Men grow old disgracefully so why not women? BODY LANGUAGE Katharine Whitehorn The sight of Cilla Black in fishnet tights and spangled hearts at the Royal Variety Performance, not to mention the equally glittering Barbara Windsor, gave an entirely new meaning to the admiring phrase “endless legs”. Also long-life bosoms, immemorial smiles and a valiant […]

The ANC has made its clearest statement yet of the ‘denialist’ position on HIV/Aids associated with President Thabo Mbeki Jaspreet Kindra In a briefing document posted on its website last week, the African National Congress says there are still disputes about whether an infective agent exists, whether it is a virus, and whether a virus […]

David Macfarlane One in two South African adults cannot read or write, but the government continues to allocate dismally low resources to this national scourge and to adult education generally. Basic education for adults is being increasingly sidelined in government priorities, a major conference last week in Johannesburg repeatedly heard. One of the country’s largest […]

The parallels between Israel and the South Africa of PW Botha grow daily more striking. Since besieged Israeli voters installed militarist Ariel Sharon as leader, security considerations have replaced politics, violence and counter-violence have spiralled out of control, state assassination has been sanctioned, whole communities are punished for individual crimes, voices of reason are systematically […]

analysis Nicholas Taitz and John Kuhn The South African government’s policy against providing free anti-retroviral drugs to people living with HIV/Aids may amount to a crime against humanity. The legal concept of “crimes against humanity” was introduced after World War II to hold Nazi leaders accountable for their crimes in the Holocaust. At the Nuremberg […]

Drew Forrest The government has responded to the Bredell land invasion earlier this year in a crucial policy shift on shelter provision that will favour urban provinces and accelerate the release of land to urban shack-dwellers. The new approach is essentially a revival of former housing minister Joe Slovo’s incremental housing policy, as an alternative […]

John Young “The days of going into games maybe 10 years ago without a game-plan are gone,” Shaun Pollock told SA Sports Illustrated in September. The curriculum of the national academy obviously does not include South Africa’s 1952/53 tour of Australia. If it did, Pollock would know that one of the biggest cricketing upsets of […]

But if next year’s World Cup in Korea/Japan is a flop, the Fifa president has scapegoats David Lacey Beaming benignly, Sepp Blatter approached the task with the air of a Swiss waiter in charge of the sweet trolley. The customers might get indigestion, but he was not going to drop the profiteroles. Nothing fazed our […]

analysis Khadija Magardie The “a-hoppin’ on my camel versus just cruisin’ in my Daimler” problem has always been a dilemma of sorts in the Muslim world. Understandably so, considering the difficulties of marrying centuries of tradition with being a citizen of the 21st century. But few instances of what Ali Mazrui called “having the wristwatch […]

Khadija Magardie The South African Law Commission’s (SALC) project committee has approved its discussion document and proposed draft Bill on Islamic marriages. The paper, which will be released for public comment, makes provision for the recognition of marriages contracted in terms of Muslim religious law. In addition, it regulates the proprietary consequences of such marriages, […]