Robert Potts SIMPLICITY by Edward de Bono (Viking) Edward de Bono’s many, many books include Conflicts: A Better Way to Solve Them; Handbook for the Positive Revolution; How To Be More Interesting; and Teach Yourself to Think. These seem to have sold extremely well, both to human beings and also to (the apparent target audience) […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Dakar | Friday 7.00pm. THE United States has airlifted former warlord and now fugitive Roosevelt Johnson out of Liberia on Friday to end a week-long standoff that began when he sought refuge inside the American Embassy in Monrovia. One helicopter swooped down on a small landing pad at the back of the sprawling […]

Sechaba ka’Nkosi Mutinous Lesotho Defence Force (LDF) soldiers sympathetic to opposition parties are removing arms from military bases in preparation for a prolonged war against the allied forces of the Southern African Development Community (SADC). The soldiers have retreated strategically to the mountains where they have been able to delay the fall of their Makonyane […]

Ever been allowed into a movie for free and been allowed to drink beer and talk when you want to? Jean Barker visited Cape Town’s BioCafe Beers are R3, entrance is free, and everyone is at the BioCafe on Wednesday evenings long before the short film screening starts, chatting and drinking. The chatting and drinking […]

Nic Paul On show in Durban What becomes of the sons of great men? Greatness seldom strikes the same family twice, and almost never one generation after the next (some South African examples, like the Tutus and the Ruperts come easily to mind here) and it’s an interesting question which Mahatma vs Gandhi doesn’t try […]

Ferial Haffajee TopSport chief executive officer Edward Griffiths has landed a cushy agreement with the SABC which would see him working in South Africa for one week a month. The SABC has met negotiators who want to buy TopSport – its basket of television sports programmes – which is about to make a profit for […]

Paul Whelan and David Schmidt Across the world, societies wrestle with the problems of how best to govern their metropolitan conurbations, so critical to national economies and the livelihoods of millions of people. Metropolitan governance is a difficult and rather messy affair. Metros are complex, they tend to concentrate major social problems, they outgrow their […]

tirades Howard Barrel’s Over a Barrel column (September 18 to 24) was a tirade, without an ounce of sober and investigative journalistic skill. According to Barrell, the workers who embark on strikes are mad and “stupid beyond belief”. According to him, the present international and domestic economic climate should deter those who “willy- nilly” down […]

Evidence wa ka Ngobeni Student Representative Council (SRC) leaders have boarded the gravy train at South Africa’s universities and technikons. Some are paid “honorary” salaries, while other benefits include free vehicles, cellphones, housing, meals and trips around the country. SRCs also spend tens of thousands of rands each year on student bashes. And at one […]

Robert Kirby: Loose Cannon This past week, I wandered down to the bottom of my garden to see how the fairies were getting along. What with the lack this year of anything you might have called a rainy season, I had left them to their own devices. In the “new” South Africa, fairies, like everyone […]