Charlene Smith General Andrew Masondo, an African National Congress political commissar in Angola in the 1980s, this week apologised to the brother of the man whose execution he ordered in 1981. Masondo and Mzwai Piliso, the ANC head of security at that time, have widely been held responsible for letting conditions in Angolan camps get […]

Cameron Duodu : Letter from the North I don’t know whether it’s a blessing or a curse for a journalist to become personally involved in a story. What I do know is that sometimes one has no choice in the matter. Thus it was with me and the Ken Saro-Wiwa story. I first met Saro-Wiwa […]

John Naughton There is a saying in the computer business that “only the paranoid survive”. The man who has taken it most to heart is Microsoft’s Bill Gates. The pace of change in the computing industry is such that if you blink you might not spot the threat. Gates blinked spectacularly in 1994, when Netscape […]

The David Gleason Column Is the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) on the verge of becoming more like a First World bourse than one which has the characteristics of an emerging market? Well, it looks that way to me – and, I might add, to more than a handful of investors and analysts. Here is what […]

funerals Nomboniso Gasa recalls the days when people turned their rage at apartheid against themselves The Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) report has captured the worst horrors of the apartheid era. Not all but most. But what we have not really seen are the everyday horrors, the systemic violence of apartheid. In 1985, when I […]

Andrew Muchineripi : Soccer It was not a pretty sight for those wearing black and white. Orlando Pirates, who had not lost to Kaizer Chiefs since the Premier Soccer League was formed two years ago, were being teased and tormented. There were 15 minutes left in the first leg of the Rothmans Cup semi-final, Chiefs […]

Joan Smith : First Person Why don’t women go cruising? When the media is full of the shortage of single men, why is this method of finding partners, briefly at least, unthinkable for women? The simple answer is danger. It is unthinkable for lesbians and straight women alike because we are so accustomed to recognising […]

in one country The people of R,union form a world of ethnic combinations in one country. Shaun de Waal attended the arts festival on the island which attempts to reflect this cultural intermingling Flying over the island of R,union in a helicopter, the old catchline of the South African tourist board comes to mind: “The […]

David Shapshak All I wanted to do was type up a few stories. With the dauntingly boring prospect of an 11 hour flight – leaving at 2pm, the best time of day to do some work – and not having finished the work before I left, it seemed like the perfect time to complete the […]

Wally Mbhele The former head of the security police, General Krappies Engelbrecht, may be charged for his alleged role in tampering with evidence relating to the plane crash that killed former Mozambican president Samora Machel. Machel and 24 others died on October 19 1986 when their plane crashed near Mbuzini in Komatipoort. Engelbrecht and a […]