Larry Elliott : A Second Look The Great Fire of London began in Pudding Lane and raged uncontrollably for days. When the flames died down, large parts of London had been reduced to smouldering heaps of ash. With the benefit of hindsight, the Great Fire was not a disaster. London recovered quickly and the authorities […]

Mark Coetzee : On show in Cape Town Dr Gotz Adriani, in his Joseph Beuys catalogue essay, states that, ”It was not without reason that [Beuys] denied his materials and demonstrations, and even his monuments, any form of permanence.” This exhibition not only demonstrates this point, but unfortunately denies any adequate representation of the artist, […]

Shirley Kossick The shortlist for this year’s Boeke Prize – the annual Exclusive Books marketing device – has something for everyone, from the lightweight to the very serious and from serial murder to genocide. A mixed bag indeed, which makes it all the more difficult to choose a winner since the six novels are so […]

Chiara Carter Achmat ”Boeta” Davids, Cape Town community worker, writer and academic, was the first cultural historian to reclaim Afrikaans as a language of the slaves rather than the colonisers. Davids died of a heart attack at the Muslim radio station Voice of the Cape earlier this week and was buried from Cape Town’s Long […]

Sudan is suffering the worst famine in its history. And it is caused not by drought but by civil war. The aid agencies are pouring in relief, which enables the combatants to carry on fighting. Kevin Toolis argues that Western governments should call a halt to a policy that’s failed There was no song in […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Thursday 4.00pm. DEMOCRATIC Republic of Congo President Laurent Kabila on Wednesday said he wants to hold elections in the country in April 1999 , but first must “boot out” invading troops. “We want to go to elections. It was set for April. For that we will have to boot the aggressor […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Kuala Lumpur | Thursday 7.30pm. THE South African women’s hockey team suffered a crushing defeat at the hands of New Zealand at the Pantai Stadium on Thursday night. South Africa needed to score a draw, if not a win, in this crucial match to advance to the semifinals against Australia. Instead they conceded […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Cape Town | Thursday 9.00pm. AMENDMENTS to the Electoral Bill allowing voters who are not in possession of a green, bar-coded ID book to use a temporary certificate to register for next year’s general election were approved by the National Assembly on Thursday. However, temporary certificat holders will still have to be issued […]

SARAH BULLEN,Johannesburg | Thursday 9.45am. SYNTHETIC fuel group Sasol on Wednesday reported a 18,6% fall in attributable profit to R2-billion for the year to June — its first fall in profits in a decade. The fall was despite a weaker rand to dollar exchange rate, R500-million in synthetic fuel subsidies and a R100-million transfer from […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Kuala Lumpur | Thursday 10.00am. BRENDON Dedekind has won South Africa’s first medal for swimming in the Commonwealth Games at Kuala Lumpur. He picked up silver in the 50m freestyle, in 22,70 to touch just behind Mark Foster of England who set a Commonwealth record of 22,58. Multiple World Championship medal winner Michael […]