campaign Marianne Merten and Ivor Powell Deon Mostert, the man arrested this week in connection with the recent Cape Town bombings, asked police informers to help carry out the bombings, according to police intelligence documents. The documents say that Mostert told the police informers he had protection from three senior police officers tasked with investigating […]

Mamphela Ramphele A SECOND LOOK The question I want to ask today is whether South Africans deserve democracy, whether they deserve the benefits of the sacrifices of those who fought for democracy. Douglas MacArthur once said: “No man [woman] is entitled to the blessings of freedom unless he be vigilant in its preservation.” This quote […]

Bob Woolmer FROM THE PAVILION ‘The answer is blowing in the wind”, so goes the chorus of a famous song, something that the Eastern Province band will no doubt have in their repertoire as the South African juggernaut and the English tourists do battle at the wind-swept St George’s Park stadium. We all know Port […]

Khadija Magardie One of the leading lights of the Commission for Gender Equality, Dr Farid Esack, has thrown his weight behind deposed chief executive Colleen Lowe-Morna, who is bringing an urgent interdict to overturn the commission’s decision to fire her. In affidavits before the Johannesburg High Court, Esack has also called for an inquiry into […]

Sheridan Griswold IF YOU CAN WALK, YOU CAN DANCE by Marion Molteno (Shola Books) Marion Molteno’s first novel in 1993, AShield of Coolest Air, is a captivating story about Somali refugees in London. Her second novel, whose title is taken from a Zimbabwean saying, won the 1999 Commonwealth Africa Writers’ award. In it she excels […]

ZIMBABWE sold 28 tonnes of elephant hides on Friday to both domestic and foreign buyers at auction for 23.2 million Zimbabwe dollars. The auction was conducted at the headquarters of the country’s National Parks and Wildlife department in Harare. The hides are used to manufacture high quality leather products. Last year 80 tonnes of hide […]

Humour is subtly present in most of Carl Becker’s works currently on show at the Karen McKerron Gallery, writes Alex Dodd There’s nothing like taking a look at something familiar from a different angle. A mere change of vantage point can entirely reinvent a thing to which you’ve grown innured. New life. It’s simply not […]

One of the six cellular licence bidders argues it can bring low-cost phone services to South Africa’s struggling rural masses, writes David Le Page A 15c cellular phone call! Depending on who wins the third cellular licence early next year, such low-cost calls might become a reality in South Africa’s rural areas, where currently only […]

Aaron Nicodemus Most government hospitals are bustling, noisy places. The wail of infants punctuates the low murmur of waiting-room voices. Patients are wheeled on squeaky trolleys from room to room. Machines beep. The hallways of rural Derdepoort Community hospital on the North-West province/ Botswana border, though, are eerily quiet. This modern and superbly equipped hospital, […]

Paul Kirk As South Africa braces itself for a malaria epidemic, health experts are warning that a run on anti-malaria drugs may leave people defenceless against the killer disease. It emerged this week that pharmacies across the country are reporting fast- shrinking supplies of over-the-counter anti-malaria drugs, with several outlets in malaria hot spots having […]