A South African Revenue Service (Sars) investigator threatened to arrest the wife of a state witness in the LeisureNet trial, the Cape High Court heard on Friday. LeisureNet’s former in-house architect, Dawid Rabie, was being cross-examined by defence advocate Francois van Zyl on a statement in his evidence-in-chief that he had been put under ”severe pressure” after being arrested by the Scorpions.
Before Irène Némirovsky was taken to Auschwitz, she gave her daughter a case containing papers and photos. When her daughter finally opened it, she found a novel that is now a runaway bestseller, writes Stuart Jeffries.
In a verdict worthy of a thriller, Britain’s High Court on Friday rejected a claim that author Dan Brown stole key elements of his blockbuster The Da Vinci Code from an earlier book by two other writers. Brown had been accused of breach of copyright by plagiarising passages from The Holy Blood And The Holy Grail, by Michael Baigent and Richard Leigh, for his 2003 novel.
Pleading confidentiality for not revealing what Monday’s full council meeting will discuss regarding the continued tenure of Cape Town’s city manager, mayor Helen Zille on Friday ruled out a mooted R1-million golden handshake. ”This multi-party government is saying we are drawing the line at the public purse being used as a piggy bank for golden handshakes.”
In a tale reminiscent of the last <i>Wallace and Gromit</i> movie, furious villagers in north-east England have hired armed guards to protect their beloved communal vegetable gardens from a suspected monster rabbit. Leeks, Japanese onions, parsnips and spring carrots have all been ripped up and devoured by the mystery were-rabbit.
The African National Congress Youth League (ANCYL) has slammed the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) for its reaction to the utterings of ANCYL spokesperson Zizi Kodwa to Jacob Zuma supporters on Wednesday. ”The ANC Youth League is not surprised at the unfortunate response of the NPA to our criticism of its conduct,” the ANCYL said in a statement on Friday.
<b>MOVIE OF THE WEEK</b>: <i>Inside Man</i> is not what one would have expected of Spike Lee, and in many ways doesn’t feel like "a Spike Lee joint", writes Shaun de Waal.
Revisit the places and faces of local TV travel show <i>Going Nowhere Slowly</i> in Ashley Dowds’s new book, writes Maureen Brady.
Alyce Mahon’s <i>Eroticism and Art</i> touches on a huge range of artists and works, writes Shaun de Waal.
Historian Jeremy Krikler provides an in-depth account of the white miners’ revolt and subsequent racial killings in 1922, writes Anthony Egan.