Lyndon Johnson, when asked why he kept J Edgar Hoover on as head of the FBI, made the famous observation that “I’d much rather have that fellow inside my tent pissing out than outside my tent pissing in”. It is a philosophy which has governed President Nelson Mandela’s attempts to handle Chief Mangosuthu Buthelezi for […]

A new document on commissioning will bring the SABC in line with broadcasting worldwide, provided internal resistance can be overcome. Eddie September reports Independent television producers say the new SABC document on commissioning is bringing the broadcaster in line with the rest of the world, but they still have reservations about the SABC’s ability to […]

BARBARA Hogan, the African National Congress MP hotly tipped to succeed Gill Marcus as chairman of the influential Joint Standing Committee on Finance, this week stepped down as a candidate for the chair. Hogan, who has been one of the committee’s most active members, said she had opted out of the running as she preferred […]

Cuba is reaffirming its Marxist ideology in an attempt to regain slipping state control of the economy. Douglas Farah reports from Havana Facing a freeze in Cuban-United States relations and slipping state control of the economy, Cuba’s ruling Communist Party has slowed moves toward free-market economics, raised pressure on dissidents and re- emphasised its orthodox […]

Michael Fletcher AFRICAN-AMERICANS are more likely than the general American population to be victims of crime – a reality that fuels their support of tough criminal penalties, although they have little confidence in the criminal justice system, according to a new poll. That ambivalence reflects the dilemma facing many blacks: they feel more threatened by […]

Secret documents handed in at the Malan trial last week link two current cabinet ministers to violent raids into Lesotho in the 1980s. Minutes of the State Security Council (SSC) show Minister of Mineral and Energy Affairs Pik Botha was authorised – along with three other ministers in the National Party government – to use […]

Mungo Soggot RESERVE Bank governor Chris Stals said this week he feared lifting exchange controls because of the heavy “pent-up demand” in South Africa to invest abroad that had built up in the past 30 years. Talking about the rand’s meltdown and the Reserve Bank’s relationship with the government, Stals rejected the view that the […]

Graham Hopwood THE managing director of Namibia’s most controversial parastatal has been sacked by the TransNamib board of directors. The board issued a statement saying that Francois Uys was retiring from TransNamib at the end of April by mutual agreement. Speculation is rife that Uys was given a package of nearly N$3-million in exchange for […]

Telkom has five years to connect four million lines. Can it meet the challenge of universal service without a substantial restructuring? Aspasia Karras reports Telkom is probably the most vilified of South Africa’s parastatals. Seen as inefficient and bureaucratic, consumers’ greatest frustration is the lack of an alternative. While cellular technology promised to provide an […]

Evita Bezuidenhout would have loved these designs for a national costume, writes HAZEL FRIEDMAN THE designers might have been billed as the Young Lions of local fashiondom, but some of the creations spawned by the finalists of the South African Fashion Designers Association (Safda) competition would have been more deserving of disaster-relief aid than a […]