The Weekly Mail (now the Mail & Guardian) first exposed the existence of the Caprivi 200 hit-squad in 1990, when it reported the group was trained at a secret training base called Hippo on the banks of the Cuando River in the Caprivi Strip. The base was not far from the Angolan border and was […]

Including social and economic rights in the Constitution could lead to an inflated welfare state or place South African citizens in the 20th century, writes Dennis Davis THE case for the inclusion of social and economic rights in the final Constitution has been long and intensely debated ever since it became clear that South Africa […]

South African fast bowler Brett Schultz thrives on competing with his pace partner Allan Donald Cricket: John Perlman BRETT SCHULTZ, the story goes, was in the middle of a typically fiery spell against Sri Lanka when Kepler Wessels sent him a message, to be passed along with the ball. It was relayed in Afrikaans so […]

Jan Taljaard EVEN before the ballots were counted this week, South African right-wingers knew they had reached the crossroads. The Freedom Front saw the local government elections as an opportunity not only to emerge as king of the right- wing heap, but also to make significant inroads into a disenchanted voters’ base that once belonged […]

Local refiner Engen blamed external business conditions for its disappointing 1995 financial results announced this week. Net income plunged R300-million to R116- million compared to R416-million in 1994. Chief executive officer Rob Angel blamed the fall in profits on restructuring costs of R79-million, increased financing costs of R90-million, an eight-year low in refining margins and […]

Hazel Friedman IRMA STERN: A FEAST FOR THE EYE by Marion Arnold (Rembrandt van Rijn Art Foundation, R197,99) IN these earnest, multi-culturally correct times, it’s not merely fashionable to trash artist Irma Stern. It’s downright obligatory. She is variously called the female version of Tretchikoff, a mediore modernist whose paintings are but poor imitations of […]

Neil Bierbaum A COMMUNITY radio station in Pretoria is challenging a decision by the Independent Broadcasting Authority to grant it a shared frequency. Its court hearing against the IBA was delayed this week for the third time. Radio Visarend has been allocated a frequency to be shared with two other Afrikaans community radio stations, Radio […]

Old attitudes die hard in Ventersdorp, as Justin Pearce discovered VENTERSDORP looked as if it were hosting a foreign correspondents’ convention on Wednesday. The town of the AWB had a date with the new South Africa. It was surely a story to make soundbites throughout the world, and the media were there to tell it. […]

A war of words has been declared between Absa and Millenium magazine over an article defending former Tollgate chairman Julian Askin, reports Reg Rumney A number of puzzling questions are thrown up in the squabble between Absa Bank and Cape-based Millenium magazine over a series of articles it has been running on fugitive Julian Askin […]

At the conclusion of last year’s freedom election, then-president-elect Nelson Mandela quoted the cry of American slaves from the last century: Free at last, free at last, thank God Almighty we are free at last. This week, at the conclusion of the next round of voting, we can paraphrase him: Normal at last, normal at […]