Vikram Dodd November 1978 In the largest cult-inspired mass suicide of recent times, 914 followers of the Reverend Jim Jones’s People’s Temple died at Jonestown, Guyana. Most drank a grape punch that was laced with cyanide. Those who refused to drink it were shot. A sign over Jones’s altar read: “Those who forget the past […]

Steve Outing In the days of yore (pre-Internet, that is), news media and corporations had clearly defined boundaries. Magazines and newspapers gave readers news and objective information. Companies tried to sell goods and services, and placed ads in magazines, newspapers and on TV as a way to sell more. Ah, life was simple then. The […]

As floods continue to wreak havoc across Southern Africa, a look at the conservation of water resources may seem irrelevant, but delegates at an international water conference took a longer-term view Jubie Matlou in The Hague, The Netherlands A draft blueprint for fair and equal access to the Inkomati River by South Africa, Swaziland and […]

Nawaal Deane On Friday morning Robert Mugabe bashers will have the rare opportunity to squirt diesel in his face or throw darts at him. All they will have to do is tune into a new youth website, www.gal.co.za, where Mugabe’s face will be bouncing around on screen. The player who scores the most hits in […]

Paul Kirk Chris MacAdam, the head of KwaZulu- Natal’s investigating directorate (organised crime and public safety), is facing a multimillion-rand lawsuit from soldiers who claim he wrongly arrested them for a massacre that followed the assassination of Sifiso Nkabinde. Within hours of Nkabinde being gunned down in Richmond, a family of 11 African National Congress […]

Cameron Duodu LETTER FROM THE NORTH ‘We have told everyone we will shave our heads to be like Mr [Abdoulaye] Wade. After that, we are going to stand naked in front of the presidential palace – to proclaim that we are like new-born babies and that a new Senegal is born.” With these words, the […]

BRONWEN ROBERTS, Durban | Friday 8.00pm TWELVE schoolchildren died and five were seriously injured in a stampede in a crowded disco in Chatsworth, Durban on Friday afternoon. The stampede was apparently caused when a canister of gas — thought to have been teargas — was released in the early afternoon in the Throb nightclub — […]

THE Inkatha Freedom Party said on Friday night that it expects at least 5000 members to attend its annual marchin Johannesburg on Saturday to commemorate the Shell House shooting of 1994. Police said they will maintain tight security for the duration of the march. During a pre-election march in 1994 a clash erupted outside Shell […]

SOUTH African Sweliwile Hanns says he is confident of defending his title against competitors from 15 other countries in the world sheep-shearing championships in Bloemontein on Saturday. Hanns, who uses hand-shears and has been a professional shearer since 1982, came third in the world championships in New Zealand in 1997 and won the title in […]

SOUTH Africa’s Bradford Vaughan, a two-time winner on the Vodacom Tour, has a one shot lead after the first round of the Zambian Open at the Lusaka Golf Club. Vaughan, the elder of two brothers competing for the R500000 on offer this week, shot a magnificent six under-par 67, to lead by a stroke from […]