Admiration for Archbishop Desmond Tutu goes from strength to strength as we watch him setting about the Herculean task of cleaning out the Augean stables of apartheid-era atrocities. But even as we applaud him, we cannot help but worry about him. “Arch”, as he would have us know him, has made no secret of his […]
Mungo Soggot THE truth commission could be paralysed by being forced to operate like a normal court after the Cape Supreme Court’s decision this week to allow retired policemen access to truth commission documents, lawyers said this week. They said the decision could set a precedent which opened the gap for other judgments to order […]
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 […]
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 […]
A new newspaper aims to fill a gaping hole at the heart of Zimbabwe’s media market, reports Richard Saunders A new independent newspaper will hit Zimbabwe’s streets next week in an effort to keep alive a faltering voice in the national press. The Zimbabwe Independent, a business-oriented weekly, comes in the wake of a crisis […]