Jacquie Golding-Duffy The European Union says it hopes, within the next couple of days, to reach a settlement with the Health Ministry on the R14-million Sarafina II scandal. “There have been far too many media reports on the issue and the EU hopes that it will be speedily settled and put to rest in an […]

With Archbishop Tutu in the lead role the first sessions of the truth commission were like theatre, but for many it was the chance to release the pain of the past, writes David Beresford THE name of Karl Andrew Webber does not feature large in the story of South Africa’s liberation struggle. But as he […]

Simon Segal THE great seven-year haggling game between divergent interest groups around the establishment of a regulated bond market appears at last to be moving towards a resolution. Last week the Bond Market Association (BMA) submitted its application to the Financial Services Board (FSB) to be licensed as South Africa’s bond market exchange. The FSB […]

Family planners who still believe in the slogan ‘development is the best contraceptive’ are nuts, argues Ann Cluver Weinberg ‘BECAUSE it feels right” is no way to run a country. In the United States presidential campaign of Senator Barry Goldwater in the early 1960s, the slogan was coined: “In your heart you know he’s right.” […]

Mike Loewe The most ambitious public relations stunt by a South African newspaper is degenerating into farce as two ill-prepared women climbers scramble for the top of Mount Everest. South African mountaineer Cathy O’Dowd, a Rhodes University photojournalism masters student and daughter of Anglo-American director Michael O’Dowd, will carry with her the hopes of her […]

Soon you will be able to study to be a Nat politician, reports Marion Edmunds The National Party is setting up a political academy and its first group of 50 students begin training on August 1. While the detail of this academy is still under discussion, the shape and concept has been accepted. An NP […]

ATHLETICS: Julian Drew FEW of the 1 500 or so crowd who actually showed up for last Sunday’s Pepsi All Africa International Athletics Meeting were still in the stadium when the highlight of the afternoon’s proceedings took place. The 800m, which was the last track event of the meeting, had just finished and the spectators […]

With the launch of the Sci-Fi Channel, JOHN O’REILLY ponders the irony of a station devoted to a genre that warns us so graphically of the evils of TV YOU arrive home after a hard day at the office. You flop into the sofa, press a button. Suddenly you are transformed into either a vicious […]

Philippa Garson A radical shake-up in tertiary education has been proposed by the National Commission on Higher Education. Chaired by Jairam Reddy, former rector of the University of Durban Westville, the commission appears to have met a wide range of needs without bowing to the specific demands of any group. It embraces a vision for […]

Two years of transition: A series by leading South African authors, celebrating the second birthday of our democracy and exploring the nuances of a changing society Andre Brink AT a literary lunch the other day Tim Couzens of Tramp Royal fame came up with the perfect after-dinner opening gambit. Whenever he is invited to speak […]