WAS it bought? Would a poor unemployed black man=20 have received the same verdict? Was this a triumph=20 of lawyers over justice? The questions in the wake=20 of the “not guilty” verdict in the OJ Simpson trial=20 are unending.=20 Commentators who believe the trial was hijacked by=20 the 17 lawyers on the Simpson defence team […]
Marion Edmunds=20 THE National Party has a strategy to solve this=20 coming week’s fight with the ANC over local=20 government legislation. Talk of the strategy makes=20 Nats smile, but they’re not going to show their=20 hand yet.=20 Parliament meets in a special session next week to=20 debate the Local Government Transition Amendment=20 Bill, a move […]
Peter Vale writes that the clash between gay people=20 and President Mugabe showed that civil society can=20 play a powerful role in Southern Africa=20 WHEN Robert Mugabe savaged the common law rights of=20 gays, he may well have initiated a geological shift=20 in the regional balance of power.=20 In the wake of his comments, South […]
Columbus Stainless looks to Maputo harbour as a possible solution to the crippling transport costs in South Africa, reports Karen Harverson Stainless steel producer Columbus Stainless is investigating the possibility of exporting product through Maputo harbour in Mozambique rather than through Durban because transport costs are so high. “We need the shortest route between Columbus […]
Karen Harverson South Africa has the opportunity to leap-frog ahead using other countries’ technology and experience to do things right the first time. “This country should take advantage of California’s advances in environmental issues, computers, communications and electronics,” said California Trade and Commerce Secretary Julie Meier Wright, speaking at the Made in the USA Expo […]
THE local government election campaign season is=20 getting underway. Thankfully, this should bring a=20 shift of focus: from arcane debates about=20 boundaries to the issues and the candidates. Who,=20 in short, one should vote for. On what basis should=20 one make one’s choice: historical party loyalty or=20 the best available individual?=20 While this election is […]
Theatre: David Le Page ‘THE (previous) South African government was my faithful scriptwriter,” says Pieter-Dirk Uys in his Truth Commissions (at the Johannesburg Civic Theatre), and his brand of satire has not been left unscathed by its demise. Much of his latest parade of personas, led as always by the inimitable Ms Bezuidenhout, is not […]
RDP officer Frank Meintjies reacts to criticisms by Nicoli Nattrass in a recent edition of the Mail & Guardian Government (and Cabinet) is aware that mechanisms such as the RDP Fund, the Presidential Lead Projects and, for example, RDP offices in provinces are an anomaly. They are in tension with the idea that all government […]
Coup in the Comoros: Mercenary Colonel Bob Denard=20 makes his final try for an island retirement — but=20 his comfort is short-lived as French troops arrive.=20 For South African tourists, the Comoros are a=20 pleasure-seeker’s paradise but, outside the hotel=20 precincts, an explosive mix of poverty and=20 political infighting threatens constant crisis,=20 writes Eddie Koch=20 […]
Samantha Weinberg, author of a biography of Bob=20 Denard, looks at the background to his latest=20 LAST Thursday, ”Colonel” Bob Denard rose from the=20 ashes of his mercenary career. Bolder and ballsier=20 than ever, he raised a finger in the air to the=20 French judicial system, political pundits and=20 keepers of the ”new world order”. […]