Stefaans Brummer FRESH evidence of South African arms fuelling civil wars in the killing fields of Rwanda, former Yugoslavia and Angola is threatening to eclipse the long-awaited findings the Cameron Commission is about to present to President Nelson Mandela. The report Judge Edwin Cameron, appointed last year to investigate irregular arms deals since 1990, is […]
Justin Pearce Aspirant community radio broadcasters are furious with the Independent Broadcating Authority (IBA) for apparently favouring religious evangelists and rightwingers in the granting of licences. The loudest objections come from organisations trying to set up stations aimed at black communities, who feel sidelined both by the IBA’s manner of operating, and in its choice […]
Age: Born in 1959 when it was still fashionable to name your children after Eastern Bloc communist leaders. Has this been a liability? Only after he returned from exile in 1990, when even computers were anti-communist and spell checks would advise his name be changed to “Tits” or “Veto”. Present occupation: Minister with a Mission […]
This week marks the 10th anniversary of the unsolved assassination of Matthew Goniwe and his three Cradock comrades. Jonathan Ancer visited Goniwe’s home town Among the simple graves and the old, weathered headstones one polished tombstone looms large in the Lingelihle Cemetery. It stands watch over the remains and memories of Matthew Goniwe, Fort Calata, […]
The land reform programme takes a leap forward as a controversial law seeks to destroy the semi-feudal labour tenant system. Eddie Koch and Gaye Davis report Land Affairs Minister Derek Hanekom this week published a tough law to put an end to a semi-feudal system of farming that forces thousands of black labour tenants to […]
The upcoming season of labour protests will make or break the labour movement, argues Eddie Koch DO or die. That’s how a union shopsteward this week explained The Congress of South African Trade Unions’ decision to stage a 1980s-style programme of mass action around the Labour Relations Amendment Bill. Although unintended, his statement may just […]
As Mangosuthu Buthelezi’s adviser, Mario Ambrosini, is employed by the government, but he has been accused of planning to tear it apart, writes Ann Eveleth MARIO AMBROSINI, the American lawyer suspected of masterminding Inkatha’s “secession” strategy leaked last week, is on the government payroll earning more than the country’s Chief Justice. The African National Congress […]
Both the pro-life and pro-choice viewpoints were forcefully expressed as the abortion issue was discussed in parliament, writes Rehana Rossouw IT’S BEEN a brutal time for the parliamentary committee listening to public submissions on the abortion issue. Over the past two weeks pro-lifers have assaulted them with bottled foetuses and gory slide shows of abortions […]
Barbara Ludman EIGHTY percent of black South Africans and about 40 percent of whites cannot read or compute at a Standard Five level, according to a report released this week. In the first-ever nationwide study of literacy, Indian respondents showed the highest average literacy levels. Coloured participants scored, on average, between black and white literacy […]
Eddie Koch A SPECIAL police unit this week arrested Colonel Louis Botha — the man who masterminded covert security police backing for Inkatha in the 1980s — and charged him with several political murders carried out at the Sources close to the Independent Task Unit (ITU), a team of detectives who operate out of Safety […]