TUESDAY, 4.00PM: FORMER Zimbabwean President Canaan Banana finally took the stand in his defence in the Harare High Court on Monday, and swore that he never sexually assaulted any men. Banana, who faces 11 counts of sodomy, attempted sodomy and indecent assault, told the court he has no explanation for why all nine complainants might […]

MONDAY, 5.00PM: A CAMPAIGN to collect signatures on the Internet opposing the capture of three wild dolphins by the Port Elizabeth Oceanarium has been launched by an organisation called Protect Our Dolphins, based in Port Elizabeth. Besides protesting the restriction of wild animals to a tiny pool, Pod claims the Oceanarium staff are not properly […]

Andy Duffy A senior Western Cape police officer, found guilty by the police force of sexually harassing a female colleague, has been given a R1,6-million golden handshake, following a decision by the provincial attorney general to drop criminal charges. The former commander of the Woodstock police station, Mario Laubscher, walked off with his bumper retirement […]

Andy Capostagno Golf It’s called getting the monkey off your back. Ernie Els had been number one on the Sony World rankings for two months and he was about to defend the US Open title for the second time in four years. In April the gentle giant from Kempton Park handled a satellite link-up to […]

Tangeni Amupadhi and Mungo Soggot Highway heists have become one of South Africa’s favourite crimes, with gangs of well-trained operatives pulling off a spate of audacious robberies involving tens of millions of rands. Police say they have arrested about 250 suspects, but a substantial number have escaped – as in the case of former African […]

The leading Maghrebian author, Tahar Ben Jelloun, attended this year’s Poetry Africa festival in Durban. He spoke to Stephen Gray Stephen Gray: How did you come to choose French above your home language? Tahar Ben Jelloun: I was born in Fez in 1944, in a modest and fairly traditionalist family, with Arabic as my home […]

Sechaba ka’Nkosi The South African Communist Party politburo this week failed to reconcile its young radicals and its old guard on split nominations for the party’s highly contested leadership positions. On Tuesday, the politburo failed to come up with a single name for the party’s most contested position, that of the general secretary, between the […]

Julie Frederikse has written two new additions to the Maskew Miller Longman series They Fought for Freedom, a set of short, accessible biographies of great South African opponents of apartheid. Though Helen Joseph and David Webster came from two different epochs in the fight against oppression, they shared common characteristics and a unique connection. Joseph […]

Ann Eveleth The apartheid-era homeland system and rural “betterment schemes” were the worst causes of land degradation, according to a rapid appraisal of land resources conducted in the run-up to World Desertification Day on Wednesday. The study forms part of South Africa’s National Action Programme to implement the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification. The […]

A special correspondent in Abuja There were few tears and fewer obsequies for General Sani Abacha, the late and brutal president of Nigeria. Wrapped in a sheet and carried to his home town of Kano in the cargo hold of a Nigerian air force jet, he arrived too late even to be buried before evening […]