Marianne Merten The policeman’s traditional brandy and coke remains a widely acceptable way of combating stress and anxiety, as alcohol misuse is kept hush-hush in a service struggling to transform itself and deal with high levels of violent crime. “It seems to be a socially acceptable norm to drink in the police. It is part […]

NIGERIA and Arsenal striker Nwankwo Kanu has been voted African Sports Personality of the Year by BBC listeners. Ghana and Bayern Munich defender Samuel Kuffour came second.

bombings Ivor Powell New evidence of police involvement in Cape bombings has come to light in the questioning of police informer Deon Mostert by the Independent Complaints Directorate (ICD). Top police sources told the Mail & Guardian that Mostert has identified a Cape policeman, who he alleges was involved in planting bombs, as part of […]

REBELS in Burundi opened fire on an armoured car carrying aid workers and burnt out a second vehicle on a main lakeside road south of the capital, humanitarian staff said on Thursday. Twenty to 30 rebels laid a tree across the road near Magara, around 35kms from Bujumbura, on Wednesday and shot at the vehicle […]

Evidence wa ka Ngobeni South Africa’s largest vigilante group, Mapogo a Matamaga, is spreading its influence in and around suburbs of Pretoria and Johannesburg. Last year the group, which has become infamous for its sjambokking and brutal assaults of alleged criminals, formed branches in Alberton, Springs, Vereeniging, Hammanskraal, Centurion and Pretoria. Leaders of Mapogo claim […]

Neil Manthorp Cricket Identifying a defining moment in history becomes easier with every year that passes after that moment. Doing so at the time is an altogether different challenge. A much less precise science. But let’s try anyway. On Tuesday January 18 2000, the game of Test cricket was changed forever, for the better, by […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Thursday 7.00pm. THE National Director of Public Prosecutions, Bulelani Ngcuka, has decided not to prosecute police commissioner Jackie Selebi for insulting a Brooklyn police sergeant by calling her a “chimpanzee”. Ngcuka says it is not in the interest of the public to take steps against Selebi. He also says that prosecution […]

After narrowly escaping death by disco when a glitter ball fell on him during rehearsal, Boy George tells Libby Brooks why Boyzone’s Stephen Gately isn’t his type of queer But for those benign few inches, it would have been a pop demise to rival Mama Cass and her chicken sandwich. The fates, however, have clearly […]

stifling public voice Peter Dickson African National Congress legislators in the Eastern Cape have been crossing swords with one another over public hearings on the province’s embattled social welfare system. The hearings are due to take place on Monday, but the 46 venues where the hearings will take place will only be announced on Friday. […]

PORTUGAL’S Carlos Sousa and his co-driver Joao Manuel Luz, seriously injured in the 13th stage of the Paris-Dakar rally arrived at a hospital in Paris on Thursday, medical officials said. The two men were admitted to the Beaujon hospital after arriving on a medical plane from Tunisia. The condition of the two competitors is considered […]