Maureen Barnes The prime minister of Malaysia – Datuk Seri Dr Mahathir Mohamad, to give him his full title – got into a helicopter on one of his frequent inspections of his country and, flying over a remote area of designated protected forest, he saw evidence of illegal logging. In a fury, he flew back […]

Ferial Haffajee The SABC board chair, Professor Paulus Zulu, may have acted unilaterally in sacking deputy chief executive Govin Reddy. Some board members sought a negotiated parting of the ways instead of the immediate termination of employment which Zulu penned in his July letter to Reddy. His action has exposed the SABC to a very […]

Andrew Worsdale The first movie I ever saw was Swiss Family Robinson at the Greenway cinema in Greenside and I vividly remember sleeping most of the way through it, waking up for an instant to see a giant python slithering down a tree, and then I burst into tears. Thirty-something years later I feel like […]

disarray Howard Barrell Politicians from all major parties and some international relations experts are worried by what they see as disarray in South African foreign policy exposed by the crisis in the Democratic Republic of Congo. They believe the impasse is undermining the country’s interests in the region and could mar President Nelson Mandela’s hosting […]

possessions Peter Dickson How the mighty have fallen. Once he was a president who ruled with an iron finger. Today PW Botha is a pitiful old man, forced to pawn his prized trinkets in order to pay for his stubbornness. A week before his sentencing in the George Magistrates Court for refusing to testify before […]

Carolize Jansen The Sports Information and Science Agency conducted an extensive and enlightening study on the participation of women in sport last year. The main objectives of the study were to obtain the number of women participating in various sports in South Africa, segment the number of these participants in categories according to, for instance, […]

Gavin Evans Boxing When you combine the words Namibia and sport, the only connection that springs to mind is Frankie Fredericks. There is, however, another young man – a close friend of the track star as it happens – who believes he’s on track to equal the achievements of his brilliant homeboy: Harry Simon. This […]

Wally Mbhele The credibility of the police and the prosecution – led by the Transvaal Attorney General, Jan d’Oliviera – has come under heavy assault from lawyers defending three African National Congress members who were convicted for the 1993 Eikenhof massacre. Fresh evidence pointing to prior police knowledge of the identity of the real perpetrators […]

It is perhaps not politically correct to draw sustenance from the “poet of Imperialism”. But as one surveys the international and domestic scene at the moment, the famous words from Rudyard Kipling’s poem, If, spring inevitably to mind: “If you can keep your head while all about you are losing theirs …” We are living […]

Charlotte Raven First Person Another day, another report confirming men’s supposed oppression. This time, the global crisis as men across four continents confess to being annoyed that they’re not getting enough attention. According to a study by Research International, men are feeling unappreciated. Women hardly acknowledge them, except to laugh and point. On the odd […]