EIGHTEEN-year-old Ramatouoaye Diallo of Senegal beat 23 other contestants from 19 countries on Saturday to win the Face of Africa competition at the South African resort of Sun City. The win gives her $200_000 and a contract with a New York modeling agency. Diallo, a tall young woman who shaves her head, told the judges […]
ANGOLAN rebels killed 17 people in two ambushes in the centre and south of the country, the Roman Catholic radio station Ecclesia reported on Wednesday. Ten passengers were shot dead when men said to be members of the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (Unita) attacked a lorry at Cacuso in the northern […]
Former South African president Nelson Mandela has arrived in Sharjah for a visit of several days to the United Arab Emirates.
Nawaal Deane In a scenario disturbingly reminiscent of apartheid policing, Andrew Taylor claims two policemen tortured him on Tuesday in Northam in the Northern Province. They dropped all charges and released him the next day. Taylor claims two policemen from the Pretoria murder and robbery unit took him to a private game farm outside Pretoria, […]
A former military officer under the apartheid regime, disabled and shunned by the very system he chose to serve, has not let the curve ball thrown to him by fate stop him from fulfilling his dreams Khadija Magardie It is rare that childhood dreams of becoming a ballerina or a fighter jet pilot are sustained […]
By Mboniso Sigonyela The latest Edgars consolidated store results could be the first indication that the cellular phone market, which has been a major revenue driver for retailers, has reached its peak. Edcon, the first retailer to stock cellphones, reports a 14% year-on-year decline in cellphone sales from its United retail chain. United retail is […]
At first glance, the public hearings on the arms deal, due to start in Pretoria next week, appear to be a good thing. The government will be bringing into the open one of the most damaging sagas since 1994. And the public will be given an opportunity to judge for themselves why and how improperly […]
Robert Kirby CHANNELVISION Two of the BBC’s best comedies are showing currently on BBC Prime. The first is Yes, Prime Minister, the follow-up to Yes, Minister, the comedy series about British minister of administrative affairs Jim Hacker’s career. He is now prime minister, followed closely into office by the impeccably hypocritical Sir Humphrey Appleby, now […]
Jane Rosenthal Trekking to Teema by Pieter-Dirk Uys (comPress/Book) In this very readable novel, now in actual book form after an Internet debut, Pieter-Dirk Uys manages to be both richly entertaining and rather serious. Written from the heart, it is often tongue-in-cheek, an unpretentious but well-told tale. It concerns one Dawid de Lange who, having […]
Nick Hasted When Ian Rankin created John Rebus, the Edinburgh Detective Inspector he has followed through 12 books now, Rebus was 38, liked a drink, and had one dark buried secret, from his days in the army, that returned to haunt him. But with each book, Rebus’s ghosts, and Rankin’s interest in the skeletons mouldering […]
Neal Collins soccer After the fabulous nine-goal excitement of Liverpool’s Uefa Cup victory last week, Bayern Munich’s Champions League triumph over Valencia was one for the connoisseur. This was a San Siro final that consisted purely of spot kicks. Some good, some bad, some brilliantly kept out. But the abiding truth of football is this: […]
Stuart Jeffries In Cannes for the screening of a video diary on May 14 the Reverend Jesse Jackson denounced the film festival for promoting cultural apartheid. “There must be more African-American films being shown here. There are none this year,” said Jackson, making his first visit to the wealthy Riviera resort. “And there must be […]
Fiona Macleod Douw Grobler, head of the Kruger National Park’s game capture unit, has been fired for the unauthorised sale of animals from the park’s disease-free buffalo breeding project. An internal disciplinary committee found Grobler guilty of nine charges of misconduct, five of which constituted dismissable offences. Grobler, a vet with an international reputation for […]
Deon Potgieter boxing South African boxing was poised to become a major player on the international boxing scene following Hassim Rahman’s dumping of Lennox Lewis at Carnival City last month. The value of controlling the universal heavyweight champion would have had untold benefits for a country that has not had a good run on the […]
The movie Fight Club has spawned a craze for ultimate fighting, though the sport is banned in some countries because of deaths in the ring Thebe Mabanga South Africans are catching on to the growth and popularity of the American contact sport, ultimate fighting. Last weekend 2 500 people crammed into the Wembley Arena in […]
Andy Roddick is the next big thing in tennis and he should add some fizz to the Grand Slams Jon Henderson First, the slightly disappointing news about Andy Roddick: a tennis magazine has described the 18-year-old American as being “refreshingly normal”. How much more refreshing normality can we take on the men’s tour? The rest, […]
FOSTER Davis worked more than three decades on three continents in journalism, but his effect on his profession was felt not only in his hometown Charlotte, in the United States, but also in Johannesburg. Davis, 61, died on Sunday in Charlotte from cancer. He worked at The Observer from 1976 to 1992 and in that […]
movie of the week Movies about movie-making are always interesting for the sidelight they throw on the process, though they do run the risk of self-indulgence. Federico Fellini’s classic 8 1/2 is in part about such self-indulgence, showing us a confused filmmaker swamped by fantasy as much as by the travails of getting a movie […]
By Bruce Whitfield Emerging markets specialist Mark Mobius has about $1-billion invested in South Africa, and he’s looking to increase his exposure. He is the president of the Templeton Emerging Markets Fund, and about 15% of the fund’s total assets are invested in a wide range of South African companies. He is looking to increase […]
Marianne Merten Several copies of unedited recordings made by international broadcasters the night Hard Livings gang lord Rashaad Staggie was killed in 1996 are now before a Cape High Court judge. State witness Mr A on Thursday testified how police seized videotapes on two occasions since November last year, including at least two copies of […]
THE United Nations Security Council has commended the efforts of leaders in the volatile Great Lakes region to restore peace in war-wrecked Burundi and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). A high level 12-man delegation of the council currently touring Africa in a new resolve to end years of conflict in the region gave the […]
TANZANIA?S third modern large-scale gold mine has started commercial production ahead of its official commissioning in mid-July, a company official said on Friday. “Gold is now pouring out at the mine … all is going on well,” said Roy Meada, general manager of Kahama Mining Corporation Limited, owners of the mine in the remote village […]
After years of antipathy between Hollywood and Cannes, the Americans are finally proving that big box office movies can be creative and credible Akin Ojumu At the press conference following the Cannes screening of Moulin Rouge, Baz Luhrmann, the film’s Australian director, proudly proclaimed the film’s Antipodean origins. This was a film conceived and executed […]
Paul Kirk Last week Durban’s largest shelter for the homeless ran out of food. This week, a homeless man had to be turned away because there was no space for him. This is because hundreds of Gauteng’s indigent winter at the coast where, thanks to the warm Indian ocean, daytime temperatures seldom drop below 20C. […]
David Macfarlane The future of a charitable organisation that provides therapy for the disabled hangs in the balance firstly because the local council mistakenly sold the land it occupies, and secondly because the buyer, Australian university Monash South Africa, appears unwilling to resolve the matter. The highveld branch of the South African Riding for the […]
A TOTAL of 232 new cholera cases have been reported in KwaZulu-Natal since Wednesday afternoon. The provincial health department said no new deaths were reported. Most of the cases occurred in Eshowe/Nkandla (81), Ulundi (50), Lower Umfolozi districts (47) and New Castle/Nqutu (21). There are still 274 people being treated in provincial hospitals. A total […]
Lawrence Booth ‘Corruption report stuns cricket world,” announced one website this week. Remove cricket from that headline, and you might be closer to the truth. Because for those in the game who have followed developments closely since Cronjegate and have greeted each new revelation with less shock and horror than the last there is precious […]
Sizwe samaYende American fast food giant McDonald’s has been dubbed “McGreed” in Mpumalanga after refusing to supply anti-Aids drugs to a staff member who was raped after working a late shift. The transnational corporation refuses to supply transport for staff who knock off between midnight and 2am, and who are regularly ambushed by criminals. A […]
Mail & Guardian reporters Investigators in South Africa’s R50-billion arms deal have expressed serious reservations about the advisability of public hearings into the procurement scandal due to open on Monday. The concerns have divided officials of the three investigating bodies although there are indications that the final format the hearings will take has partly allayed […]
OVERCROWDING in Moroccan prisons is a “bomb”, the Moroccan Prison Observatory (OMP) said this week, reporting appalling conditions in many of the country’s jails. “The overcrowding is a bomb that forces us to think about alternative solutions to incarceration,” said Abderrahim Jamai, a director of the Casablanca-based independent watchdog organisation. “Integrating minors into social life […]
Charlene Smith Over one weekend recently 80% of patients admitted to Johannesburg hospital were HIV-positive. Sixty per cent of the hospital’s paediatric admissions are HIV-infected and at least half of all patients are HIV-positive. The hospital is ill-equipped to deal with the crisis, seriously lacking in both medical staff and drugs. In a letter to […]
The Mail &Guardian and the ANC faced each other in court this week over the allegation that a white editor wrote an article and put a black journalist’s name above it, Khadija Magardie reports The Johannesburg High Court looks miles away from a resolution of the dispute between the Mail & Guardian and the country’s […]