Sam Shilowa, Cosatu secretary general, in The Mark Gevisser ONE of Sam Shilowa’s previous employers tells the story of meeting him across a picket line and being so impressed by his performance in negotiations that he suggested he be groomed for management. Sorry, said Shilowa’s immediate boss: nice enough chap but he really doesn’t have […]

According to evidence in the Eugene de Kock trial, a 1985 necklacing much touted by the Nat government for propaganda was the unforeseen result of a police dirty tricks operation, writes David Among the thousands of killings which marked the townships rebellion of the 1980s, none was more tragic or, in its impact on world […]

FINE ART: Ruth Sack IT was half my life ago that I spent three terrified years as Cecily Sash’s student at Wits University, and the terror by last week had barely abated. How, I asked myself, can the mortally dangerous Miss Sash be making pictures of hedgerows? English country hedgerows? Well, she does them with […]

On Monday, SABC television undergoes a radical facelift. HAZEL FRIEDMAN surfs the revamped channels for something worth watching IT can hardly be described as a blushing bride — a hastily rouged matron is more appropriate — but there is definitely something old, something new, something borrowed and, in places, something slightly blue about the new […]

Andrew Sillen The storage and study of human body parts has stimulated intense debate, pitting scientists and museum authorities, on the one hand, against ethnic, national, and religious groups on the other. But, the issues are not always The issue first emerged in North America, where the violent history of expansion has created an enduring […]

is an in-house squabble between the generals while the soldiers sit forgotten at the side, argues Prishani Naidoo THE irony of the William Makgoba saga is that while there were two distinct camps at the beginning of the battle for transformation in 1991, there seems now to be a narrowing of interests which may fit […]

Private sector investment is on the up, but may not be sufficient to generate real economic activity, writes Simon Segal Nedcor’s Economic Unit estimates that R137-billion will be spent on capital expenditure by the year 2001. This is 20% higher than estimates of R114-billion a year ago for the five year period to 2000. The […]

David Beresford in Luanda Sitting on a hotel balcony, the ambassador recounted with gleaming eyes how a diamond prospector had invited him to grab a random handful of gravel from a river bed, and had then picked three precious gemstones from the palm of his hand. Below, in Luanda’s stinking, garbage-strewn streets, a street-urchin kicked […]

Justin Arenstein As anti-monarchist and labour protests in Swaziland continued this week, a prominent human rights campaigner claimed the country’s ruler, King Mswati III, appears to have been sidelined in a palace coup. Ironically, although the protests are directed against Swaziland’s Tinkhudla traditionalist system of government, the 27-year-old absolute monarch remains popular with the Swaziland […]

Karen Harverson South Africa’s first national lottery — expected to generate billions-of-rands in turnover a year — should begin operating by Minister for General Services Chris Fismer will appoint consultants before the end of February to advise on the format of the lottery as well as to make changes to the National Lottery Act to […]