Ken Saro-Wiwa’s prison comrades have been freed. But they are still struggling to come to terms with the horror of ordeal, reports Alex Duval Smith Aa ke, Aa ke Pya Ogoni aa ke Iilee yira na ko Yoo-ue a zia-i Arise, arise, Ogoni people arise We shall no longer allow people to cheat us – […]

Cameron Duodu: LETTER FROM THE NORTH She never allowed the leaders of the Soviet Union to forget what horrible creatures they were. And she plotted, with her “virtual boyfriend”, Ronald Reagan, to bring down the Soviets’ “evil empire”. To listen to her waxing lyrical about the “values of the free world” you would have thought […]

Ferial Haffajee South African radio listeners, whether they tune into Zulu, Tsonga, English or any of the other eight South African language news services, have grown used to the staid bulletins of the ”Here is the news at one o’clock” variety. Yfm, Gauteng’s one-year-old commercial radio station, has broken out of the straightjacket culled from […]

Anthony Egan A LIFE AT LAW: THE MEMOIRS OF IA MAISELS QC by Isie Maisels (Jonathan Ball) Israel Aaron Maisels, Isie to his friends, was one of the greatest defence advocates in the legal history of South Africa. Born in Johannesburg, he attended a government school, Marist Brothers’ School (forerunner to the present Sacred Heart), […]

For a long time all Bloemfontein could offer was lots of vleis, rugby and the sound of veldskoene on its pristine pavements . Being black was no fun in this town in the province where you weren’t allowed to take a leak. But Mangaung, as it was called before the right-wing trekked in, is losing […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Maseru | Thursday 10.30am. THE Lesotho government and 11 opposition parties on Wednesday signed a draft bill for the creation of a transitional body to steer the kingdom to fresh elections. South African Safety and Security Minister Sydney Mufamadi, who chaired deliberations on the bill, said it will create a 24-member structure called […]

MIKE METELITS, Johannesburg | Thursday 3.00pm. A NEW twist in the Reserve Bank’s repo system of lending short-term money to banks emerged Wednesday, as the Bank overestimated market liquidity demands by about R300-million, offering R7,1-billion while tendering banks only took up R6,8-billion. This shortfall indicates that liquidity conditions in the market are easing, making banks […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT and AFP, Johannesburg | Thursday 9.30pm. THE United Nations Security Council voted on Thursday extended sanctions against Libya for a further four months to press Tripoli to surrender two Lockerbie bombing suspects. UN Security Council president Sir Jeremy Greenstock noted that the 15 members were formally offering to suspend the sanctions as soon […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Thursday 11.00am. DINGAAN THOBELA blew his much-hyped big comeback at Nasrec on Wednesday night, fighting to a draw with Argentina’s Carlos Baldomir. The scores were 115-113 to Baldomir, 116-112 to Thobela and 114-114. It was not a sparkling performance for the South African, who simply did not show the dynamism required […]

SEGUN ADEYEMI, Lagos | Thursday 6.15pm. THE Nigerian government announced on Wednesday that it is to embark on an accelerated massive importation of fuel within the next few weeks in an effort to end the prolonged fuel scarcity in the country. Speaking from the capital Lagos, special adviser on petroleum matters Aret Adams said the […]