Madeleine Wackernagel Two years and much diplomatic negotiation later, the new legislation on insider trading is ready. Mervyn King, who chaired the commission, says it was one of the hardest job he’s ever done. By their very nature, such commissions have to reflect a range of opinions: in this case, there were many interests, vested […]

Alex de Waal In June 1993, a Belgian soldier serving with the United Nations in Somalia put a gun to the head of one of my Somali colleagues and threatened to shoot him. At the time I was investigating the war in Somalia: that the residents were living in fear of the peacekeepers came as […]

Peta Thornycroft Cape gardener Bennet Sibaya has named Superintendent Des Segal, who died in a car crash three months ago, as the man who “tortured” him to make his claims about what he saw just after the Heidelberg Tavern massacre. Sibaya made a sworn statement to the police five days after the December 1993 attack […]

FRIDAY 10.30AM: The South African Chamber of Business (Sacob) says South Africa’s growth, employment and redistribution (Gear) economic strategy is protecting the country’s economy from the harsh international evaluations other emerging economies are suffering. Releasing Sacob’s business confidence index on Thursday for October — which remained unchanged from the previous month — economic policy director […]

MONDAY, 8.00AM: The chairwoman of Zambia’s human rights commission, Justice Lombe Chibesakunda, visited political detainees on Sunday and reported that two of the 33 suspects complained of torture, and of being deprived of food. She also criticised the government for mixing hard-core criminals with juveniles in a single overcrowded cell. Meanwhile, the Zimbabwean goverment has […]

Dominique Gallois On October 27 the French oil company Elf Aquitaine published a communiqu stating that its chair, Philippe Jaffr, had gone to Congo-Brazzaville on October 26 and met the victor of the civil war, Denis Sassou- Nguesso. This was the second time in the past few months that Elf had to reveal its chair’s […]

FRIDAY, 3.00PM: SOL KERZNER’S Sun International Hotels reports record third quarter results, with earnings per share 96% up on the same period last year. The Company generated net income of $17,2 million compared to net income of $7,7 million for the same period last year. For the nine months ended September 30, the Company achieved […]

Barney Spender : Rugby Crossing the road in Bologna can be a difficult and dangerous business. The drivers of the cars and buses at least have the decency to lean on their horns before flying past; the ubiquitous Lambrettas, on the other hand, do not. They come from nowhere and are gone before the dawdling […]

ANIMAL PICKETSANIMAL rights activisits picketed in Johannesburg on Saturday against Environmental minister Pallo Jordan, demanding that he resign for allowing a consignment of 40 baboons to be exported to a controversial French animal experiment laboratory. NOBODY NOTICES DIAZ The weekend marked the 500th anniversary of the event that launched the colonial age in Africa — […]

V Roger Prabasarkar : Cricket Despite two wonderful victories against Pakistan and the West Indies on Monday and Tuesday, South Africa still had not made certain of a place in the final of the quadrangular one-day tournament, Hansie Cronje’s assertion to the contrary at the post-match prize giving function notwithstanding. With so many accidents befalling […]