divider Zimbabwe was once seen as one of the success stories of Africa after colonialism. But there are pictures which still tell a tale of division. In 1999, the issues are black and white, but also about class, writes Andrew Meldrum The Harare Club’s teak-panelled walls speak of years of tradition, privilege and exclusivity, dating […]
Cameron Duodu:LETTER FROM THE NORTH When I ended my column last week with the words, “that’s another story for another day”, little did I realise that “another day” was to come so soon. For now my own king, the Okyenhene, Osagyefuo Kuntunkununku II of Akyem Abuakwa, has also “gone to Banso” – the resting place […]
Howard Barrell:OVER A BARREL As President Nelson Mandela prepared his farewell to Parliament this week, I could not help feeling that the grand old man was not the only person deserving of applause. Every MP could also justifiably take a bow. So, too, could each South African. For Mandela’s farewell on Friday March 26, the […]
John Graham-Cumming You are in a 747 flying from San Francisco to London. The captain announces that the 12-hour flight will be much shorter this time as the plane now has twice as many seats. Do you believe him? Many Internet users fall for this line when they buy “faster” modems. For what is commonly […]
THE government has expressed its “grave concern” at the Nato military action against Yugoslavia. In a statement on Thursday, the Department of Foreign Affairs said: “This is in violation of the United Nations Charter and accepted norms of international law and it has exacerbated the situation in the Balkans.” The statement stressed the need to […]
The universe is not going to continue to expand into infinity, writes Michael Brooks, but only until it falls apart – in about 15- billion years Is there such a thing as eternal life? Of all the questions mankind has wrestled with over the millennia, this one has been a consistent source of concern. Well, […]
A few years ago, I attended a lecture by a Canadian constitutional lawyer, David Beatty. Briefly, his thesis was that the most important task for a judge in a constitutional state was to balance the rights guaranteed in the Constitution with the provision that such rights may be limited by government action. In short, the […]
Shaun de Waal Finding Peter Mayle’s book about France, Toujours Provence, in the contemporary fiction section of a bookshop recently, I pedantically pointed out that it wasn’t fiction and should perhaps be in the travel section. “But it’s travel fiction,” said one of the assistants, clearly not swayed by my arguments. I was reminded of […]
Peter Dickson Within a day of being spirited away overnight, Port Elizabeth’s stolen Sophakama High School turned up all over the place after a wild donkey chase in the city’s Kwazakhele township. Port Elizabeth community policing board chair Vuyisile Njikelana was on his way to work in Motherwell last Wednesday when he spotted a donkey […]
The pilot radioed Luanda repeatedly: “Permission to climb; permission to climb higher.” It was the first clear indication of war in the provinces. The small Beechcraft plane, heavily laden, was struggling to its maximum air height to avoid possible Unita missiles as it flew over the city of Malange. Luanda had been subdued, but calm […]