OWN CORRESPONDENT, Luanda | Friday 5.00pm. UNITA rebels shelled the town of Malanje in northern Angola early on Friday, Catholic radio station Ecclesia reported. Several people in two neighborhoods were reported injured in the attack. On Thursday evening several shells landed within a kilometre of the governor’s residence in Malanje and dozens of civilians were […]

A Bill aimed at protecting indigenous knowledge appears to be more intent on gaining full control over the information garnered, writes Rachel Wynberg Legislation aimed at protecting and promoting South African indigenous knowledge has developed within the context of Deputy President Thabo Mbeki’s “African renaissance”. The intended outcome is to transform indigenous knowledge and technologies […]

Eikenhof Three … Bryan Rostron Both Judge Piet van der Walt’s response to the Eikenhof Three bail application and the disarray of evidence in the scandal display uncanny similarities to the many notorious miscarriages of justice that came to light in Britain during the 1990s. In cases such as the “Guildford Four” and “Birmingham Six”, […]

Sean O’Brien CHARLOTTE GRAY by Sebastian Faulks (Hutchinson) With Charlotte Gray, Sebastian Faulks completes a trilogy begun with the slim inter-war romance The Girl at the Lion d’Or and substantiated by the large and massively popular Great War novel Birdsong. The new novel takes us to World War II, to Vichy France, the various fractious […]

Andrew Muchineripi Soccer A year that began disappointingly for Bafana Bafana with a Castle Cup defeat in Namibia ended triumphantly with victory over African champions Egypt in the Nelson Mandela Inauguration Challenge at FNB Stadium. The scoreline read 2-1 and it could have been 5-1 as Benni McCarthy fluffed a good chance, Thabo Mngomeni had […]

Andy Capostagno Cricket There were many reasons to be cheerful if you were a South African in Port Elizabeth last Saturday. The national side had just beaten the much vaunted West Indies by 178 runs to go 2-0 up in the five Test series and there was much back slapping and cheery chat about the […]

strength stuns MPLA Unita’s improved military strength is of growing concern to Angola and its neighbours, write Chris Gordon and Howard Barrell Unita military pressure on the government has escalated dangerously over the past week, prompting deep concern among neighbouring governments. A powerful Unita offensive, including tanks and heavy artillery, on forces at Kuito and […]

Andrew Worsdale Movies of the week I once worked at Film Fun, renting out 16mm movies. With a host of films to choose from, my favourite was Norman Jewison’s The Cincinnati Kid with Steve McQueen and Edward G. Robinson. A gambling movie set in New Orleans in the 1930s, I must have watched it five […]

jail? If ever there was a case which exposed the shortcomings of the police, the prosecution service and the judiciary, it is that of the Eikenhof Three. The facts in support of their innocence have yet to be tested in court but, to the reasonable man, appear overwhelming. Their fingerprints were never found on the […]

Loose cannon: Robert Kirby When, in 1990, FW de Klerk made that watershed speech in Parliament, I wonder if he realised how, in doing so, he was snatching the rug from beneath the feet of innumerable and worthy white liberals, those long snuffled ranks of good souls who had been living so well for many […]