Robert Mattes: A SECOND LOOK The details of the first Opinion ’99 survey (a consortium of Idasa, Markinor and the South African Broadcasting Corporation) have been widely reported. But once one backs away from the fine brush strokes of the numbers, what emerges is a distinct picture of the South African electorate six to seven […]

Andrew Worsdale Movies of the week A lthough it’s a box-office hit in the United States, There’s Something About Mary starring Cameron Diaz has film critics divided. One of my peers, who shall remain nameless, said “it’s the biggest load of crap I’ve seen all year”. I, on the other hand, thought it quite enjoyable. […]

Chris Gordon Four years after the Lusaka accords officially ended Angola’s civil war, the internationally brokered peace process has come unglued. Renewed war seems almost certain. United Nations secretary general Kofi Annan told the Security Council last week that prospects for reactivating the peace process in Angola look bleak. The political and military situation continues […]

Chiara Carter Two separate Day of Reconciliation ceremonies will be held at Blood River where the government is hosting a R800 000 feast to mark the opening of a new memorial to Zulus who fell in the battle. On one side of the drift that divides the Afrikaans and Zulu memorials, Afrikaners will commemorate the […]

no African renaissance’ Despite its limited resources, South Africa stands to gain by developing its own HIV vaccine, instead of waiting for the West to provide, writes Lesley Cowling More than 25 clinical trials of different types of vaccines against HIV – the virus that causes Aids – are under way all over the world. […]

Ferial Haffajee Deputy president Thabo Mbeki and Minister of Posts, Telecommunications and Broadcasting Jay Naidoo have been drawn into the e.tv fray. Warring factions in the Midi consortium – which owns e.tv – have reportedly approached their offices to seek intervention in the new channel’s internal and external battles. The approaches to government have provoked […]

DAVID LEGGE, Johannesburg | Friday 1.15pm. GOAL-hungry Angolans Premiero de Agosto stand between Esperance of Tunisia and a place in the African football record books on Sunday. The clubs meet at the Citadela Stadium in the Atlantic Ocean city of Luanda with the North Africans defending a 3-1 lead from the first leg of the […]

Jane Rosenthal VERLIESFONTEIN by Karel Schoeman (Human & Rousseau) The grave of a young war hero killed in an Anglo-Boer War skirmish is what the narrator of this novel, an historian, is looking for. He and his photographer are heading for a cemetery in a Northern Cape dorp. Although the narrator dismisses as limited the […]

Maureen Barnes Down the tube There is no crisis. That’s what Dr Khulu Mbatho from the Department of Home Affairs said to Chris Gibbons about our electoral . if you’ll pardon the expression . arrangements. Well it depends, of course, on your definition of crisis. Compared to the San Franscisco earthquake, the bubonic plague and […]

Tangeni Amupadhi Police in Johannesburg’s northern suburbs, including Alexandra, may have found the right ointment for their Achilles heel – carjacking. The men in blue have cut by half hijacking incidents in the past three months with an innovative crime- fighting initiative. The new plan circumvents the usual excuses about lack of manpower and resources. […]