Howard Barrell The Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) was ready to declare FW de Klerk “an accessory to gross human rights violations” before the former president brought an urgent court action to stop this conclusion being carried in the TRC’s final report, released in Pretoria on Thursday. The commission had provisionally concluded that De Klerk’s […]

Blue Bulls vs Western Province Andy Capostagno Rugby On Tuesday the fixtures for the 1999 Super 12 competition were released. Coincidence, or is the Sanzar (South Africa, New Zealand, Australia Rugby) committee concerned that the Currie Cup is stealing its thunder? For all the advances made since South Africa was readmitted to international competition in […]

Sechaba ka’Nkosi Pressure by the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) has led to a decision by the African National Congress to smooth out differences with its communist and worker allies before the much-awaited Jobs Summit this week. The ANC took a strategic dive on macro-economic fundamentals and showed willingness to refocus its transformation […]

orphans David Gough in Kigali Clarissa Uwizcyimana last saw her son Kofi in December 1996, in the squalid refugee camp in eastern Congo where they had taken shelter two years earlier from the civil war and genocide raging in their native Rwanda. She had gone in search of food when a gunfight broke out between […]

In the week the TRC released its final report, Penuell Maduna was trying to hide the name of an African politician who enjoyed the National Party’s largesse, writes Mungo Soggot The bizarre saga of how the apartheid government bankrolled the election of a West African president by inflating the South African taxpayers’ crude oil bill […]

Maureen Barnes Down the tube Of all the irritating things about SABC TV, I think the one which bothers me the most is its inflexibility – a hangover, like so many aspects of the present service, from the previous policy-makers. SABC3 decided – and please don’t think I’m knocking this decision – that on Saturday […]

Angella Johnson: VIEW FROM A BROAD I have found the Rainbow Nation. It has taken more than two years, but yes, I can unequivocally proclaim that President Nelson Mandela’s multiracial dream is alive and kicking under the bustling new Sundome Casino on the outskirts of Johannesburg. You see, in the gambling world all are equal, […]

Sharon Hammond The Kruger National Park will present its much-awaited proposal for a new policy on managing its elephant population on Saturday. This follows decades of highly emotional criticism for culling the animals in an effort to keep the population in the park at a fixed number of between 7 000 and 7 500. “We […]

Andrew Worsdale Movies of the week With more than 29 shorts and 30 features, the fifth gay and lesbian film festival is expanding with massive hard-on proportions. This is because the “queer” film industry is doing so well, and is regarded internationally as the vanguard of cutting edge independent cinema. As more than 15 000 […]

Postponing sex and `zero grazing’ are just some of the ways in which Ugandans are coping with HIV/Aids, writes Mercedes Sayagues Sophia Mukasa-Monico (38) is a smart, elegant, strong-willed Ugandan lawyer. As we sip a cold drink one steamy Sunday afternoon in Kampala, she tells me a story. Seven years ago, her sister died of […]