Attempts at reconciling the ANC’s Gauteng region have failed dismally, writes Sechaba ka’Nkosi Fresh allegations of serious misconduct and abuse of authority hit the inner circles of the African National Congress’s Gauteng region this week, less than two months before the party holds its provincial conference. At the centre of the furore is Safety and […]

James Wood Underworld seems to me an achieved failure, of a kind any novelist might have been proud to produce. It is so often well- written, so punctually intelligent, so serious and ambitious, that it almost produces its own antibodies and makes criticism a small germ. One faults this novel warily, because DeLillo is an […]

Melvyn Minnaar Potable pleasures The nickname they have in common, promises pleasure. But whereas the white stuff offers play with a pinch of peril, the black substance carries a free-and-easy, “all-ages” prescription and a registered trademark. To the contemporary tune of Always Coca- Cola, Coke is hailed as universal libation of fun with a long […]

John Grobler In what amounts to an inquest into an inquest, the second judicial investigation into the Anton Lubowski assassination opens on Monday in the Windhoek High Court with what appears to be very little new evidence, a lack of political will to solve the murder and a vote of no confidence from the Lubowski […]

Wonder Hlongwa The South African Red Cross Society’s national executive committee is sitting on an explosive report detailing maladministration, corruption, negligence, racism and nepotism — apparently in an attempt to cover up for colleagues who are implicated in it by name. The report details the inability of the Red Cross’s national director general, Keith Gower, […]

Madelaine Wackernagel : Taking Stock Amazing how the pendulum swings. In the 1980s, the trend in business thinking was “the broader, the better”. This resulted in companies adding on, seemingly indisicriminately, diversifying all over the show. But then, with the help of the 1989 stock-market shake-out, came a new idea. Concentrate on core businesses; managing […]

Wonder Hlongwa Thandeka Shabalala (16) lies on a stretcher at King Edward VIII Hospital in Durban, with a heavy brown blanket thrown over her body despite the heat. She has travelled all the way from Pietermaritzburg. She is one of hundreds of patients who come for treatment at King Edward and instead either sleep on […]

Charl Blignaut On stage in Johannesburg Three-quarters of the way through Kere Nyawo’s gritty prison comedy Hola Majita, a young male prisoner is forced to don a frock and perform the duties of a whore. Where is all this leading, I wonder. Another quaint, stereotypical comic device pretending to be something more than a handy […]

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, […]