Wally Mbhele Former Transvaal attorney general Jan d’Oliviera – suspected of tampering with new evidence resulting from a trial he prosecuted – has started a battle to defend his reputation. D’Oliveira was the prosecutor in the trial in which three African National Congress members were convicted of the 1993 Eikenhof killings. The Pan Africanist Congress […]

Howard Barrell Serious political disputes in the Department of Arts, Culture, Science and Technology lay behind the resignation this week of its Director General, Roger Jardine. The rows pitted Jardine against one of his two deputies, Musa Xulu, and his minister, Lionel Mtshali, according to arts and science circles, as well as sources in the […]

Niger is one of the poorest countries in the world, yet it’s desert was recently flooded with high-fashion. Adam Levin reports on a fabulous folly Alphadi mounts the podium. His trademark embroidered fez is askew as usual, his pupils alive with excitement. “This,” he announces, wringing his hands passionately, “is pure folly”. All around us, […]

Maureen Barnes : Down the tube Two of the most entertaining weekday series recently have been screened on e.tv. Dalziel and Pascoe is on Friday night at 9pm – a night which the other channels treat as thugs night in and over-excite their audiences by screening kung fu or Arnold Schwarzenegger movies. It’s a classic […]

Howard Barrell : Over a Barrel If ever a government feels the need to waste a large amount of money it can usually rely on its generals to show it how to do so. For there are few items as unproductive as military hardware or as ugly as rows of hangars, bunkers and huts scarring […]

Jack Schofield Two years after it was launched, the Universal Serial Bus (USB), a connector designed to replace serial and parallel printer ports on personal computers, should start to take off this Christmas. More than 100-million personal computers have been shipped with built-in USB ports, software support has been provided in Windows 98 and Mac […]

Africa’s Oscars : Andrew Worsdale Two days before the launch of South African cinema’s biggest schmooze-fest, Sithengi, the film and TV market, most local players were gathered in force with the continent’s counterparts at last Saturday’s M-Net All Africa Film Awards in Pretoria. The State Theatre is a bit monolithic but the seats are so […]

Evidence wa ka Ngobeni The rector of the troubled University of the Western Cape (UWC), Cecil Abrahams, has not apologised to the university community for the ”short-sighted, inhuman and mechanical manner” in which he implemented a retrenchment process. Abrahams was censured by the university’s senate and ordered to issue a public apology ”at an appropriate […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, New York | Thursday 12.30pm. FRANCE’S 1995 Australian Open champion Mary Pierce thrashed South Africa’s Amanda Coetzer 6-1 6-0 in New York at the WTA Chase Championships on Wednesday. The 45-minute humbling of Coetzer, who was the last player to qualify for the season’s final tournament, sets up a repeat of last year’s […]

SARAH BULLEN, Johannesburg | Wednesday 5.30pm. THE long-awaited cut in interest rates by the United States Federal Reserve on Tuesday night failed to inspire the local market on Wednesday, despite global markets’ positive response to the move. The all share index closed 0,58% lower, led down by the financial index which shed 1,47% on the […]