WEDNESDAY, 11.30AM: PRESIDENT Nelson Mandela has been warned by a traditional healer that his ancestors may be upset after he was attacked by a swarm of bees at his ancestral home in Qunu, Transkei, on Saturday. According to presidential aide Parks Mankahlana, Mandela was stepping out of a bath at his Qunu residence when a […]
WEDNESDAY, 5.00PM: SELF-confessed Inkatha Freedom Party hit squad member Brian Gcina Mkhize has told the Truth and Reconciliation Commission that he was one of a Caprivi-trained hit squad sent to kill African National Congress leaders in Esikhawini township near Eshowe, KwaZulu-Natal in 1991. Mkhize, who is serving a 20-year sentence for two murders in 1994, […]
WEDNESDAY, 6.00PM: THE trial of former state president PW Botha adjourned on Wednesday afternoon after calling only one witness, Truth and Reconciliation Commission executive secretary Paul van Zyl. Van Zyl said the reasons for the TRC wanting Botha to appear before it in person were that it would be able to include better evidence, get […]
TUESDAY 1.00PM: DEPUTY president Thabo Mbeki arrived in Seoul, South Korea, on Tuesday for a three-day visit intended to improve trade and political relations. Mbeki was invited to South Korea by acting prime minister Kim Jong-Pil and will be meeting President Kim Dae-Jung. ”Essentially what we want to do in South Korea is sensitise the […]
THURSDAY, 5.30PM: SOUNDING like a repentant prodigal son, President Robert Mugabe on Thursday launched Zimbabwe’s second economic reform programme, pledging never to repeat the mistakes which saw the country degenerate into economic chaos. LEWIS MACHIPISA reports that the ambitious new Zimbabwe Programme for Economic and Social Transformation envisages an annual growth of six percent over […]
MONDAY, 12.15PM: A CLOSE confidant to Hard Livings gang leader Rashied Staggie, Leon “Chippy” Achilles, was shot in Woodstock, Cape Town on Sunday in a spate of Easter weekend gang-related killings. Achilles died instantly when shots were fired from a passing Nissan Sentra at his stationery car. A second man in the car with Achilles […]
Mungo Soggot A German citizen charged with sodomy and a string of banking scams involving sums of up to $100-billion has joined the club of heavyweight alleged fraudsters who fled South Africa and are now fighting extradition. Manfred Zachel was imprisoned in South Africa in 1996 after allegedly pulling off several frauds using a fake […]
I am pleased that the Mail & Guardian regarded the recent disbanding of the Medicines Control Council (MCC) as sufficiently important to run as a cover story (“Zuma shuts down health watchdog”, March 27 to April 2). As a medical practitioner, I’d appreciate the opportunity to convey my anger and disillusionment at the outcome of […]
Bog bodies are an archaeologist’s dream come true. They can bring history alive more than any old document. But now, exploitation of the preservative peat in which they are found stands to rob us of this crucial link, writes Michael Pitts Given that he was an archaeologist, you wouldn’t think he’d have needed a drink. […]
Elisa Segrave: PERSONAL HISTORY I found my brother’s things in a box in my mother’s attic. She must have put them there after he drowned in our grandmother’s pond on my seventh birthday in November 1956. He was five. I found the box recently while sorting out my mother’s house. She has Alzheimer’s and has […]