Charlotte Plantive
No image available
/ 1 December 2007

The day medical history was rewritten

Nearly forty years ago, in the middle of the night at a Cape Town hospital, South African surgeon Christiaan Barnard rewrote medical history when he carried out the first-ever heart transplant. The operation captivated the imagination of the world, catapulting Barnard and South Africa on to the world stage and leading to hundreds of similar operations around the globe.

No image available
/ 22 July 2007

SA cops urged to ‘aim for the head’

A shoot-to-kill call by a top South African law enforcement officer has fuelled a debate on how far police can go to defend themselves in one of the world’s most crime-ridden societies. Bheki Cele, minister for community safety in eastern KwaZulu-Natal province, struck a chord by saying: ”Once criminals pull their guns, police should aim for the head.”