Jakes Gerwel shuns publicity, but Rhodes University’s new chancellor played a key role in the Lockerbie agreement, writes Chiara Carter It is a long way from Somerset East to Tripoli and almost as far a distance, metaphorically, from the “home of the left” University of the Western Cape (UWC) to the liberal portals of Rhodes […]

Belinda Beresford The rich man in his castle and the poor man at the gate should each in their own degree be feeling at least content with the personal implications of the latest government budget. Minister of Finance Trevor Manuel has continued the government’s intention of redistributing income by relieving the direct tax burden on […]

Howard Barrell The praise heaped on Minister of Finance Trevor Manuel for his budget by the African National Congress and its alliance partners relied upon the government’s determination to delay until after the election a number of politically awkward economic decisions it knows it must take soon. The South African Communist Party and the Congress […]

Fiona Macleod It’s not surprising a culture of helping oneself to unearned gains has taken root in Mpumalanga – nor that the parks board is the instrument of this culture. Take a bird’s-eye view of the Sand River as it winds its way from the Northern Province through Mpumalanga, and you’ll see why: on one […]

Ever since Richard Nixon looked into the cameras and said, “Your president is not a crook!” even as he was breaking every law in the book trying to cover up the Watergate break-in, I had learned to cross out the “not” from politicians’ statements. And what confirmation have I not had? George Bush said, “Read […]

When I first walk into the Association for Visual Arts, primed to review Medina Morphet’s exhibition of abstract art, it’s disconcerting to first encounter the illustrative drawings of Bongi Bengu. There also seem to be two distinct crowds here tonight, a relatively bourgeois, middle class crowd who are attracted to Bengu’s narrative depiction, and a […]

Deon Potgieter Boxing The soft-spoken Naas Scheepers will be laying it all on the line when he climbs into the ring against national welterweight champion Peter Malinga at the Carousel next Thursday night. Malinga, a former World Boxing Union welterweight world champion, is moving up the ranks after his sensational first-round dismissal of former world […]

Just 10 years ago, this week’s Desert Classic could not have taken place. David Davies on the miracle of golf in Dubai Every evening at the Emirates Golf Club, the tables are dressed for dinner. Severely starched tablecloths lie underneath the silver service, with the wine glasses stretching away in serried ranks towards the centrepiece, […]

THE South African navy said on Thursday it has sent a team of specialist divers to join Southern African Development Community (SADC) forces recovering weapons that may have been thrown into dams in Lesotho. Lesotho police asked for help after a weapon was found in Lithabaneng Dam near the capital, Maseru, military spokesperson Lieutenant-Colonel Laverne […]

Ferial Haffajee The Pan Africanist Congress will give the death penalty the chop but will sever the lesser limbs of criminals. If it assumes power after the elections, the party will also ban abortion, rescind anti-smoking legislation, scrap national debt and the provinces. The PAC pipped other parties to the post when it released its […]