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/ 27 November 2007

Defiant to the end

Ian Smith, the former Rhodesian prime minister who unilaterally declared independence from British rule, has died aged 88. Smith ruled the country for 15 years from 1964 to 1979, in an ultimately futile effort to maintain white minority rule.

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/ 27 November 2007

SA in the mirror of John Hlophe

The intense controversy surrounding the decision of the Judicial Service Commission to end the inquiry into John Hlophe appears to have reached its end. Some legal wailing and political gnashing of teeth might continue, but Hlophe is here to stay as the judge president of the Cape High Court. But in the here and now, what have we learnt from this saga?

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/ 27 November 2007

A fighting chance

When 23,4million people around the world stood up and spoke out against poverty and inequality on October 17 as part of the Global Call to Action against Poverty campaign, they amplified the silent suffering of the poor into a roar. But what happens after that? We are witnessing a silent tsunami in the developing world, writes Kumi Naidoo.

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/ 26 November 2007

Not all rape is the same

In 2005 I spoke to a traumatised filmmaker who had returned from the Democratic Republic of Congo where he interviewed a 19-year-old woman who 18 months before had been raped by 49 soldiers, one after the other. The pregnant teenager was then shot in the belly by the soldiers, killing her baby and rendering her sterile, writes journalist Charlene Smith.

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/ 26 November 2007

Darkness in the corporate heart

The bigots never tire. For many years they have sought to justify colonialism and slavery in their noble quest to bring civilisation to the heart of darkness. Last week they were at it again. This time their target was Jimmy Manyi, the employment equity commission chairperson. The bigots accuse him of double standards because he works for a company accused of colluding in bread price-fixing.

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/ 26 November 2007

The exception cannot rule our responses

Recognising the courage in Sisonke Msimang’s ”My father the ‘sex pest”’ (November 9) demands that we all take what she has to say seriously. I believe Msimang when she says her father was falsely accused of sexually harassing the woman who laid such charges against him. Like her, I value Audre Lorde’s words about the need to speak the truth publicly and deal with the risks, writes Pumla Dineo Gqola.

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/ 26 November 2007

Putin accuses US of meddling in Russia vote

President Vladimir Putin accused Washington on Monday of plotting to undermine December parliamentary elections seen widely as a demonstration of his enduring power in Russia. Putin, drawing on resurgent nationalist sentiment ahead of Sunday’s poll, also said Russia must maintain its defences to discourage others from ”poking their snotty noses” in its affairs.