Tangeni Amupadhi The official police watchdog has obtained an affidavit from a person who claims to have seen two police officers coaching witnesses to finger people’s poet Mzwakhe Mbuli at an identity parade. At least two witnesses were shown photographs of Mbuli by policemen investigating a bank robbery in Waverley, north of Pretoria, last October, […]
John Grobler The South West African People’s Organisation (Swapo) leadership is expected to propose amending the Namibian Constitution this month to give President Sam Nujoma a third term of office. The Constitution restricts the president to two terms, but at the Swapo extraordinary congress, set to take place at the end of August, party stalwarts […]
The new municipal structures Bill negates municipalities’ rights to govern themselves, writes John Sewell The South African Constitution contains many glowing phrases, and none is as powerful to local politicians as Section 151(3): “A municipality has the right to govern, on its own initiative, the local government affairs of its community.” That section has been […]
Tangeni Amupadhi Dan Mabote, accused of raping, abducting and then killing seven-year-old Mamokgethi Malebana, may soon get his just reward. But family and friends of Mamokgethi say people who aided her killing, albeit inadvertently, will get off scot-free. “I blame the people who granted him bail,” says Mamokgethi’s mother, Joyce Malebana. “I want something to […]
Ferial Haffajee Membership of The Network is coveted. It’s the hottest club in town and counts the country’s leading business, intellectual and political talents in its midst. The Network has reportedly come out of the closet, partying last week to celebrate the appointment of Tito Mboweni as Reserve Bank governor-designate. It was as much a […]
Tracy Murinik Whether you’ve been aware of it or not, if you’ve been living in South Africa within the past four decades or so, and if you’ve experienced any of this country’s major cities (and even some smaller towns), then it is likely that you have at some point encountered Revel Fox. Or his vision […]
George Steiner EXPLAINING HITLER by Ron Rosenbaum (Macmillan) It may well be that I am not the right reviewer for this book. Ron Rosenbaum places me and my novel, The Portage to San Christobal of AH, among the principal players in his dark tale. Explaining Hitler, a highly personal study of those who have sought […]
Steve Gordon : A Second Look The Gift to the Nation concerts last weekend disappointed not so much in what they were, but in what they were not. Boasting South Africa’s biggest-ever artist billing, we squandered the opportunity to assert and affirm our nation, our voice, our identity. Mega-concerts are notoriously difficult to organise, and […]
Andrew Worsdale Two movies open this week that show and show-up middle-class values. They savage the bourgeoisie as comfortable claptrap who, ironically enough, will be the ones who go to the art movie houses (where both films are being released) to see themselves being represented and slagged off. The first is The Happy War, a […]
Richmond There tends to be a false assumption that firm or tough government is conservative government and, as such, inimical to the liberal principles enshrined in our Bill of Rights. For that reason, perhaps, those who take pride in the foundations of the new South Africa contained in our Constitution would see a declaration of […]