Charlene Smith General Andrew Masondo, an African National Congress political commissar in Angola in the 1980s, this week apologised to the brother of the man whose execution he ordered in 1981. Masondo and Mzwai Piliso, the ANC head of security at that time, have widely been held responsible for letting conditions in Angolan camps get […]

It started seven years ago as a university project. Recently its tiny distributor received a huge financial endorsement. Karlin Lillington gets the line on Linux Only six months ago, Linus Torvalds conceded that in the business world, Linux, his trim and robust variation of the popular operating system Unix, was the OS that dared not […]

deliver? In the second report of his seven-part series on transformation, John Matisonn looks at the financial problems that confronted the ANC when the party took over government The South African Airforce helicopters flew past the Union Buildings bearing the new flag in salute to President Nelson Mandela. Jet fighters streamed through the sky trailing […]

Whether it’s buying or selling, Sithengi is the place for film-makers or wannabes. Andrew Worsdale report The biggest film industry gathering on the continent forges into its third year next week, and with the arrival on the stock exchange of major players like Primedia and African Media Entertainment (AME), it seems that this year’s Southern […]

The Springbok onslaught has already drawn blood in the UK. Will Wales be able to stop the flood? Andy Colquhoun reports from London New coach Graham Henry has been portrayed as Welsh rugby’s “great redeemer” in a controversial advertising campaign which borrows from the words of a popular hymn. But the bright young things in […]

The David Gleason Column Is the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) on the verge of becoming more like a First World bourse than one which has the characteristics of an emerging market? Well, it looks that way to me – and, I might add, to more than a handful of investors and analysts. Here is what […]

Alex Brown The 1998/9 Spier Summer Festival opened last week with a bit of a bang, and a bit of whimper. The bang was the sold-out amphitheatre, and the big name Spier scooped: David Helfgott, the Australian pianist on whose tormented life the film Shine was based. The whimper was some patchy play from Helfgott; […]

funerals Nomboniso Gasa recalls the days when people turned their rage at apartheid against themselves The Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) report has captured the worst horrors of the apartheid era. Not all but most. But what we have not really seen are the everyday horrors, the systemic violence of apartheid. In 1985, when I […]

in one country The people of R,union form a world of ethnic combinations in one country. Shaun de Waal attended the arts festival on the island which attempts to reflect this cultural intermingling Flying over the island of R,union in a helicopter, the old catchline of the South African tourist board comes to mind: “The […]

David Shapshak All I wanted to do was type up a few stories. With the dauntingly boring prospect of an 11 hour flight – leaving at 2pm, the best time of day to do some work – and not having finished the work before I left, it seemed like the perfect time to complete the […]