“Barney, please! Resign! You’re incapable of doing the job! ” – Dennis Davis t o Barney Pityana, chairman of the Human Rights Commission
“Johannesburg is a jungle. The problem in Beirut is political, not criminal .. . I feel much safer in Beirut than in Johannesburg.” – Lebanese ambassador Ch arbel Stephan, victim of an armed attack at his embassy in Houghton
“If the entire universe tried to persuade me to reconcile … I would refuse . .. I am determined to get rid of this marriage.” – President Nelson Mandela, d uring his divorce proceedings from Winnie Madikizela-Mandela
“I married a commitment to improve the lives of my people. I have not divorced this commitment and it has not divorced me either.” – Winnie Madikizela-Mande
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“The operation was successful but the wrong people were killed.” – Former Mili tary Intelligence officer Johan Opperman, testifying in the trial of former de fence minister Magnus Malan
“It’s pretty neat out here.” – United States astronaut Linda Godwin, floating outside the Russian space station Mir
“Our people must show the world God has given us a great gift, ubuntu … Howe ver, the world should also know that forgiveness and reconciliation are not ch eap.” – Archbishop Desmond Tutu
“I thought it was some politician’s lips.” – Television presenter Max du Pree z on the ashtray that caused all the trouble, a ceramic, vagina-shaped object
“I didn’t mean to kill him. If I could have paralysed him it would also have b een good.” – Yigal Amir, confessed assassin of Israeli prime minister Yitzhak Rabin
“We will never renounce our friends.” – President Nelson Mandela, saying he i ntends to invite Muammar Gadaffi and Fidel Castro to visit
“If there is a good place where good people go, I ought to land up there. ” – Former police hit man Dirk Coetzee
“He is completely mentally unstable with an immense potential for self-destruc tion. He cannot distinguish between fact and fiction.” – Former askari Joe Ma masela on Dirk Coetzee
“It’s chicken curry, chicken curry, day in day out.” – ANC chief Senate whip Bulelani Ngcuka, complaining about the catering in Parliament
“I am ecstatic.” – Constitutional Assembly chairman Cyril Ramaphosa, announcin g agreement (prematurely, on May 8) on a new Constitution
“The NP put up the charade of a fight with the ANC which can only be compared to cats giving the impression of fighting whilst they are actually copulating. ” – AWB on the new Constitution
“Beer, beer. ” – The first words uttered by Comrades Marathon winner Dmitri G rishine after finishing the 87km race
” I was never cut out for the job. I was unsuitable, Always had been.” – Sarah Ferguson, duchess of York