Alex Dodd This country has seen so many hundreds, so many thousands of bloody, gruesome, sicko murders one wonders what makes certain cases linger, like Lady Macbeth’s inescapably bloody hands, haunting the psyche of a nation. In the case of Charmaine Phillips and Peter Grundlingh, the couple tried for murdering four people between Durban and […]

Belinda Beresford The sisters are doing it for themselves these days, both in South Africa and across the world. Rather than settling for a traditional role as the power behind the throne, increasingly women are reaching and grabbing the reins of power directly. Female economic clout is growing – internationally women make up 40% to […]

Can the Dalai Lama enlighten Western science, asks Michael Brooks As the spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhism, the Dalai Lama is accustomed to seeking enlightenment over deep philosophical issues. Recently, however, he had a new experience to contemplate as he watched a demonstration of the bizarre world of quantum physics. Anton Zeilinger, professor of experimental […]

Robert McBride has been nominated to stand in next year’s elections, reports Wally Mbhele Detained foreign affairs official Robert McBride has emerged as one of the frontrunners in the race for African National Congress parliamentary seats in next year’s general election. For a candidate to qualify for election, the nominee must win the support of […]

Just pop down to the hardware Stuart Hess The world was shocked by the Oklahoma bombing in the United States in 1995, and the FBI was severely rattled by an explosion at the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games. In both instances, pipe bombs were the weapons of choice. More than 80 pipe bombs have exploded in […]

Howard Barrell The South African Communist Party leadership has called for a special meeting next week with Deputy President Thabo Mbeki and other top African National Congress officials to try to resolve the crisis in relations between the two organisations. The SACP wants the talks to take place before an ANC national executive committee meeting […]

Linking bourses from all over the world could cause a financial crash worse than ever before, warn Alex Brummer and Jill Treanor The next stock market crash could be so sudden and so devastating that it would dwarf those of October 1929 and 1987, and all the policy makers and regulators in the world will […]

Banks don’t like risks, but this year’s FNB-Vita Art Prize winner is the exception, writes Brenda Atkinson If controversy increases exponentially with an event’s public success, then the recently re-launched FNB-Vita Art Prize is on the right track to the artworld jugular. Last week’s announcement of perverse performance artist Steven Cohen as the competition’s winner […]

herStoriA and Quality Life magazines have announced the winners of their story competition. Lise Day of George took first place with her story Malgas Point, Henrietta Rose-Innes of Cape Town came second with Conservation, and Graeme Friedman of Johannesburg came third with The Finger of God. The winning stories are published in this month’s edition […]

Lesley Cowling When I spotted the neat little Honda Ballade, all sparkling in mint white, parked alongside Jan Smuts Avenue at the plush premises of Car Gallery, I didn’t think of all those snide jokes about used-car salesmen. The car was exactly like the much- loved Honda stolen from me two months before, so I […]