Piers Pigou a second look Leaving aside, for one moment, the contested issue of covert security force involvement, there are a number of reasons why we should be appalled, but not necessarily surprised, at the Truth and Reconciliation Commission amnesty committee’s decision last week to grant amnesty to 13 Inkatha Freedom Party supporters convicted for […]

The Democratic Alliance’s trumpeting of the defection of Solly Kotane to its ranks and the African National Congress’s exhibitionism over former newspaper spy Craig Kotze symbolise the rank opportunism that has characterised our local government elections. Just when we thought that no one could go lower, the DA delighted at the questionable granting of amnesty […]

Christianity faces extinction and it is not science but Christians themselves who are to blame for its demise, argues AN Wilson The millennium is the anniversary of an event that we no longer believe: namely, the birth of Almighty God in human form in a stable in Bethlehem. How, at this date in history, could […]

A new project to save medicinal plants from extinction will initially concentrate on five plants that are fast-growing and popular among healers Fiona Macleod An ambitious project was launched in Mpumalanga on December 1 to grow high volumes of traditional medicinal plants by cloning them from DNA. The main goal of the project, launched at […]

Steven Friedman Worm’s eye view The interesting story in next week’s local elections may not be the share of the vote the major parties win, but that which they do not. Talk of electoral swings notwithstanding, it is a safe bet that the African National Congress will win the vast majority of local councils. But […]

Barry Streek Ousted Western Cape MEC and former member of the Democratic Alliance Freda Adams has upped the stakes in her sexual harassment battle with DA mayoral candidate Peter Marais, providing details of his raunchy and unsolicited advances. She has now signed a sworn affidavit giving particulars and dates of her claims that Marais, her […]

Barry Streek The government has instructed property valuers to calculate the “risks of land invasion” because of their potential negative influence on property prices. This is the first time the government has implicitly acknowledged the threat of land invasions in South Africa and their potentially devastating impact on property prices, particularly in commercial farming areas. […]

Meaningless matches on second-rate pitches will not draw people back to first-class cricket Peter Robinson Last Friday Stephen Fleming’s New Zealand tourists piled themselves into their team bus at the crack of dawn and trundled off into the Eastern Cape hinterland to play perhaps the most pointless match of their South African tour a one-day […]

Jeremy Cronin Crossfire Cynicism about politics in general plays straight into the hands of the oligarchs. Cynicism is the great ally of those whose inordinate wealth flourishes best without an active citizenry, without organised communities and without an electoral politics with real substance. The farce that has been unfolding in the United States presidential election […]

Ishmael’s new album is about a youthful crooner who has finally grown up Charl Blignaut It seems that not even the impoverished outreaches of rural Wolmaransstad managed to dodge the Xanadu bullet of the Seventies. The spectacularly cheesy cover of Ishmael Morobe’s (the artist formerly known as E’Smile) latest album, Iskhathi sa Khona, features a […]