James Hall In traditional Swazi culture, when death or illness strike, a supernatural cause is suspected. A physical condition may be the agent of destruction, but it is set in motion by malignant people, invariably using witchcraft. When a Swazi king falls ill, those who are in close proximity to him, from palace staff to […]
Anthony Holiday a second look The Hainan Island spy-plane incident may be over but in foreign ministries, embassies and policy think-tanks the whole world over its full implications are only beginning to unravel. When the Chinese fighter pilot Wang Wei lost his life and became a national hero by colliding with a United States EP-3 […]
An imam from the Cape Flats has found a prison buddy in Allan Boesak Marianne Merten Prison has brought together two religious leaders a soft-spoken imam, who is accused of conspiring to murder a magistrate, and vocal liberation cleric Allan Boesak, serving time for fraud and theft. Imam Gasant Moos is detained in a cell […]
The Department of Finance believes the rand could sink as low as R26 to the United States dollar by 2018, after dropping to about R14,9 to the dollar by 2010. The department’s affordability study of the arms deal provides a rare insight into an official line on the future of the currency. The study, drafted […]
David Beresford Another Country This space has had to be used again this week to accommodate the heated debate over the merits, or otherwise of Another Country, the column that usually fills it. Regretfully, after receiving a letter from David Beresford’s representatives, we are compelled to regard the subject as having now been fully ventilated […]
Directors face the ultimate challenge as corporate raider Active Value moves in for the kill Alec Hogg Shareholders of Primedia are being asked to vote on five key proposals at a special general meeting called for early May. This is the climax to a year-long war of attrition and could result in wholesale changes of […]
These vehicles are not more than four years old, but some have rusted so badly that the doors have fallen off Paul Kirk Hundreds of armoured vehicles bought from a major British arms supplier are being scrapped by the South African Police Service. The vehicles, called Scouts, are being taken out of service as they […]
Cyril A Hromnk Crossfire Commenting on the closure of the Kung (Bushman) diorama in the South African Museum (“Unmaking the San”, April 6 to 12), Pippa Skotnes writes: “The challenge is not to get rid of the diorama, but to alter it … to find ways to displace and replace the stereotype it perpetuates.” She […]
Leadership battles are emerging in the ruling party. Jaspreet Kindra reports Former African National Congress Youth League leader James Nkambule, who is in the witness protection programme, told the Mail & Guardian this week that former Mpumalanga premier Matthews Phosa was aspiring to stand for the position of the party president next year. Nkambule, who […]
Melvyn Minnaar Drive over the famously precipitous Swartberg Pass and, instead of carrying on to the beautiful village of Prince Albert, take the R328 north,?back towards Klaarstroom. Old people call this Die Gang (The Passage), a?beautiful, fertile valley along the steep mountains. This is where some of the finest wine grapes may come from in […]