shot Andrew Muchineripi : Soccer What a difference two years makes. When South Africa hosted the 1996 African Nations Cup they had partisan support, familiar conditions, a settled team, a successful coach, and duly triumphed. While Jomo Sono, the former national star who succeeded Barker last month on a caretaker basis, speaks confidently of retaining […]

John Seiler Reading three recently-published collections of taped conversations and phone calls authorised by United States presidents John F Kennedy, Lyndon B Johnson and Richard Nixon (and bearing in mind the current storm around Bill Clinton) raises some questions about what similar studies might contribute to our understanding of how South African government works and, […]

Andrew Muchineripi : Soccer The African Nations Cup, a biennial showdown between the best national soccer teams, comes of age this week with the 21st edition of an event that has grown steadily from humble beginnings. Khartoum, the capital of Sudan, hosted the first tournament, which attracted only three entrants and lasted just seven days […]

The state-owned synthetic fuel producer is demanding another R1,8-billion, reports Mungo Soggot Mossgas, the state-owned synthetic fuel producer which is one of South Africa’s most expensive white elephants, has asked the government for another R1,8-billion. The latest call for cash by the plant — which is controlled by the embattled Central Energy Fund (CEF) — […]

Ferial Haffajee A leaner, meaner Independent Broadcasting Authority (IBA) went on show this week at the start of its most gruelling licence hearings yet. By the end of March it must decide which of seven strong contenders will win the coveted private television licence. That’s a decision likely to be contested whichever way it goes […]

hospitals Ann Eveleth Horror stories of South African public hospitals abound, but perhaps none more poignantly than recent claims by paediatric staff at Durban’s King Edward Hospital that “children have died because of insufficient staff being available”. The hospital’s paediatric department has battled “for years” to convince provincial health authorities to give it more nurses, […]

Nicky Barker Induna Jonathan Buthelezi lives with a small community in the tribal lands of the Buthelezi next to the Ngome Forest in KwaZulu-Natal. The clan occupies a piece of land on two timber farms adjacent to the Sapekoe Tea Plantation, where they all work. The farms run steeply down a mountain, with 80ha of […]

president’s son John Grobler The questions directed at a defiant former president PW Botha by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission last month could equally have been directed at Botha’s mysterious counsel, Pretoria attorney Ernst Penzhorn. As a sort of legal agent-cum-fixer extraordinaire for the previous dispensation, entrusted with operations which still raise as many questions […]

Andrew Muchineripi : Soccer No footballer will be more closely followed, on and off the pitch, during the African Nations Cup in Burkina Faso this month than Abedi Ayew, the veteran Ghana midfielder popularly known as Pele. To be named after the Brazilian who played in a World Cup final at 17 and is arguably […]

R6,7-million Ann Eveleth A South African Airways (SAA) manager found guilty of serious misconduct costing the state airline an estimated R6,7-million was not fired because the SAA employee who presided over his inquiry could not “sleep with the dismissal decision”. This “crisis of conscience” is reported in an internal audit completed by Transnet Group auditors […]