real Dale McKinley Right to Reply It didn’t take Howard Barrell long, did it? Only just back in the country, he has wasted little time in regaling readers with his own peculiar brand of sarcasm, masquerading as informed opinion (”Pissing on the communists’ parade”, July 10 to 16). His target? Us poor old communists, whose […]

WEDNEDAY, 12.00NOON: CHERRYL KENNEDY, the white South African woman who has applied for political asylum in Australia on the grounds that she has been persecuted by affirmative action in South Africa, has lost her case. The Australian Refugee Review Tribunal on Wednesday upheld an Immigration Department ruling that she had no grounds for her claims […]

MONDAY, 2.00PM: DEPUTY Foreign Affairs Minister Aziz Pahad met a senior Palestinian Liberation Organisation official, executive committee member Faisal Husseini, in East Jerusalem on Sunday. The meeting followed earlier talks with Palestine’s planning and international co-operation minister Nabil Sha’ath and Palestinian legislative assembly speaker Hanan Ashrawi,as well as the Palestinian business association on Saturday. The […]

MONDAY, 5.00PM: AN Inkatha Freedom Party member convicted for murder for his part in the June 1992 Boipatong massacre testified on Monday before the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in Sebokeng on the murder of a nine-month-old baby during the attack. Victor Mthandeni Mthembu, 29, is seeking amnesty for his part in the massacre in which […]

Fiona Macleod `Sustainable development” of natural and cultural resources for the benefit of current and future generations is the main thrust of the draft National Environmental Management Bill, now up for public debate. Individuals and organisations have until July 29 to submit comment on the Bill, which the Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism is […]

FRIDAY, 1.00PM: ROBERT McBRIDE, the Foreign Affairs official arrested in Mozambique three months ago on dubious gun-running charges, has released a statement explaining his side of the affair. McBride says he went to Mozambique to verify claims from Vusi Mbatha (the informer behind the Meiring report) that Alex Huambo, a former supplier of arms to […]

`justice’ Tangeni Amupadhi Police officers are apparently turning to vigilantism because of growing disillusionment with the criminal justice system, says a research commissioned by the Independent Complaints Directorate (ICD). In an incident earlier this year, Eastern Cape policemen shot dead four “fleeing robbers” in Umtata after they allegedly held up a Pep Stores branch and […]

Swapna Prabhakaran Whether you are a working Mozambican mamma or a leisured Amex-wielding tourist, there’s only one way to get between KwaZulu-Natal and Maputo in style – take the brand new trans- Lubombo train. The new service was recently launched by Spoornet from Durban station, to make its way over the Lubombo mountains, through Swaziland […]

offs Mukoni T Ratshitanga More than 200 Northern Province pensioners have taken court action against the provincial government’s decision to freeze pension and disability grants to 92 000 people. Court papers served this week on the province’s MEC for Health and Welfare, Hunadi Mateme, say the freeze should be invalidated on the grounds that it […]

Helen Stevenson HULLABALOO IN THE GUAVA ORCHARD by Kiran Desai (Faber &Faber) In a small town in India, a post office official yells at his slovenly staff: “You will kindly pull up your socks and begin!” There has always been a certain buffoonish comic potential in the linguistic legacy of the British in India, a […]