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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
A local environmental project is teaching people in under-resourced areas how to make the most of what they have Barry Streek This week 22 Cape Town teachers went on a five-day permaculture process course at a Khayelitsha school as part of a pioneering new approach to incorporate environmental education in schools. The course, conducted by […]
schoolboy There are fears that a new virulent strain of the disease is circulating in South Africa Mail & Guardian reporter James Hale (16), a scholar at Pretoria Boys High, was packing to return to boarding school on Sunday when he developed a severe headache. His parents took him to Sunward Park Clinic in Boksburg […]
Philip French Not all great movie meals are enticing banquets and one of the most famous of all is as nightmarish as it’s funny. It’s one of the four celebrated meals in Charlie Chaplin’s The Gold Rush, a personal favourite among his pictures made in 1925. In one of them, Chaplin pretends to be a […]
Marianne Merten Citizens appearing in Cape Town’s tax court get more than they bargain for a lecture on civic responsibility and how not submitting tax returns undermines South Africa’s transformation. “This court is not an alien living on the moon, but part of society,” magistrate Nu’maan Long recently lectured an offender. A Cape Town businessman […]
BOXING Deon Potgieter Harry Simon, the first Namibian to win a boxing world title, is looking to further entrench his name in history by challenging for a world title in a higher weight division. Not only is Simon, the World Boxing Organisation (WBO) junior-middleweight champion, moving up in weight, he’s also moving up in quality. […]
Andries Oliphant speaks to Thebe Mabanga about a blueprint for development of the arts through corporate funding The Arts & Culture Trust (ACT) has done well but has a number of key areas to improve on, believes Andries Oliphant. “We set out to establish a sustainable trust whose funding benefit will be available in perpetuity […]
Barry Streek The South Africa-Zimbabwe border is leaking like a sieve with more than 200 holes in the security fence around the Beitbridge border post, army patrols that only come on duty at 10pm and widespread fraud and corruption. This has been reported by the National Assembly’s portfolio committee on home affairs. “We saw many […]
Glenda Daniels The grey area of what constitutes “unwanted” sexual conduct in the workplace will become clearer when a Labour Court case brought on behalf of a woman by the Women’s Legal Centre in Cape Town is heard in November. This will be the first time in South Africa that there is a claim for […]
Jaspreet Kindra “I have never been HIV-positive. I have never had Aids. It was part of a propaganda plot,” says Peter Mokaba, who read reports in some newspapers last year about his death. The former deputy minister of environmental affairs and tourism, who was dropped by President Thabo Mbeki from his ministerial berth after the […]