Suren Pillay : A SECOND LOOK Academic seminars have a reputation, not completely unfounded, for being staid, boring affairs in which crusty old professors, and younger wannabees, share and debate jargon with mild civility and polite banter. But recently I attended one that had the tension of a dramatic performance, and the raunchiness of a […]

This is the full transcript of the charge sheet against Robert McBride 7th court – criminal This is a copy of the charge sheet, pages 145 to 148, in the case of court ref no 66/98/7th, deducted by the public prosecutor against the accused: Robert John McBride, Vuzi Mbata and Alexandre Francisco Uamba Recorded number […]

Tracy Murinik : On show in Cape Town A coffee pot with six spouts stands on a now coffee-stained table surrounded by six coffee cups into which it spurts the same, now-acrid coffee that it has been recycling for the past few weeks. Mns Wrange’s Monument: Democratic Coffee Table with Fair Coffee Pot and Equal […]

WEDNESDAY, 5.00PM THE African National Congress internal report on corruption, mismanagement and spying allegations against Gauteng Premier Mathole Motshekga has cleared him on all counts. ANC secretary-general Kgalema Motlanthe told a press conference on Wednesday afternoon that the commission found there was nothing in the evidence placed before it to substantiate allegations of dishonest or […]

THURSDAY, 8.30AM: SIPHIWE NYANDA, former chief of staff of Umkhonto weSizwe, is to take over as chief of the SA Defence Force in June, following the resignation of General Georg Meiring. Nyanda, who will be promoted to full general, faces the mammoth task of uniting white and black soldiers who, until 1994, were bitter foes. […]

WEDNESDAY, 1.30PM: ENROLMENTS at South African tertiary institutions have dropped some 21% this year compared to last year, with former “bush universities” worst hit, while student numbers at traditionally white universities actually rose over the same period. The University of Zululand registered a 21% fall in registration, the University of the North an 18% drop, […]

TUESDAY, 12.00NOON: THE Cabinet is set to discuss a series of proposed “legacy projects” intended to redress the portrayal of South Africa’s history, with a Freedom Park as the flagship project. The Freedom Park will focus on the themes of democracy, nation-building and the liberation struggle, and will house monuments, museums and galleries to the […]

Charl Blignaut On stage in Johannesburg It seems to me there are two particularly compelling reasons to stage a tribute to Gibson Kente in 1998. In the first place, it’s about bloody time. We need, for the record, to preserve a body of work such as Kente’s in case we forget. Secondly, it’s a rare […]

Andy Capostagno Rugby Not that last year’s Super 12 left South African teams with any reasons for complacency, but if anyone thought that the new regional system was a fast track to success they had better think again. Two- thirds of the way through the 1998 Super 12 and there are three South African teams […]

Mukoni T Ratshitanga Northern Province Department of Education staffers welcomed the suspension last week of their Director General, Zachari Chuenyane. Staffers say Chuenyane, suspended by MEC for Education Joe Phaahla, was “incompetent, inefficient and severely lacking in management skills”. Cracks in Chuenyane’s hold on one of the province’s most senior posts began to show four […]