Martin Kettle in Washington The city of Louisville in Kentucky boasts possibly the world’s only statue of Louis XVI of France – in honour of the man from whom it takes its name. It is doubly odd to find a statue of the last of the Bourbons in the middle of a mid-western state becau […]
Mungo Soggot The Pretoria High Court has slapped a temporary interdict on Klerksdorp police who allegedly beat and tortured a robbery suspect. Eric Tshabalala, who has been awaiting trial since his arrest in January, says he was beaten and tortured with electric shocks. His lawyers from the Wits University Law Clinic say he has visible […]
Mzilikazi wa Afrika The Department of Justice has enlisted two of South Africa’s top special investigation teams to probe a well-organised national crime syndicate which has defrauded the department of more than R30-million over the past three years. Confidential information leaked to the Mail & Guardian shows that 23 government officials, including police officers, court […]
Lynda Gledhill It may not be possible to put a price on someone’s life, but doctors know it takes enormous amounts of money to give the thousands of South Africans infected with HIV a longer, healthier life. Drug therapies have proven to be very effective at fighting the virus and have dramatically improved the outlook […]
Caroline Sullivan: CD of the week It was clear after the sexcentricity of Madonna’s last studio LPs, Erotica and Bedtime Stories, that the next would have to be markedly different – and Ray Of Light (WEA) certainly is. She’s done what superstars at a crossroads do – found religion. She’s been studying the Kabbalah and […]
FRIDAY, 6.00PM: THE Johannesburg Stock Exchange ended down on Friday, pressured by futures trade and profit taking. The all gold index wound down 6,4 points to 679,9, the industrial index 51,7 points to 8515,2, and the financial index 122,9 points to 13234,1. The all share index finished down 64,8 points at 7179,7. Around 130,328-million shares […]
‘Ma’am,” said John Edas with a dramatic pause, “motor racing is lily white. At Motor Sport South Africa there is only one person of colour – and that’s me.” The members of the parliamentary committee on sport and recreation looked on grimly as they pondered the difficulties of making motor racing a sport befitting the […]
Wally Mbhele The arrest of Robert McBride on charges of gun-running in Mozambique seems to have been a well-co-ordinated police trap, planned with the man he was captured with, Vusi Mbatha, Mozambican gun-runner Alex Mamba, and the South African security forces. There is concern that old-guard elements of the South African military and police assisted […]
Robert Kirby: LOOSE CANNON I see The Great Professor Jay Naidoo is up to his Indian rope tricks again. Should racist-bashers bulge to the previous sentence, let rest. I use the term, Indian rope trick, in its flattering sense. As a part-time magician, I have only praise for illusi ons that both delight and confuse. […]
Sechaba ka’Nkosi An African National Congress task team headed by Minister of Welfare and Population Development Geraldine Fraser-Moleketi to investigate a “communist plot” at its national congress last year has ignited a bitter internal wrangle between two factions of t he South African Communist Party. As the SACP prepares for its 10th national conference in […]