A century ago, a rising South African writer was languishing in a prisoner-of-war camp. Stephen Gray introduces his unique letters A hundred years ago, on a sweltering mountainside in Sri Lanka, some 5 000 transported Boer sol- ‘ diers, defeated largely in the Free State, were penned up behind barbed wire for the duration of […]

Glenda Daniels and David Macfarlane Second Look A groundswell movement for people-centred social justice is generating a momentum that amounts to the left’s best hope for 30 years. It is a reinvention of the left that involves new formations in place of traditional communist parties and left-wing governments. And it draws on a network of […]

Mungo Soggot Trafigura, the London-based oil company embroiled in the bribe scandal, this week dismissed allegations that bribes had been paid to South African state oil officials as part of its deal with the state oil operation. Documents and affidavits filed in the Pretoria High Court say that, as part of a deal with Trafigura […]

Neal Collins soccer Shaun Bartlett is the latest South African to face a major club versus country dispute following his Man of the Match performance for Charlton against Newcastle on Sunday. Bartlett, currently on loan from FC Zurich, scored one and made the other for Matthias Svensson at The Valley in a rousing 2-0 win. […]

Justin Arenstein and Dumisane Lubisi Thirteen of South Africa’s largest pharmaceutical companies have frozen medical deliveries to Mpumalanga hospitals after blacklisting the provincial government for failing to pay accounts dating back to October 2000. The province tried to deny the crisis on Thursday after making small emergency payments to creditors on Wednesday night. The provincial […]

Glenda Daniels and David Macfarlane Labour has drawn up comprehensive proposals for making South Africa’s railway system profitable and efficient, but neither Spoornet nor the government has responded. As a result, about 15000 workers wait to hear if they will lose their jobs, says Karl von Holdt, who is head of the workplace reconstruction unit […]

Serjeant at the Bar Anthony Gubbay is a principled person of great courage and integrity. He is also a fine jurist as is evident to anyone who examines the pages of the South African law reports. He is the stuff of a great judicial leader of whom any country would be proud. Until a couple […]

Thebe Mabanga in your ear I recently spent two weeks listening to radio in the Western Cape. The experience has proven to be mildly refreshing without being mind blowing. It was refreshing by offering an alternative from the Johannesburg scene without necessarily leaving me gasping for more. Due to time constraints (and the people I […]

David Beresford Another Country A noticeable aspect about last week’s contretemps between the Irish newspaper tycoon, Sir Anthony O’Reilly, and the South African presidency was that Essop Pahad failed to inform us about the progress of investigations into the great conspiracy to prove the president potty. Essop, or Aesop as Sir Anthony would have us […]

Leading South African businessmen allegedly arranged and received substantial kickbacks for a major state oil transaction Mungo Soggot Keith Kunene, the former chair of the Central Energy Fund (CEF), stands accused of accepting cash bribes in dollars worth R360 000 and was allegedly promised a further R12-million in offshore kickbacks to arrange a secret oil […]