”The new millennium must continue to communicate the unequivocal message that — Africa shall be free!” The Mail & Guardian publishes an edited version of the inaugural lecture of the Parliamentary Millennium Project, delivered by President Thabo Mbeki, on the struggle between the Afro-optimists and the Afro-pessimists.
Do policymakers in Washington and Europe ever feel ashamed of their scandalous double standards? Before and since the Palestinian elections in January, they have continually insisted that Hamas comply with certain demands. They want us to recognise Israel, call off our resistance, and commit ourselves to whatever deals Israel and the Palestinian leadership reached in the past.
Cape Town mayor Helen Zille believes she can’t afford to be a shrinking violet. She has sought to stamp her authority on a precariously balanced council in which a Democratic Alliance forum with six small parties holds sway, but she will have to fast-track her plans for the city as the African National Congress hopes to oust her during next year’s floor-crossing.
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This week, Jacob Zuma delivered his testimony in Zulu. It was the type of language that would have had him laughed at by the KwaMashu youth. Having being declared by his foes according to the disputed hoax e-mails to be "the Zulu boy", but embraced by his supporters as "100% Zuluboy", Zuma has gone back to his KwaNxamalala village roots.
That Nkandla is a depressed area where the people feel economically and politically marginalised is tangible. Nkandla town’s streets are filled with young people with nothing to do and any line of questioning regarding Jacob Zuma inevitably ends with the desperate hope that the situation in the area would improve if he were to become president.
Forensic analysis of Dina Rodrigues’s handwriting had identified her as a suspect in the murder of six-month-old baby Jordan Leigh-Norton, the Cape High Court heard on Thursday. Rodrigues was arrested when she arrived at work while her desk and office were being searched for more handwriting and signature specimens.
Thousands of youngsters stood in line on Thursday to audition for the roles of the Von Trapp children in Andrew Lloyd Webber’s new stage production of the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical The Sound of Music. By early Thursday, more than 2 000 youngsters were standing in line outside the Palladium Theatre.
Construction workers discovered 74 bone fragments over the weekend on a rooftop at a vacant skyscraper across from the World Trade Centre site in New York, the largest discovery of body parts since clean-up of the building began last fall, officials said. The skyscraper was damaged during the events of September 11 2001.