John Young The South African cricket team don’t spend a lot of their time reading the local newspapers so they won’t know that their first visit to Port-of-Spain caused quite a stir. On the day the cricketers’ plane landed, two days before the second Test, the Trinidad Guardian published as its Thought for Today a […]
The Face of Africa fashion show on May 26 will be a landmark in the career of acclaimed composer Zwai Bala Thebe Mabanga The music scene is littered with tales of acts it’s inappropriate to call them artists who promise much but fail to live up to the hype. The scene also has a number […]
Evidence wa ka Ngobeni The South African National Gambling Board, the statutory body charged with the regulation of the gambling industry, has spent hundreds of thousands of rands on developing legislation aimed at regulating Internet casinos. The gambling board confirmed this week it paid more than R900 000 to an Australian firm, DGS, to develop […]
Mboniso Sigonyela Turbulent stock markets and falling rand exchange rates ensured that the number of dollar millionaires in Africa remained flat. But the World Wealth Report 2001, compiled by Merrill Lynch and Cap Gemini Ernst & Young, says South Africa has confirmed its position as the continent’s economic powerhouse. According to the report, South Africa […]
Having found ‘special’ players it is important to develop them Andy Capostagno It is traditional for Springbok selectors to produce at least one shock in every squad. In 1992 the first post-isolation touring team included the then unknown Western Transvaaler Botha Rossouw. In 1995 Kitch Christie took a chance on Transvaal scrumhalf Bennie Nortje, although […]
Marianne Merten Guilty of tax evasion? Call on the People for Justice to raise public support while your appeal is pending. Dozens of posters sprang up in the Cape Town CBD on Wednesday in support of reputed crime boss Colin Stanfield, who is out on R100 000 bail pending his appeal against a six-year jail […]
The PSL title looks destined for one of the two Soweto giants Ntuthuko Maphumulo The race for Premier Soccer League (PSL) title will not be over until the fat lady sings but the first notes sounded for defending champions Sundowns after their 0-0 draw with Orlando Pirates on Wednesday. The Mamelodi outfit still have a […]
Kathryn Smith FINE art One comment by a visitor to Alan Alborough’s Standard Bank Young Artist exhibition reads: “Totally incomprehensible. Which is kinda nice in a chin-stroking, art diploma kinda way isn’t this image a bit too myopic in its area of attraction? It’s too inaccessible to revolutionise but not sensational enough to excite. And […]
Ntuthuko Maphumulo baseball Having your child represent South Africa in a sport is a source of great pride to a parent but it can also come at a high price. The South African under-16 baseball team will be competing against the best in the world at the world youth championship in Mexico in August. The […]
The medical aid scheme is facing a moral backlash from doctors and patients who accuse it of making huge profits while its members die from a treatable infection. Chen Blignaut reports Aids specialists and lawyers have accused the country’s wealthiest private medical aid scheme, Discovery Health, of “handing down death sentences” by “duping” members into […]
The government denies that it aims to close down the University of Transkei, and says the retrenchments are part of restructuring Glenda Daniels and David Macfarlane The University of Transkei (Unitra) has been flung into crisis and conflict over the retrenchment of 300 staff members both lower-skilled workers and academics. Union sources say this is […]
Marianne Merten Appearing in the dock with a black-and-white chequered scarf across his shoulders, and a white scarf and kaffiyeh covering his head, People Against Gangsterism and Drugs (Pagad) leader Abdus-Salaam Ebrahim has taken on all the trappings of a martyr. Turning to supporters in the public gallery, he raises his hand. A leather Qur’an […]
In the Caribbean, members of the touring South African cricket team are fined R10 000 each for smoking dagga. In the ensuing controversy at home some feel they should be hung, drawn and quartered while others say it was just a harmless party activity performed in private and really not an important issue. In the […]
The Caribbean dope-smoking affair was badly handled especially so soon after the Hansie Cronje scandal Peter Robinson One of the more fascinating aspects of South Africa’s tour of the Caribbean has been the condition of Herschelle Gibbs’s head. So clean-shaven on top as to resemble a hard-boiled egg, a fashionable scrub is on display lower […]
Greg Mills and Tim Hughes Amid the controversy of power plays among South Africa’s political leadership, it is too easy to neglect the huge strides made by the country since 1994 not just in consolidating its democracy, but in addressing core socio-economic issues. Comparisons with other emerging markets in East Asia not only bear this […]
Stefaans Brmmer Credit bureaus those hawkers of information on you and your creditworthiness are pushing for a new code of conduct that, critics charge, will allow them to store private details such as your political affiliation, mental state and sexual preference. The credit industry says the majority of consumer items are bought on credit. Credit […]
A South African who became one of the leading lights of the British stage has now written his autobiography. Antony Sher spoke to Shaun de Waal Sir Antony Sher’s autobiography, Beside Myself (Hutchinson), is not simply a luvvie’s memoir. Despite its easy and often humorous style, Sher digs deep, talking about everything from his one-time […]
Evidence wa ka Ngobeni The newly elected first black vice-chancellor of Pretoria Technikon has vowed to transform the historically white institution to reflect the new democratic South Africa and the values articulated by the African National Congress-led government. Professor Langalibalele Ngcobo, whose appointment was confirmed by the technikon council last week, said his appointment to […]
Paul Kirk The newly appointed director of Durban Metro Police, Henry Manzi, has been investigated in a fraud probe totalling nearly R1-million. Manzi’s fortunes are going from bad to worse. He is also accused of having charges relating to traffic offences committed by his uncle, Jabulani Manzi, dropped. The Mail & Guardian has learned from […]
Sipho Seepe no blows barred It is unfortunate that the 11 black signatories of the advert in the Sunday Times preferred to attribute President Thabo Mbeki’s unimpressive record as a president to right-wing conspiracy in the media. While the signatories argue that the media is on a campaign to discredit blacks in powerful positions, they […]
A Kokstad prison has been ready for occupation for several months, but cannot be used because of a lack of services Paul Kirk While prisons throughout the country are overflowing with inmates, the Department of Correctional Services has available but unusable accommodation for thousands of prisoners. There is nothing wrong with the way the super […]
Lyall Green ‘Five members of the Springbok cricket team were found smoking dagga in celebration of their historic test victory over the West Indies,” the newsreader blurted out the headline story. Dagga is such a lovely South African word, which people use with glee and the rough intonation it demands every time anyone is found […]
Tight security and prosecution blunders marked the first few days of the high-profile trial Marianne Merten Four years and nine months after Hard Livings gang boss Rashaad Staggie was shot and set alight during a People Against Gangsterism and Drugs (Pagad) march, five prominent current and ex-Pagad members are standing trial for his murder and […]
Tim Wood American Notes The air around corporate South Africa has been blue with indignation since Business Report’s Ann Crotty muckraked Nedcor’s annual report to turn up a dubious share option scheme. The ire is understandable, but suggestions that this sort of gratuitous executive self-enrichment wouldn’t happen in the United States or United Kingdom are […]
If the Brumbies lose, South Africa will host its first Super 12 final Andy Capostagno It is not often that South Africans shout for an Australian team, but it will happen on Saturday. A win for the Reds against the Brumbies in Canberra will guarantee for the first time that the final of the Super […]
Robin Denselow CD OFTHEWEEK Now rightly established as a best-selling international star, Cesaria Evora has moved on from exploring the music of her home (the Cape Verde Islands, off the coast of West Africa), which fuses African and Portuguese styles, to explore that music’s links with other Afro-Latin styles across the Atlantic. On her new […]
Glenda Daniels Two top skills development executives with a sector education training authority (Seta) have been suspended on allegations of financial irregularities and personal enrichment. Dr Haroon Aziz, CEO of the Forestry Industries Education Training Authority (Fieta), and Daniel Malindi, head of finance at Fieta, were suspended three weeks ago. They are being investigated by […]
Yvette Gresl Needlework has become a significant form of economic empowerment for rural women in Southern Africa. Initiatives in Zimbabwe and South Africa have created opportunities for women to learn skills such as appliqu, embroidery and beadwork. Although needlework is increasingly recognised as an emerging art form, it is specifically targeted at the tourist market. […]
Byron Kennedy in London Industry leaders generally don’t like to rock the boat in public at least. That statement rings even more true when it’s a rather close-knit community like the one that gathered in London this week to take in the 17th annual Johnson Matthey platinum review. More than 250 delegates managed to squeeze […]
An investigation has been launched into shocking allegations against the Pretoria police dog school Paul Kirk Charges of sexual harassment, brutality and cruelty to animals are being investigated against a number of instructors at the Pretoria police dog school. The charges centre on the victimisation of policewomen and black members of the South African Police […]
Three East Rand communities claim that members of the local SANDF unit are taking the law into their own hands. Sechaba ka’Nkosi reports Members of a South African National Defence Force (SANDF) unit based in the East Rand at the height of political violence since the early 1990s have been implicated in a reign of […]
Barbara Ludman THE GIRL IN THE PICTURE by Denise Chong (Simon &Schuster) There are arguably half a dozen iconic images from the Vietnam war an American soldier flicking a Zippo to set fire to the thatched roof of a Vietnamese peasant’s hut, a South Vietnamese general shooting a Viet Cong fighter in the middle of […]