Ann Eveleth Police have been accused of physically torturing a community activist and his relatives in northern KwaZulu-Natal with rubber tubes and electric shocks. The activist, Kevin Kunene, was hospitalised with internal injuries and a burst eardrum. Kunene is founding chairman of the KwaMbonambi Environmental Group. He says his injuries were caused by policemen from […]

prisons Chief casualties of the conflict between the correctional services minister and ANC MP Carl Niehaus are prisoners, prison staff and prison reform, reports Gaye Davis AMID signs that South Africa’s jails are lurching further into crisis, President Nelson Mandela is yet again to intervene to bring together the Inkatha Freedom Party minister and the […]

Once ashamed of being dubbed a ‘bush college’, Fort Hare University now regards it as a compliment as it turns its back on the Ivy League model. Adrienne Carlisle visited the campus On the small campus and impressive grounds of Fort Hare University, it is difficult to envisage that the institution is facing desperate financial […]

Philippa Garson More people are employed in the security industry than there are policemen, and peace monitors have asked Safety and Security Minister Sydney Mufamadi to investigate links between private security companies and crime. The flourishing security industry is wide open to political or criminal abuse and must be investigated and regulated as a matter […]

With regard to the matter of Mandela vs Mandela, there is a degree of angst being suffered by some of our colleagues in the press: anxious hand-wringing over the question as to whether the media had the “right” to stick its collective nose into the matrimonial affairs of the president. Press freedom is very well, […]

Secret discussions between King Mswati III and Nelson Mandela have left diplomats pondering the details of a policy they are to implement, reports Stefaans Brummer PRESIDENT Nelson Mandela is playing his cards in the Swaziland democratisation game close to his chest — so close, in fact, that Foreign Minister Alfred Nzo and South Africa’s Foreign […]

Take one of the dirt roads that run off the main tar road to St Lucia into the dense undergrowth of the Dukuduku and visit one of the settlements that have been carved into the forest. It will be a salutary lesson in how the poorest of the poor in this country experience nature conservation. […]

CINEMA: Andrew Worsdale JON AMIEL, the British director of Sommersby and Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter, turns away from romanticism to manipulative horror in Copycat, a very nasty thriller that seems to gloat over the violence the story deals with. Sigourney Weaver plays criminal psychologist Helen Hudson, an expert on serial killers, who gets involved […]

After their acrimonious TV debate, legal academic Dennis Davis and Human Rights Commission head Barney Pityana had a rapprochement in the parking lot, reports Justin Pearce Dennis Davis has withdrawn his call for Barney Pityana to resign as head of the Human Rights Commission. This was one outcome of a rapprochement between the two men […]

By negotiating forward cover, Eskom’s foreign loans cost it nothing, but they do cost the taxpayer, reports Simon Segal Eskom’s second samurai bond, a R550-million five-year issue, is expected to reflect an improved credit rating for Eskom and, by implication, South African borrowers in general. The loan is expected to be priced at 50 to […]