Bram Posthumus takes a look at what lies at the heart of Angola’s misery A snapshot, taken in Kuito two months ago on Angola’s 23rd birthday. The crowd in front of the bullet-riddled government buildings at the Praa de Vergonha (Shame Square) listens impassively to the music and speeches and then walks away. There’s not […]

AFRICAN National Congress members disgruntled with Mpumalanga Premier Mathews Phosa’s leadership made personal submissions to the party’s president,Thabo Mbeki, during his low-key three-day visit to the province earlier this week. The series of meetings, initially planned as a review of the ANC’s organisational status, reportedly included a series of one-on-one meetings between Mbeki and unhappy […]

Preview of the week: Alex Sudheim In the 1980s, the two-headed beast of church and state had the country in a stranglehold of puritanical dogma and racist ideology. Many young Afrikaners attempted to shake themselves free by writing heretical songs and living subversive lifestyles. This growing deviant energy was epitomised in the famous Volvry tour […]

Few acts could have been better calculated to ensure that public confidence in the South African Police Service and the morale of police officers plummet than the armed robbery this week at one of Cape Town’s largest police stations. Coming on the heels of the New Year’s Day car bomb at the waterfront, it appears […]

A SOUTH African businessman who fled to Australia four years ago to evade being tried for fraud, may soon be extradited after a Federal Court rejected arguments that a new extradition hearing should be denied. Edward Dutton, who is accused of fraud involving $37,2-million, was arrested in Australia in 1995, but escaped extradition because of […]

A BRANCH of American franchise Kentucky Fried Chicken in Athlone on the Cape Flats was petrol bombed in the early hours of Friday. Western Cape police said a number of petrol bombs were thrown through the windows of the take-away in Klipfontein road at about 2am, causing damage estimated at R50000. The attack followed an […]

Emma Forrest First Person Among the strangest remakes in recent years is Cruel Intentions, a teen reworking of Dangerous Liaisons. Just what the world needs: a just-17 version of one of the great pieces of Western literature. It seems like a pathetic concept, the point being that you simply don’t play those sort of cynical, […]

Mail &Guardian reporter The National Party has lost its appeal against a decision by the press ombudsman that the Mail & Guardian was justified in publishing details of a police investigation into its leader Marthinus van Schalkwyk. The article published last year (April 30 to May 7)under the headline “NP leader in bizarre sex probe” […]

FORMER European soccer champions Ajax Amsterdam will form an affiliated squad in Cape Town, the Dutch club said on Thursday. Ajax Cape Town will be set up to play in the South African Premier Soccer League, the club said in a statement. The Dutch side, for whom Benni McCarthy plays, is training in South Africa […]

Linda Chisholm:A SECOND LOOK If the matric exam did not exist, South Africans would have to invent it. As one of our major social institutions, the matric exam results each year signal whether we are succeeding or failing as a nation. This year’s results were no different. Whether they are a major or a minor […]