Howard Barrell Over a Barrel If the Almighty and I were acquainted – which, sadly, we are not – I would, I am sure, reserve most of my prayers for the inadequacies of my own life. But I know, after just three weeks based in Parliament, that I would regularly be moved to seek heavenly […]

Wonder Hlongwa Estranged Inkatha Freedom Party leader Sipho Mzimela may rejoin the African National Congress, according to political colleagues who say he has been seeking advice about where his political future lies. Mzimela would not comment this week, except to confirm that he is still an IFP MP and a member of the party. He […]

Kader Asmal A Second Look In 1995, an article I co-wrote on liberalism noted that it “has sadly become South Africa’s last credible instrument of privilege”, offering an oxygen tent for apartheid. We wondered whether “discerning liberals” might reverse this. Today, the answer is clear. The Democratic Party is unabashedly the new voice of white […]

Angella Johnson VIEW FROM A BROAD They call themselves Tupac – after the murdered American gangsta rap singer Tupak Shakur – and are the latest gang to terrorise Soweto’s womenfolk, whom they abduct and rape with apparent impunity. “Some of them are HIV-positive and they do these things in order to deliberately pass on the […]

Howard Barrell The South African Communist Party leadership has called for a special meeting next week with Deputy President Thabo Mbeki and other top African National Congress officials to try to resolve the crisis in relations between the two organisations. The SACP wants the talks to take place before an ANC national executive committee meeting […]

for Savimbi Tangeni Amupadhi A former Civil Co-operation Bureau (CCB) agent named as the ring-leader in the theft of arms from military bases is now said to be organising mercenaries for Unita. Johan Niemoller, said to be the leader of Die Volk, whose members allegedly stole weapons from two military bases in the Free State, […]

Suzy Bell Local music For someone who candidly admits to never listening to the radio, to CDs or to watching television, it’s with total integrity that Madala Kunene can announce: “I’m not influenced by anyone.” It is Kunene’s poetic dreams that inspire him. Take his song Abangoma, from his heavenly album Madala Kon’Ko Man. Kunene […]

Linking bourses from all over the world could cause a financial crash worse than ever before, warn Alex Brummer and Jill Treanor The next stock market crash could be so sudden and so devastating that it would dwarf those of October 1929 and 1987, and all the policy makers and regulators in the world will […]

interdict’ Ferial Haffajee All that Thembi Zikhali needed to enforce her interdict was proof that it existed. Because it is a court order, police are compelled to enforce it. “Police have no discretion,” says lawyer Joanne Fedler of the legal advocacy trust, Tshwaranang. The domestic violence Bill, a watershed piece of draft legislation, could curb […]