a chairperson in jurisprudence at the newly constituted University of London in 1826, law students the world over have had, in the estimation of their majority, to suffer within their academic curriculum a course […]
The allegation by Paul Kirk (July 27) that I presented a false driver’s licence to my employer is a blatant lie. The abusive remarks attributed to me are nothing but fabrication. I had already resigned from the companies mentioned in the article before joining the council. Regarding Mr Shange’s appointment as director of community and […]
The South African Catholic bishops’ stance against the use of condoms to curb the spread of HIV is irresponsible. Not only is the debate 15 years too late, but totally out of touch with the suffering of so many people. The assertion that “condoms may even be one of the main reasons for the spread […]
After a decade of market imitation, is it possible to be a radical intellectual? Lynne Segal comments Have you had yours yet? One astonished academic after another has sent me copies of letters asking them to consider a little school teaching on the side. It is unclear if the private company soliciting us imagines, correctly, […]
South Africa’s cricket administration appears to be in disarray Peter Robinson Remember South Africa’s visit to India at the beginning of last year? Right, that was the Match-Fixing tour. And what about South Africa in the West Indies this year? Ah yes, the Dope-Smoking tour. OK, then, the players might have been a little too […]
All times Central African Time Friday August 3 2.45am (Sat): Men marathon 3.00am:Opening ceremony Saturday August 4 (see also late Friday) 5.45pm: Men 400m first round 6.30pm:Men 100m first round 7.40pm:Women 10000m first round 9.50pm:Men 800m first round Midnight: Men shot-put Final 00.05am (Sun): Men 100m second round 1.40am: Women 1500m first round Sunday August […]
This landmark case shows that investor activism is on the rise Belinda Anderson A shareholder in disgraced pharmaceutical company Beige Holdings is suing some of the former directors for his losses incurred, he argues, by investing in a company whose share price was inflated by false profit declarations. Beige was suspended in late 1999 when […]