Rhoda Kadalie A SECOND LOOK I call on the editors of the selected media to defy the subpoenas served on them by the Human Rights Commission (HRC) en bloc. By appearing before the HRC, they will give credence to a discredited organisation that has failed to carry out its mandate effectively since its inception in […]

Howard Barrell The government is seeking to avoid a political train smash with public service unions by overhauling the civil service pay structure that would automatically fix most annual increases at about the rate of inflation. But these government proposals – at the centre of its plans to improve the civil service while halting the […]

Four hours from the summit of Everest, Cathy O’Dowd came across a stricken climber. She faced a brutal choice: to risk her own life in a doomed rescue – or to push on to the top. Here she explains why she left the barely breathing body I stared at the body, blinking in disbelief. We […]

Christian Figenschou In what is likely to be one of the year’s most important new car launches, Italian car maker Fiat has marked an aggressive leap into the local market with the introduction of its 178 “world car” range, comprising the Fiat Palio hatchback, the Palio Weekend station wagon and the Siena sedan. Fiat, which […]

Graham Greene’s love affair with the mysterious ‘C’ is revealed obliquely in his books and private papers. Robert McCrum has read them Graham Greene was a novelist who understood the meaning and mechanics of mystery. He patrolled with impressive vigilance the perimeter fence of his privacy, while at the same time scattering tantalising clues about […]

Khadija Magardie The Southern African Catholic Bishops Conference has received a $5-million (R31- million) grant to fight the HIV/Aids pandemic in South Africa. The Catholic newspaper The Southern Cross reported last week that the grant is part of a R600-million package to various non- governmental and medical organisations, including churches. The money is the lifeline […]

Fiona Macleod Tigers may soon be roaming free in the foothills of the Drakensberg, like their sabre-toothed cousins did millions of years ago. Two seven-month-old pure-bred Bengal tigers are already in South Africa, waiting to become part of an ambitious scheme to breed these critically endangered cats on the African continent. Three tiger subspecies have […]

peace’ Stefaans Brmmer A Johannesburg-based “arms dealer” and South Africa’s top spy have locked horns in a court contest involving claims that the dealer is a threat to world peace and confirmation that South African intelligence collaborates with the United States CIA. Affidavits lodged by both sides pending a Pretoria High Court hearing reveal details […]

Shaun de Waal MOVIE OFTHEWEEK Inevitably, once Leonardo DiCaprio got involved, the making of The Beach became a major gossip-fest. Allegations flew about the film-makers’ ecological destruction of the beach where it was being filmed in Thailand; and Leo had allegedly hired an entire island nearby to house his current girlfriend. The rumours that impinge […]

Peter Dickson The Eastern Cape provincial government has announced plans to close 700 of the province’s farm schools just days after its education MEC promised the Human Rights Commission (HRC) he would bail out the schools with a R14-million subsidy. Premier Makhenkesi Stofile told last Thursday’s opening of the provincial legislature that the farm schools, […]