Nervous citizens may worry that the enshrining of the right to silence in the Constitution will encourage crime. Is this true? THE right to silence accorded to people accused of criminal offences is deeply rooted in our law, and dates back about 300 years in Anglo-American legal systems. It means that no person can be […]

The good form of Natal and Northern Transvaal and the demise of Transvaal point to changes in the national team RUGBY: Jon Swift THERE was, for new national coach Andre Markgraaff, something of the old good news, bad news cliche in the way Natal took Transvaal apart in the Workers Day Super 12 mauling at […]

For some people just telling their story is a comfort, but the truth commission is finding it harder to solve some of the other problems, writes Eddie Koch TWO very different people walked into Johannesburg’s Central Methodist Church this week and, beneath the stained-glass images of Christ on the way to Calvary, sat to tell […]

Amy Lawrence talks to the proud men of Croatia, a nation that has emerged from the ravages of war to create a team capable of challenging Europe’s finest SINGING the cherished national anthem with hand on heart, wearing the red and white check shirt of Croatia, is a feeling beyond description for the 11 men […]

As SABC’s radio division prepares for a major relaunch, staffers complain of burgeoning bureaucracy. Philippa Garson reports THE departure of three senior SABC radio executives could not have happened at a worse time for the government broadcaster’s radio division. Set to relaunch itself amid ongoing internal problems and looming competition from independent radio stations, the […]

As demand for South African exports increases, mining houses can expect profits, but the consumer will be hard hit, writes Bronwen Jones COAL will be in short supply this winter as overseas demand soars and the rand makes foreign sales more attractive. Add to this the lulls in production enforced by heavy rains earlier this […]

While House Republicans thwart Democratic efforts to pass an increase in the minimum wage, their natural allies – business groups – are divided on the issue and seem much more willing to compromise. The National Federation of Independent Businesses, the largest small-business organisation in the United States, mounted aggressive opposition to a wage hike proposal […]

Eddie Koch A new batch of secret documents handed to court in the Malan murder trial last week, provide a rare glimpse into the workings of the State Security Council (SSC) set up to co- ordinate the National Party’s “total strategy” against insurrection in the 1980s. Apart from the light they shed on the military’s […]

Raising interest rates may not be enough to save the rand. Government needs to define a firm strategy for growth, argues Madeleine Wackernagel When the authorities finally moved to stabilise the battered rand, it was a case of too little, too late. If a hike in interest rates was the solution, the Reserve Bank should […]

COENRAAD VISSER on the eagerly awaited premiere of Roelof Temmingh’s first piano concerto First performances of new orchestral works by South African composers are, unfortunately, so rare that any first performance is quite an event – the more so when the new work is substantial, not merely a brief introduction played at the start of […]