Steven Friedman worm’s eye view We can let the police do what they want – or we can try to make them do what we want. Sometimes, an experience helps us understand issues better than abstract debate. The recent arrest of my colleague Xolela Mangcu is an example: it helped crystallise what is wrong with […]
Ebrahim Harvey left field When Minister of Defence Mosiuoa Lekota played down press reports about a defence intelligence agent, Carien Pieterse, attempting to recruit an editor and other journalists to spy for them, and went on to say that he had no problem if this was done in the “national interest”, I recalled the controversy […]
Bob Woolmer from the pavilion South African cricket is in the process of re-establishing itself in the eyes of the world. The Hansiegate scandal and the ensuing mudslinging during the King commission ensured an enormous amount of rebuilding had to take place. Part of the rebuilding is in the hands of Shaun Pollock and Graham […]
Howard Barrell The UDF. A History of the United Democratic Front in South Africa, 1983-1991 by Jeremy Seekings (David Philip/James Currey/Ohio University Press) For many thousands of people who participated in the United Democratic Front and its affiliates, reading this book will be like stepping once more through the seven tumultous years that brought this […]
Andrew Muchineripi soccer The fifth edition of the Castle premiership league football marathon kicked off this week with the leading actors half a continent away, passing the time waiting for a flight home from the Cameroonian city of Douala. Sundowns arrived in Johannesburg only on Thursday after a gutsy 2-1 African Champions League victory over […]
Open declarations by the ANC and IFP of high stakes in the local government election have rekindled fears of renewed intimidation and violence Jaspreet Kindra The African National Congress sounded a warning to its coalition partner – the Inkatha Freedom Party – this week that their partnership in KwaZulu-Natal may not last beyond the local […]
Commodore Dieter Gerhardt led a double life: he was a senior commander in the South African Navy, with access to ultra-sensitive information, and at the same time a master spy for the Soviet Union. Ronen Bergman spoke to him On the morning of February 3 1983 an Israel Aircraft Industries executive jet landed in Pretoria. […]
Thuli Nhlapo The South African Law Commission confirmed it is conducting research on the subject of commercial sex work within the ambit of reviewing current sexual offences legislation – but said the process was still at a “sensitive stage”. The discussion paper on the matter, according to the commission, might be available by the end […]
Es’kia Mphahlele a second look I endorse everything that Arthur Maimane wrote in the Mail & Guardian (“A masterpiece in bronze”, July 14 to 20) concerning the relative merits of some of the former Drum writers. There was no reason for naming an award after Nat Nakasa for outstanding service to journalism above the greater, […]
Johannesburg’s newest mall is tailor-made for the younger generation, but it is already beginning to age Melinda Silverman Architects hate malls. They hate their looks -ugly boxes adrift in a sea of cars – and they hate the way shopping malls have destroyed old-fashioned city streets. They hate the combination of windowless concrete brutalism and […]