Barbara Ludman Artemis Fowl by Eoin Colfer (Viking) Any book that will keep children reading after they’ve devoured all four Harry Potter books is worth a try, but the hero of this one is perhaps not the kind of fellow you want as a role model for your children. Artemis Fowl, the scion of a […]
MAIL & GUARDIAN REPORTER, Johannesburg | Friday SOUTH African husbands, partners or lovers would probably have loved to be a fly on the wall on the Park Hyatt hotel ballroom in Rosebank, Johannesburg, on Tuesday night. The conversation over the foie gras and wine was positively scandalous. “Oh my God!” shrieked a woman standing near […]
Mail& Guardian reporter The Joubert Park Public Art Project (JPP) is hosting a major multi-disciplinary exhibition and series of events at the Johannesburg Art Gallery and Joubert Park, which will run from October 13 until the end of December. With the focus on “public art” the JPP aims to address and engage the conditions, changes […]
When other black artists of his generation went abroad, he remained in South Africa to make his name GEORGE PEMBA George Milwa Mnyaluza Pemba, one of the pioneers of painting among South African black artists, has died. Pemba, who was born in Korsten Village, Port Elizabeth, in 1912, attended the Van der Kemp Mission Primary […]
Nawaal Deane The Road Accident Fund has watered down its controversial plans to require its legal representatives to hire only black professionals. This follows a Mail & Guardian report in June on the fund’s affirmative action policy, instructing law firms acting on its behalf to avoid using white advocates to defend their cases. The fund […]
Bluetooth is set to revolutionise handheld computing, reports David Shapshak ‘So what’s the big deal?” a friend asked when I phoned him excitedly from a handheld digital organiser. Making a phone call from a personal digital assistant (PDA) may seem neither here nor there in the age of almost global cellphone coverage, hence his lack […]
PEDRO STEENKAMP, Walvis Bay | Friday NOT even the veteran fishermen in Walvis Bay can say exactly what is wrong. They can only speculate why the shoals of nearly all the fish species along the Namibian coast have vanished. But it’s a fact, they said: for nearly the whole of the past two months, the […]
Jeremy Cronin The key achievement of the South African Communist Party through the 1990s has been to rethink the communist project, neither abandoning nor being complacent about our legacy. We have carried through this rethinking, not as an intellectual curiosity, but in the midst of making ongoing, sometimes decisive, contributions to one of the great […]
l Only share identity information when necessary. Credit card numbers should never be given over the telephone unless you have initiated the call. Same goes for the Internet. l Beware of “shoulder surfers” who swipe your bank card number while peering over your shoulder at cash machines. l Make sure your letter box is secure. […]
The council responsible for evictions in Bredell, Kempton Park, may have failed to comply with the law Evidence wa ka Ngobeni The Ekurhuleni Metro Council, formerly the Benoni City Council, appears to have been illegally demolishing shacks and evicting squatters on the East Rand in Johannesburg. And one of the companies the council hired to […]
The 1981 Springbok tour divided New Zealanders. Twenty years later they are still licking their wounds, reports Grant Shimmin The man in Hamilton in 1999 should have given me a clue, but I suppose I glossed over it. After all, we had a cricket tour to cover. Thinking back, though, he must have been planning […]
Paul Kirk Joe Modise, the former minister of defence and one of the figures central to the multi-agency probe into corruption in South Africa’s R50-billion arms deal, had a six-bedroom mansion constructed partly at the expense of state-owned armaments company Denel which operates with taxpayers’ money. This week the National Directorate of Public Prosecutions confirmed […]
Matthew Krouse The Arts & Culture Trust Awards have a new lease on life and the Mail & Guardian has climbed on board as a media sponsor. Our arts section, Friday, won the Media of the Year in Support of the Arts for 1999 to 2000 and now we are proud to be part of […]
This month the South African Communist Party celebrates its 80th anniversary. Two SACP leaders and a political analyst examine the party’s past and the history of communism Tom Lodge History shows us that communist parties can thrive in liberal social democracies. Before World War II, the most formidable communist party in Eastern Europe was in […]
More familiar as a young mafioso in The Sopranos, on closer inspection Michael Imperioli proves to be the world’s politest wiseguy Danny Leigh Here, let me take your coat. An ashtray? Sure, sure. Use mine …” For a man who has, over the past three years, shot a hapless patisserie assistant in the foot, jammed […]
Jwara Mali Flames and Flowers by James Matthews (Realities) The poem is a story as well. In Flames and Flowers, James Matthews seems to take us through the story of his life. There is a narrative element, however slight, in the treatment of this poet’s themes: “Dorfman/ I have eaten the bread of your pain/ […]
The United Nations panel on the environment is currently discussing world climatic changes in Bonn, but are its premisses appropriate? comment Tim Patterson and Tom Harris Apocalyptic visions of the future are nothing new. For centuries, many of the world’s leading thinkers have predicted imminent catastrophe unless we radically changed our ways. Although most of […]
A book by a left-wing academic and an Italian prisoner is taking the United States by storm Ed Vulliamy How often can it happen that a book is swept off the shelves until you can’t find a copy in New York for love nor money? The library’s edition is reserved for the foreseeable future. Amazon’s […]
The Arts & Culture Trust Awards are handed out in eight categories 1. Arts Administrator of the Year Open to any person in cultural organisations, government, the business community or activities concerned primarily with administration, policy, funding or management of the arts and culture or any aspect of it. Criteria to consider: l The skills, […]
l Meningitis is an inflammation of the membranes surrounding the brain and spinal cord. Infection is either by bacteria, a virus or a fungus. l It is a rare disease with flu-like symptoms. A small rash that looks like burst blood vessels is a late sign of meningococcal meningitis. l About one in five people […]
Fred Esbend A new form of public protest has hit the streets in Port Elizabeth minibus taxi drivers are using their vehicles to broadcast their unhappiness with the government. “Corruption … Life’s a bitch! Enjoy the ride”, is emblazoned on the back of a taxi travelling through the city. Another taxi has a huge sticker […]
A wealthy European businessman has invested millions in a unique conservation project Fiona Macleod Paul van Vlissengen is one of the richest men in the world, but when he comes out to South Africa where he spends half his time at the moment he lives in a tent. Even for a Hollander, the winter winds […]
Evidence wa ka Ngobeni The future of a thriving informal settlement in Hammanskraal, north of Pretoria, is uncertain as members of the African National Congress and the South African National Civics Organisation (Sanco) battle over control of the area. ANC and Sanco branches in Kanana, Sotho for “the land of milk and honey”, have been […]
Fiona Macleod Conservation officials have opened an inquiry into the sale of a tame silver-screen star called Dandylion to a “canned” hunting operation in the Free State. The lion was sold by wildlife dealer John Brooker, who came into the spotlight in early June when the Mail & Guardian exposed plans to hunt Baixinha, a […]
For how much longer will government indifference, petty political infighting and bureaucratic incompetence continue to blight millions of South African adults who cannot read or write their own names? And how does one calculate the personal and national costs of the country’s shockingly widespread illiteracy more than a third of adults? Minister of Education Kader […]
channel vision Robert Kirby Is there any hope for the standards of local television journalism when what is already appalling taste and insensitivity sinks to the level of the sewer? Last week e.tv news kicked off with a story about the savage attacks in a Gauteng men’s hostel with lingering, close-up shots of the bloodstained […]
Have a spare moment? Want the news that no one else has? Have a look at the Daily Mail & Guardian. Enter a discussion forum guaranteed to infuriate you. Pick up daily cartoons from Zapiro. Surf to Q South Africa’s first and leading gay website or The Teacher online. Or do your research using the […]
Marianne Merten “As we say in Islam, we are brothers and sisters. We must stand together. Don’t look down on someone who is sick, especially not this kind of sick,” says Fatimah January*. She is living with HIV. Her husband discovered his HIV-positive status years ago. Their child is also HIV-positive. “People must get over […]
The diversity of projects funded by the Arts & Culture Trust ranges from urban renewal to art therapy, multi-media and book illustration. We look at five successful concepts Ntuthuko Maphumulo In the past few years the Visual Arts and Crafts Academy (Vaca) has played an important role in helping young learners cope with their traumatic […]
opera Barbara Ludman Andrew Botha’s take on Rigoletto is so lavish one could almost believe one was back in the bad old days. In the early 1980s Pact staged operas regularly at the Civic Theatre with glorious sets, fabulous costumes and unimpressive voices, except for foreign singers brought in to sing the leads. There are, […]
Congress Mahlangu Agrilink, a project aimed at increasing employment opportunities in agriculture, has raised R11,3-million to assist small farmers in acquiring skills that will enable them to compete with their more established counterparts in the commercial markets. The USAid-funded project was launched in October last year as a pilot in the Eastern Cape. Agrilink provides […]
Nedbank, in partnership with the Arts & Culture Trust and the Mail & Guardian, is proud to be associated with the 2001 Arts & Culture Trust Awards. As the initiator in the Arts & Culture Trust’s creation, Nedbank continues to play a fundamental role in supporting the trust and its various projects. >From a business […]