It’s irritating to be accused of stifling debate while debating. “Aids-denial” scientists are like Holocaust-denial historians. Of course they have a constitutional right to be heard – but Holocaust denial didn’t get cranked up until the 1980s, when every thinking person had known for 40 years that the Holocaust actually happened. Here, the government was […]

THURSDAY, 12.15PM: THE South Africans at Wimbledon had mixed fortunes on Wednesday, with ninth-seed Amanda Coetzer, David Nainkin and Grant Stafford being shut out of the tournament. Wayne Ferreira, Mariaan de Swardt and Surina de Beer managed to win their matches and go through to the second round. Coetzer was looking a tad dodgy on […]

Stephen Bierley Tennis It is an axiom of sport, and particularly tennis, that when a great champion dominates the game, most yearn for a change, and that when the game is in an obvious state of flux everybody yearns for a great champion. For the past 18 months, the only theme running through men’s tennis […]

Troop movements on both sides of the Congo conflict belie the peace talks in Lusaka, writes Ivor Powell A massive showdown that could determine the course of the war in the Democratic Republic of Congo is looming in the diamond-rich region in the centre of the country. Regional talks in Lusaka this weekend aimed at […]

Mercedes Sayagues The Supreme Court of Zimbabwe has lashed back at women’s groups critical of a recent ruling that used customary law to deny a woman the right to inherit. In May, activists protested that the ruling undermined women’s rights in Zimbabwe and narrowed the interpretation of the Legal Age Majority Act of 1982, which […]

Matthew Krouse The Encounters Swiss South African Documentary Film Festival is the first of its kind in South Africa. Given our proud history of documentary film-making it’s surprising that no others have preceded this major event that launched on June 20. An initiative of the film department of the Swiss cultural organisation Pro Helvetia and […]

John Sutherland George Lucas’s Star Wars: The Phantom Menace, which was released in South Africa this week, generated so much hype worldwide there was bound to be a backlash. One character, Jar Jar Binks, a computer-birthed frogboy, has been indicted of that most heinous culture crime: racist stereotyping. Jar Jar (created on screen by “animatics”) […]

Justin Arenstein `Welcome to the bantustan” was the refrain echoing through Mpumalanga’s corridors of power this week following the virtual coup of the provincial government by former homeland leaders. The echoes will ring even louder if former KaNgwane homeland minister and discredited former environmental MEC David Mkhwanazi is appointed as special adviser to the premier. […]

wave David Gough in Nairobi Armed vigilante groups are springing up throughout the Kenyan capital in response to a rising crime rate that has made the once peaceful city one of the most dangerous in Africa. Community leaders say that chronic unemployment, a corrupt and ineffective police force, increases in food prices and rising levels […]

Marianne Merten Deputy justice minister Cheryl Gillwald was job-hunting when she heard the news of her appointment. She now laughs about it. When Gillwald realised she was not on the party list for re-election to Parliament she sent out her curriculum vitae. “I started job- hunting. I did quite a lot of hunting – I […]