When Hugo Chávez is in full flow, politicians and diplomats know better than to try and cut him dead. But not kings. As the Venezuelan president was in mid-harangue, excoriating his ”fascist” foes at a summit of leaders from the Latin world, Juan Carlos, the Spanish monarch, could take no more.

Margaret Legum, who died unexpectedly in Cape Town last week as a result of complications following an operation, was a woman of many accomplishments. She was best known in South Africa for her columns on economics. Born Margaret Roberts in Pretoria 74 years ago to a well-to-do family, she first came to prominence as a student at Rhodes University in the 1950s.

Eve Hall, who died aged 70 at her home near Nelspruit on October 23, was one of the first women activists to be imprisoned for defying apartheid. Through nearly 50 years, Eve’s life exemplified what it was to be an anti-apartheid activist and to live, as she did with her husband, Tony, and three sons, in energetic exile.

<a href="http://www.mg.co.za/specialreport.aspx?area=ancconference_home"><img src="http://www.mg.co.za/ContentImages/321750/Icon_ANCconference.gif" align=left border=0></a>It was during Chief Albert Luthuli’s presidency that the ANC national conference adopted the Freedom Charter as its programme in December 1956. That was a nodal point in a process of internal transformation the ANC had undergone since the 1946 African mineworkers’ strike.