It has been acclaimed as one of the finest buildings in the United States, possibly anywhere. Its billowing stainless-steel walls, wrote one critic, are ”harmonious and incomparably beautiful, the colours changing depending on where the sun is”. It’s a pity the neighbours don’t see it that way.

Former president Nelson Mandela’s eldest son is in a critical condition at a Johannesburg hospital, the Nelson Mandela Foundation said on Monday. Spokesperson Maretha Slabbert said Mandela was spending time at his son’s bedside. Makgatho is Mandela’s eldest child and only surviving son from his first marriage to Evelyn Ntoko Mase, a former nurse, in the 1940s.

The first act of the United States’s war on terrorism in 2001 was a blockbuster victory. As the twin towers still smouldered, US bombers and Afghan rebels drove the Taliban from power. Afghans emerged from the rubble to hear enthusiastic pledges of a phoenix-like resurrection for their wrecked country. Children would go to school, parents would have jobs, peace would prevail.

Eight United States soldiers serving in Iraq launched a legal challenge on Monday to stop their tours of duty from being extended. The lawsuit is the first of its kind by a group of US soldiers on active service in the country. The soldiers, seven of whom will remain anonymous out of fear of official retribution, are fighting against being forced to stay in their units after their period of enlistment has ended.

The community of the western region in North West province initiated a Devil’s Claw project with the assistance of the provincial Department of Agriculture, Conservation, Environment and Tourism in 1999. The aim of the project is to improve the production yield by domesticating and propagating Devil’s Claw tubers from the veld.

I was told that the GDE would process and authorise the claims of ABET educators at the end of every month and that payment would be effected as soon as possible after the end of every month. This has not been the case, writes Craig van der Merwe.