The transformation of the SABC’s controversial R200-million commissioning process hangs in the balance once again, writes Ferial Haffajee The SABC’s programming manager, Mandla Langa, is likely to quit the corporation. If he leaves, Langa will be the third broadcasting executive whose attempts to clean up the corruption in commissioning procedures have been frustrated. Commissioning is […]

Howard Barrell Both President Nelson Mandela and his deputy, Thabo Mbeki, have told Parliament there will be no general amnesty for violations of human rights under apartheid. But Mbeki raised the likelihood that special additional amnesty provisions could be introduced to cover those involved in violence in KwaZulu-Natal as well as the activities of former […]

Mungo Soggot and Belinda Beresford Magnus Heystek is fighting a summons from a businesswoman after he allegedly breached the terms of an out-of-court settlement for more than half-a-million rand. Last year the financial guru settled with Beulah Bonugli for the full R655 000 she had demanded. The dispute stemmed from a share deal he had […]

The first time I heard of Jackson Hlungwani was years ago when I travelled to the then fragmented homeland of Gazankulu to meet a man called Robert Sadiki. It was also the first time I’d been to that part of the world and I was instantly magnetised by the contradictoriness of the landscape: a green […]

Jackie Davies South Africa’s acting ambassador to the United States, Ndumiso Ntshinga, is about to be accused of human rights violations next week when his South African nanny applies for political asylum in the US. Ntshinga flew the young Eastern Cape woman to the US on a work visa as a nanny in 1996 but […]

With sound financial strategies, investors can make money by investing in volatile Internet shares. Donna Block explains They climb to incredible heights and then crash and burn with deadly speed. They trade at unearthly earnings to price multiples and don’t expect to make a cent for years. They’re the Internet stocks. And no sector on […]

000 Ellen Elmendorp Television news viewers were charmed last week by the story about Tammy, the Western Cape police’s perlemoen-sniffing dog. But Tammy’s fame has taken an ugly turn with the news that perlemoen poachers would like to see her knocked off, and have taken out a R50 000 contract on the lively Border collie’s […]

Larry Flynt’s drive to loosen the puritan grip on the US has taken a new turn with his upmarket sex shops. Frances Anderton meets the porn king It is midday in a sunny, spacious coffee bar on Sunset Strip. Enthroned in a gold- plated wheelchair, munching a bagel, sits the man considered a shameless smut […]

If the first duty of an opposition party is to oppose, or at least test, government policy at every turn, its second is presumably to try to become the ruling party. The problem in South Africa is that none of the opposition parties appears to have even a chance of becoming the government in this […]

entertainment My favourite website is my own, of course. I’ve never managed to get into anyone else’s. 2KY, or whatever you call it, has hit Darling, darling. I just go there to check it for facts and change it all the time. You change the cat’s sandbox every day, but you should also change the […]