Chiara Carter A by-election in Lotus River on the Cape Flats this week showed the New National Party still has clout with coloured voters. Although the Democratic Party has begun making inroads in heartlands of working-class coloured voters, it stands little chance of supplanting the NNP overnight. NNP candidate Nur-ud-din Bell won the ward with […]

A shortage of forensic pathologists and a lack of post-mortem facilities have caused several miscarriages of justice, writes Sue Blaine Statistics show that three in every thousand South Africans will die an unnatural death by murder, suicide or accident – 80 000 a year. A post-mortem must be conducted on every person who dies an […]

At the scene of their initial showing on the exhibition Smokkel, on the fringe of the second Johannesburg Biennale in 1997, Lisa Brice’s ogling beanbags sat, slouched and a little ridiculous, passively watching the slowly changing facial progressions of a forensic identikit computer programme on the television screen before them. Brice described the piece, entitled […]

Amanda Fitschen The recent announcement by KwaZulu-Natal’s MEC for Finance Peter Miller that his province had managed to turn its financial situation around to register a surplus for the current financial year, compared to a deficit for the previous year, must have startled even the least cynical individual. Some may even have asked why all […]

Artist Barend de Wet has opened a hotel in Cape Town. But there’s still room for art, writes Chris Roper People are used to artist Barend de Wet’s strange takes on art. A while ago, walking through Greenmarket Square, I spotted a display window with two eyeholes cut into its covering. Staring in, I was […]

JUSTIN Hobday set a new course record by shooting a 61 (-11) in the first round of the South African Masters on Thursday at the Oppenheimer Park Golf Course in Welkom, Free State.

SEVENTY Rwandan non-commissioned officers are to train as pilots in Israel, the monthly Newsline reports in its current issue.Armed forces spokesperson Emmanuel Ndahiro denied the report but other military sources said that military personnel are scheduled to leave for Israel soon.”Rwanda has intensified training of its military in the past five years apparently to get […]

SUDANESE civilians may be tried by military courts for crimes involving firearms, explosives, espionage, and military secrets, a source cited by the official Suna news agency said in Khartoum on Thursday. “If the army commander-in-chief and state prosecutor agree, civilians suspected of these crimes may be judged by the armed forces tribunal, responsible for the […]

THE South African Tennis Association on Wednesday decided to move the Euro-African Zone group 1 tie from Johannesburg to Cape Town after players expressed their concerns about playing at altitude. Despite signing a letter of commitment to hold the April 2-4 contest at Johannesburg’s Standard Bank venue, Sata has agreed to pay a penalty fee […]

NORTHERN Province police charged 10 farmers with attempted murder on Thursday after the farmers allegedly assaulted three stock theft officers and damaged a police van. The unnamed farmers forced three black Pietersburg police officers off the road on Tuesday afternoon. “The officers spotted a suspicious truck full of cattle near Bochum and attempted to pull […]