When Tokyo Sexwale looks back on his tenure as premier, he will have few regrets, writes Charlene Smith When Tokyo Sexwale delivers his last speech before the Gauteng legislature, he will take responsibility for all the successes and the failures of the Gauteng government. He will also, privately, reflect on what he calls the complex […]

smuggling Jan Breytenbach, a legend in the former SADF, describes how he discovered that senior officers were using ivory-smuggling routes for their own corrupt ends Jonas Savimbi’s headquarters was at a place called Jamba, a sort of squatter camp 10km south of the Biongue omuramba (flood plain) and about 15km south of the Luiana River. […]

Trevor Lawson Just when you thought it was safe to go back on the motorway in your lead-free petrol, fuel-efficient, catalytic-converted car, along comes a report which suggests that your exhaust pipe is just the tip of a very noxious pollution iceberg. According to a report by a British environmental group, vehicles, like people, decay […]

festive season Stuck in Jo’burg over Christmas and new year? Bridget Hilton-Barber provides some good ideas for things to do 1 Top Star Drive-In. Just because the council can’t afford to switch on the Christmas lights in downtown Jo’burg this year, doesn’t mean festive Gauties should go without a spectacle. The Top Star drive- in […]

Don Mkhwanazi continues the Central Energy Fund’s tradition of non-accountability, writes Mungo Soggot The Central Energy Fund’s handling of Emanuel Shaw II’s appointment to a lucrative state job signals disturbing levels of cronyism in this key state institution. The chair of the fund, Don Mkhwanazi, vouched for Shaw in the Liberian politician’s application for permanent […]

Andy Duffy The man who killed a Dutch pensioner and stuffed the dismembered corpse into a suitcase is to take legal action against the Department of Correctional Services for transferring him to controversial high- security prison C-Max. Jano Nortje, convicted last year of murdering a 76-year-old Dutch family friend, and triple murderer Casper Kruger were […]

The truth commission’s hearings into human rights abuses end next week. But the emotional effects on the commission’s staff could last for many years. Angella Johnson reports Frank Mohapi was interviewing three surviving members of a family that had virtually been wiped out in a sectarian attack eight years ago when he noticed he was […]

Neil Manthorp : Cricket South Africa’s double-whammy victory over Australia in the last week, defending scores of 200 and 170 in 50 overs on awkward rather than impossible pitches in Sydney and Melbourne, has left this proud (all right then, arrogant) country nursing a wretchedly bruised ego. It is one thing to lose a battle […]

M&G reporter Telecommunications Minister Jay Naidoo’s bold plan to counter the year 2000 computer crisis may be too late, computer industry sources warn. While the United States is expected to achieve compliance by July 1999, South Africa is thought to be at least a year behind in preparations for the year 2000 problem. Although Naidoo’s […]

The researcher who spoke too soon Lizeka Mda Olga Visser is so surprisingly ordinary she easily fits the stereotype of home-maker. But that would be far from the truth. For one thing, this mother of six does not cook, and her husband Zigi swears she is a hopeless slob. Which is all very well as […]