Existing laws could be used against people who fail to disclose their HIV-positive status while having unprotected sex Belinda Beresford The South African Law Commission has advised against laws to prosecute people who intentionally expose others to the HI virus, saying such legislation would be impossible to police or implement. Rather, the state should concentrate […]

Marianne Merten The banner at the New National Party’s final Western Cape provincial congress proclaimed: “NNP + DP = DA”. The elderly Cape Flats woman in the observer seats who enthusiastically waved her NNP scarf may not see things the same way. Coloured resentment of the NNP’s partner in the Democratic Alliance, the Democratic Party, […]

My name is Phumzile Dlamini. I am a postgraduate student of Museum and Heritage Studies living on Robben Island. I am writing to respond to “Lesotho steps intto Robben Island ray” (September 21) The article used a fictitious name for a survivor of sexual harassment on the island that resembles my own. The names Phumla […]

RUGBY Andy Capostagno When the Falcons Rugby Union decided earlier this year to relocate from Brakpan to Kempton Park the headline writers did not stir, even though the final match at the Bosman stadium unfolded in surreal circumstances. Quarter of the way through the Vodacom Cup match between the Falcons and the Lions one floodlight […]

channel vision Robert Kirby I’ve spent a rather pleasant week being escapist, reading stories about a fascinating young fellow called Harry Potter. I don’t know why I’ve waited this long to have a peep at what’s earned JK Rowling such obscene amounts of money, at the same time wondering like every other writer why I’ve […]

Sean O’Toole “I am married to the idea of the symbolism of this place,” explains Reverend Deon Snyman. Yet it is not merely the symbolic that connects this mild-mannered Afrikaner, a minister with the Unifying Reformed Church, to the Emakhosini Valley in northern Zululand. “In a certain sense it feels as if I am coming […]

Jaspreet Kindra Eskom is battling under a mound of more than R1-billion in unpaid electricity bills, with Soweto alone accounting for R670-million of this. Municipalities, which also supply electricity to ratepayers, are also facing a financial crunch because of non-payment. The total debt owed to municipalities across the country is believed to be R500-million. The […]

Barry Streek Thousands of pensioners and other grant recipients will receive payments totalling at least R1-billion after the government accepted a court order invalidating a 1998 regulation that limited back pay to three months. The government decision to limit back pay made in March 1998 by the then minister of welfare, Geraldine Fraser-Moloketi was challenged […]

Glenda Daniels and Jaspreet Kindra The Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) is to put the Reconstruction and Development Programme (RDP) back on the table at its 10-a-side “tripartite alliance” meeting with the African National Congress, now set for November. The RDP has been a flashpoint between Cosatu and the government, with the unions […]

South Africa would be unwise to underestimate the Indian tourists Peter Robinson Even before South Africa started to trample their way around Zimbabwe, there was a generally held view that Zimbabwe constituted a warm-up for Sourav Ganguly’s Indians who, in turn, were designed to act as sparring partners ahead of the real business against Australia. […]