Hugo Young describes his interview with President Thabo Mbeki Unlike Nelson Mandela, his successor Thabo Mbeki does not in all respects rise above history. Temporally, the apartheid era may have passed, but it remains the formative imprint on the South African psyche and the president never forgets it. A conversation with him reveals the extent […]
Police are using video footage of gory traffic accidents to persuade young South Africans to be more responsible Paul Kirk School pupils and business people in Durban are being shown shocking video footage of traffic accidents in a bid to make them more responsible drivers and it seems to be working. Top traffic policeman Principal […]
Marianne Merten Religious leaders in Cape Town have mobilised against sex tourism following reports that city officials are looking into establishing red light districts. On Wednesday representatives of the Muslim, Jewish and Christian faiths were ready to address a unicity council meeting in support of a motion by the African Christian Democratic Party against sex […]
Thebe Mabanga The annual North West Cultural Calabash has taken a huge leap towards establishing itself as one of the most important cultural events when the 2001 edition was launched with a new format last Friday. “The [Calabash] is fast becoming one of the premier arts and culture festivals in South Africa,” said Mandlemkosi Mayisela, […]
Poet John Mateer left South Africa at 18, but is visiting the land of his birth for the Poetry Africa Festival. He spoke to Stephen Gray John Mateer’s new collection of poems, Barefoot Speech including many about his native South Africa was launched this week at the popular Poetry Africa 2001 festival in Durban. Born […]
Contenders for the July are out in force this weekend as many of the more doubtful starters among the 61 entrants try to force their way into the final field of 18. The top pair in the July betting, three-year-olds Badger’s Drift and Hoeberg, are also in action in different races. The seemingly unstoppable Hoeberg […]
Barry Streek Cabinet has approved a new human resource strategy to challenge the high degree of inequality in South Africa the second worst in the world. The strategy, tabled in Parliament this week, is intended to improve the country’s Human Development Index. It recognises that poverty-related health issues, including HIV/Aids, will have a significant effect […]
Andy Capostagno rugby If Saturday’s final between the Brumbies and the Sharks was the last Super 12 game then we had better cherish it. Next year, not only are there likely to be more than 12 teams in the competition, but it will probably take place midway through or at the end of the season. […]
Deon Potgieter boxing Following the Hassim Rahman-Lennox Lewis “Thunder in Africa” bill at Carnival City in April, locals have dubbed this weekend’s Jan Bergman world title challenge, the “Bliksem in Brakpan”. Bergman, one of the best local combatants never to have won a world title, gets his third crack at a crown on Saturday night. […]
Shaun de Waal CD OFTHEWEEK Irish rockers The Hothouse Flowers have a history stretching back to the late Eighties, so a Best of album (London/Gallo) is not likely to be understocked. And the format works particularly well for them, with one surging, impassioned song following another in a continuous wave of top-notch rockin’ soul. Their […]
David Macfarlane Former Rhodes University academic Dr Robert Shell has lost his appeal against his summary dismissal in February on a disciplinary charge. Academics are aghast at how Shell has been treated during the two-year saga, and suggest the fallout from the conflict enshrouds not only Shell and Rhodes, but every academic in the country. […]
Bruce Whitfield Investec’s chief investment strategist Piet Viljoen makes some astounding observations with regard to world markets. Did you know, for example, that Zimbabwe’s stock market was the world’s top performing market between March last year and March this year? Not only that, but investors in carefully chosen South African shares would have outperformed many […]
Nawaal Deane and Mungo Soggot The state’s Road Accident Fund has placed a general bar on white professionals both legal and medical specialists handling its cases. The fund, which deals with lawsuits stemming from car accidents on behalf of the state, has instructed law firms acting on its behalf that they too should avoid using […]
Marianne Merten Having a cellphone in jail can either lead to a ban from the tuck shop or another year behind bars as a Pollsmoor prison inmate has discovered. When Allan Boesak, the recently paroled politician convicted of fraud, was found with a stolen cellphone from which he had called his wife, he was banned […]
It was a tumultuous end to a mad, bad season for Bolton’s Scotland captain Ian Whittell He is 35, six months past a footballer’s pensionable age. Yet while most of his peers were dusting down the policies, sizing up a place either behind or at the bar or wearing a groove in the TV analysts’ […]
boys’ movie of the week You gotta laugh. In the press release for Pearl Harbor, the new mega-budget flick about the surprise Japanese attack that destroyed the United States Pacific Fleet in 1941 and brought the US into World War II, there is a profile of producer Jerry Bruckheimer. He is described as “a film-maker […]
Andrew Burrow and Carla Raffinetti On Monday, May 28 2001, in a damning judgement, the Constitutional Court declared that the South African government’s handing over of suspected bomber Khalfan Khamis Mohamed to the FBI was unlawful. The judgement came as a blow to the South African government, which was found to have violated both the […]
Martin Gillingham athletics When Cathy Freeman arrived in Monte Carlo last week to collect the most prestigious sporting award of the year she was … how can we put this delicately? … OK, why bother. Last year’s world sportswoman of the year has gone to fat. Fat, that is, in the eye of your average […]
Timothy Wood American notes Stocks have likely seen their lows for the year and are showing value again. That’s the view of Morgan Stanley as it tracks the fastest money supply growth in 20 years even faster than the artificial increase engineered for Y2K. The research is startling because it was taken for granted that […]
Glenda Daniels The Commission for Gender Equality has put the land restitution programme at the top of its agenda for the coming gender summit to be held in August. The commission wants to sensitise land reform policy about gender issues, and to devise strategies to ensure land access and security of tenure for rural women […]
Evidence wa ka Ngobeni In a scathing attack on men, Speaker of the National Assembly Dr Frene Ginwala blamed the “old boys network” for destroying governments’ integrity. “Links established in schools and universities, in villages and on golf links all too easily slip from an old boys network into nepotism, whether based on the old […]
Barry Streek The government has allocated R40-million to build sport facilities in disadvantaged communities, Minister of Sport and Recreation Ngconde Balfour announced in Parliament this week. This amount, Balfour says, will treble over the next three years. The programme will target all provinces and use labour-intensive methods that will create employment. According to the Department […]
Glenda Daniels Charges of brutal police assault will be heard in the Johannesburg High Court next week when Andrew Phillips, owner of the brothel The Ranch, brings a civil claim against the Ministry of Safety and Security. The assault charges will be backed up by allegations of extortion and bribery, including how police forced prostitutes […]
Lynda Gilfillan food Kalk Bay, with its air of shabby English chic, is at first glance an un- likely place to find a restaurant redolent with the Spanish-African sounds and symbols of Cuba. From Christ to Che Guevara, the walls of the Cape to Cuba restaurant are covered with genuine icons and artefacts that reflect […]
We note that after the Press Ombudsman conveyed my complaint to the Mail & Guardian, the M&G afforded me an opportunity to answer an article in the M&G of April 26 to May 3 2001 under the heading: “Bogoshi still not charged after 10- year fraud investigation”. Before I lodged my complaint with the Press […]
The Poetry Africa Festival continues in Durban this weekend, and arrives in Johannesburg next week. Presented by the Centre for Creative Arts, it takes place at the Elizabeth Sneddon Theatre, University of Natal, and at the Windybrow Theatre in Johannesburg. At 7pm on Friday June 1, South Africa’s Madala Kunene, Amina Said of Tunisia, Taban […]
Alec Hogg South Africa’s largest banking group, FirstRand, has emerged as the most likely buyer of the niche bank Saambou, which at current market prices is worth about R2-billion. This emerged earlier this week as the bank that had been the favourite to buy Saambou ruled itself out of the game. Absa Group CEO Nallie […]
Barry Streek The government this week promised immediate and tough action to promote greater and quicker integration of South African schools. Minister of Education Kader Asmal said the government would, in particular, enforce its “language in education” policy to accelerate integration and it would be examining the composition of teaching bodies. After seven years of […]
Bismarck Masangu Body Language May the real wankers please stand up! I repeat, may the real wankers please stand up! Well, one thing is certain, not all of us can afford to get laid. Yet our society has little correction no sympathy for those of us who resort to manual methods. In fact the idea […]
Jane Rosenthal Plettenberg Bay and the Paradise Coast by Patricia Storrar (TJM Publishers) Patricia Storrar, the well-known historian of the southern Cape, earned her stripes in 1974 when she debunked myths surrounding George Rex of Knysna. Now she has drawn on her previous research to explore new areas in this book, which is further enhanced […]
Fred Esbend More than 600 Port Elizabeth families face an uncertain future as controversy over the proposed relocation of police headquarters from the city to King William’s Town mounts. The latest estimated cost for the move is now standing at a whopping R105- million, according to Democratic Party MPL Bobby Stevenson. Eastern Cape MEC for […]
Presidents Thabo Mbeki and Robert Mugabe stay in regular contact, but the government is also strengthening ties with Zimbabwe’s opposition Jaspreet Kindra The African National Congress has adopted a more benevolent attitude towards Zimbabwe’s opposition party, the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC). MDC secretary general Welshman Ncube told the Mail & Guardian this week that […]