Imagine you’re a Parisienne and morning by morning, as you sit on your balcony sipping cappuccino, you notice that the Eiffel Tower is slowly getting shorter. One morning you almost swallow your croissant whole when you discover that it’s no longer there. It’s been dismantled and no longer exists. The city’s signature has become memory. […]

If you knew what leaders of the different opposition parties tend to say about each other over, for example, lunch with a journalist, you too would have sat up and taken note of an event last Friday. Leaders of the New National Party, Democratic Party, Pan Africanist Congress, African Christian Democratic Party and Freedom Front […]

Michael Metelits The bad news is that your bank could hit a spot of trouble, run low on cash, find itself with too many people in line to draw funds, and collapse, leaving you with high blood pressure and a chequebook best used for gift-wrapping or reminder notes. Worse news would be that your bank […]

FORMER Azanian People’s Liberation Army members will assemble in Umtata on March 20 for their final parade, in line with a decision taken late last year that they should formally disband. Although Apla was part of the integration of the non-statutory and statutory forces into the South African National Defence Force, it has never officially […]

The consummate politician didn’t wear socks. Thabo Mbeki’s sockless feet was one of few down-home symbols as the new-look African National Congress leader made one of his first forays on the hustings last weekend. On a sodden Saturday afternoon in Soweto, Mbeki displayed the political colours he will wear on the election trail. Like being […]

Ian Clayton Cash-strapped NGOs should not expect much assistance with their funding from the latest Katz commission report. The commission’s proposals on donations to and possible tax deductions from NGOs are to be printed soon – but they are unlikely to result in any major changes. Minister of Finance Trevor Manuel told Parliament this week […]

Last year I was invited to speak at the Oxford Union in my capacity as editor of the Erotic Review. I was also asked if I would like to stage an exhibition of erotic prints to give an extra frisson to the evening’s debate. I filled the august interior of the Gladstone room with explicit […]

David le Page So you’re driving down the information highway (no “super” – it’s Telkom). You’re on your way to a website in Durban, and you decide to pull in to Harrismith to check your e-mail. There, of course, your Cyberhost is cheap, friendly and accommodating – just like the Wimpy. Well, Internet start-up company […]

This is International Women’s Week and even if I wanted to, I could not prevent myself from thinking about womanhood. What is a man to make of women these days? Since the feminists took over, it has become extremely difficult for my gender to interact with females. Once, in a newspaper office, I casually smiled […]

It’s a blazingly hot day in Nylstroom. The blue northern sky glares relentlessly overhead. Outside the town hall a powdered tannie comes up and, pointing to the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) banner, asks if this is … She hesitates. Yes, it’s Evita’s election roadshow. And it’s free? Yes. She grips her silent husband’s elbow and, […]