He is at home on the international stage, but Thabo Mbeki battles to get his message through at home. Howard Barrell reports Thabo Mbeki ends his first year as president of South Africa bearing some resemblance to Jan Smuts, the Boer general turned prime minister who led the country 60 years ago. Like Smuts, Mbeki […]
commission Khadija Magardie The Human Rights Commission (HRC) is investigating possible criminal charges against Minister of Public Enterprises Jeff Radebe. This follows an application by the Mail & Guardian to investigate Radebe, after remarks he made in a submission to the HRC during the racism in the media hearings earlier this year. Radebe accused M&G […]
Nawaal Deane SOCCER Bafana Bafana jetted off from Europe to the United States for the Four Nations Nike Cup Tournament starting in Washington on Saturday. The four countries competing will be South Africa, the United States, Mexico and the Republic of Ireland. South Africa will open their US tour against the US on June 2 […]
Heather Hogan A Dutch Reformed minister’s son was sentenced to life imprisonment in the Johannesburg High Court this week for the hijack and murder of the bodyguard of Joe Nhlanhla, the former minister of intelligence. Pule Mokoena (26) appeared in court along with three other men, all of whom were facing charges of murder, robbery […]
Lauren Shantall Making a mini-pilgrimage to see the saffron-robed Sai Baba could easily be classified under the header “The Weird and the Wonderful”. For Baba is the controversial holy man who has been seen belching rings of blue flame from his belly, the venerable Sri who manifests gawdy gold jewellery from the aether, and the […]
debutants Liam Botham (22, just signed to play on the wing for Newcastle): After a lengthy debate with his cricketing legend dad Ian over whether to play for England or Wales (where, until last month, he was turning out for champions Cardiff), he turned out for England A during the Six Nations and scored tries […]
Jaspreet Kindra The African National Congress has spoken out against the building of a “black bourgeoisie” – contradicting the stance taken by President Thabo Mbeki on the issue. The shift in the party’s stance is spelled out in one of its discussion documents for the ANC general council in Port Elizabeth next month. The party […]
Chris Louw I read a book, I wrote a letter, and a floodgate opened. That would be the simplistic way of looking at an episode that has dominated the Afrikaans dailies’ letters pages for the past month. Because the overwhelming reaction to my open letter to Dr Willem de Klerk after reading his book Afrikaners: […]
Paul Kirk The ease with which a child molester can escape prosecution came into sharp focus this week when a lowly suspected car thief was caught red-handed with a sensitive and stolen police investigation docket into the rape of a teenage girl. Had the docket not been recovered the rapist may well have escaped scot-free […]
bitter past Andrew Feinstein On January 22 1943 my mother and her parents received, at their home in Nazi- occupied Vienna, a letter from her 84- year-old grandfather. It read in part: “My dearest children. I have received your letter and thank you for your best wishes on my journey, to which I am not […]