Matthew Krouse On the air in Johannesburg In the 1920s, when radio transmitters were switched on for the first time all over the world, live music was the main attraction. The immediacy of the medium made people feel so modern, so in-with-the-times. Suddenly, you didn’t actually have to be there, to be part of what […]

Howard Barrell More National Party MPs are expected to follow the party’s Gauteng leader, Sam de Beer, who defected to the United Democratic Movement on Thursday. De Beer’s defection is further evidence of the disintegration of the once powerful NP and is a hammer blow to the fragile leadership of Marthinus van Schalkwyk. De Beer […]

Brenda Atkinson The programme preview of South Africa’s first free-to-air commercial television station was a Bondian event, slick with dress suits, French champagne, impeccably understated yet omnipresent waiters, oysters, and a subtle conspiratorial air. e.tv, the Warner Brothers-partnered broadcast competitor that has SABC and M-Net by the balls, last week invited media buyers to a […]

corruption probe Wonder Hlongwa KwaZulu-Natal’s Department of Health says it is close to making a breakthrough in its investigation into an allegedly fraudulent scheme to siphon money from provincial coffers to the Inkatha Freedom Party. The department’s corruption unit investigator, Leon Wolmarans, says it has been interviewing Durban businessman Sateesh Isseri for two years. Last […]

Province Tangeni Amupadhi Northern Province Premier Ngoako Ramatlhodi is to call a meeting with community leaders to address increasing racial tensions between blacks and whites. Ramatlhodi’s peace efforts come in the wake of a spate of attacks on farmers and what appear to be revenge strikes on blacks in the province. ”People should never take […]

A strong political initiative rather than an external military intervention is the solution to the Congo crisis, argues Mahmood Mamdani When Rwanda decided to provide foot soldiers to spearhead the anti-Mobutu rebellion in October 1996, the main objection came not from Mobutu Sese Seko’s erstwhile patrons, but from Rwanda’s own staunch ally, President Yoweri Museveni […]

Stuart Hess A British couple are attempting to declare a section of the South African Child Care Act unconstitutional because it prohibits them from adopting a South African child. Sarah and Benedict Fitzpatrick have been supported by the Child Welfare Society of South Africa in their challenge to Section 18 (f) of the Act. The […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Goma | Thursday 11.00PM. REBELS in the Democratic Republic of Congo claim to have seized a dam at Inga, 250km south-west of Kinshasa, which supplies the capital with electrical power. At the same time a power blackout in Kinshasa itself has sparked panic that the rebels are within reach of the capital. Jean-Pierre […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Wednesday 11.30AM. PRESIDENT Nelson Mandela’s testimony in the Pretoria High Court application by the SA Rugby Football Union to overturn a presidential inquiry into its affairs was criticised by the judge in his judgment, finally released on Wednesday. In his 1159-page judgment giving his reasons for ruling in favour of Sarfu, […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Durban | Thursday 6.00PM. RICHMOND police station in KwaZulu-Natal is to be closed immediately and all its staff relocated. A national intervention unit will be deployed to take over police services in the community, National police Commissioner George Fivaz has announced. Fivaz said normal policing had become impossible in Richmond because of the […]