LOOSE CANNON: Robert Kirby Despite the seasonal rush, it arrived just in time to top-up their Christmas hampers. From humble purse-snatcher, through rapist, murderer, fraudster and paedophile, to international car-hijack operative, the members of the South African criminal community are fair yowling with yuletide gratitude as they welcome yet another priceless gift brought them by […]

currency Martin Walker in Brussels looks at what the coming year holds in store for Europe The last year of the millennium is for Europeans the first year of the new order. Everything changes, starting with the birth of the single currency and the launch of the German presidency of the European Council. If the […]

There is nothing like the stroke of a pen to lighten a presidential load. United States President Bill Clinton not only lit White House intern Monica Lewinsky’s fire, he was also every cartoonist’s dream come true. A plethora of phallic symbols was sketched, like Zapiro’s version of Airforce One. One US cartoonist went for the […]

A FIVE-year-old girl who went missing on a farm near Porterville in the Western Cape on Sunday was found on a neighbouring farm on Thursday. She apparently spent four nights on her own in the bushes next to a river. After searches by farm workers and police failed, two brothers on a neighbouring farm found […]

Andy Capostagno Cricket The West Indies lost the second Test so badly that logic dictates the only way is up. But cricket is not always a logical game, even if it is sometimes extremely predictable. There has been talk of regeneration, but it would take an optimist of Pollyanna proportions to believe that the third […]

1 PW Botha 2 Philippe Troussier 3 Gauteng’s provincial Premier Mathole Motshekga 4 Renamo 5 The Northern Cape’s Manne Dipico 6 Hlengiwe Mkhize 7 Mitchells Plain on the Cape Flats 8 Moeneeb “Bowtie” Abrahams and Leonard “Chippie” Archilles of the Hard Livings gang, Jackie Lonte of the Americans, Ismael April of the Mongrels, to name […]

report card NELSON MANDELA President Grade: A Few people in recorded history have been the subject of such high expectations; still fewer have matched them; Mandela has exceeded them. We knew of his fortitude before he left jail; we have since experienced his extraordinary reserves of goodwill, his sense of fun and the depth of […]

A `necessary pretence’ seems common practice in politics worldwide. David Beresford wonders if South Africa will suffer the same fate The most intriguing aspect of Thabo Mbeki’s recently released collection of speeches (Africa, the Time Has Come, Tafelberg Mafube, R80) is not the speeches, but the introduction which contains a brief biography of the man, […]

Things are looking up for the local film industry, writes Andrew Worsdale At this year’s Sithengi, Cape Town’s film and video market, Zimbabwean producer Joel Phiri said of South African cinema: “There’s a lot of cinema, but there’s not much on the screen.” Sithengi is, of course, one of the many strong initiatives that have […]

knowledgeable you really are How clued up are you on the highs and lows, ins and outs of 1998? Test your skills with this brain-teaser 1 President Nelson Mandela made a special concession to pay the lawyers of an infamous politician more than double the going rate to prepare for a Truth and Reconciliation Commission […]