murdered? William Shawcross and Mail & Guardian reporters Was Chief Moshood Abiola murdered? That was the question on everyone’s lips in the villages, towns and cities of Nigeria as the human rights organisation Amnesty International demanded a full independent inquiry into the circumstances around the death in detention of the country’s lost president. “Of all […]
It may be the cure for many sexual problems, but will Viagra get to the root of sexual relationships? Jennifer Steinhauer of The New York Times and David Shapshak report Viagra, the miracle impotence drug, may kickstart men’s libidos but it’s not the cure-all for dysfunctional relationships. While millions of men around the world have […]
The taxpayer footed the bill for the 177 IFP participants in the Shell House inquest, writes Mungo Soggot The Legal Aid Board paid almost R10- million for the Inkatha Freedom Party’s legal representation at the Shell House inquest last year – as much as the board’s annual allowance to university legal aid clinics. The IFP […]
`justice’ Tangeni Amupadhi Police officers are apparently turning to vigilantism because of growing disillusionment with the criminal justice system, says a research commissioned by the Independent Complaints Directorate (ICD). In an incident earlier this year, Eastern Cape policemen shot dead four “fleeing robbers” in Umtata after they allegedly held up a Pep Stores branch and […]
offs Mukoni T Ratshitanga More than 200 Northern Province pensioners have taken court action against the provincial government’s decision to freeze pension and disability grants to 92 000 people. Court papers served this week on the province’s MEC for Health and Welfare, Hunadi Mateme, say the freeze should be invalidated on the grounds that it […]
Andy Capostagno Rugby If God had meant man to live in England, he’d have given him gills. That line kept recurring in my thoughts during two trips to the Cape last week. On Saturday Clive Woodward’s prayers were answered as the heavens opened and soft, suppressing rain fell on his England team at Newlands. On […]
theft Mail & Guardian reporters The former Umkhonto weSizwe cadre heading the company that controls controversial Aids drug Virodene cut his business teeth in the Southern African criminal underworld. Former colleagues from the African National Congress’s years in exile claim Joshua Nxumalo had a reputation for “getting things done”, and that he specialised in providing […]
Charl Blignaut On stage in Johannesburg `So, how was the play?” asks a friend over dinner. How was the play? How do you describe Closer? A couple of hours after seeing Sello Maake ka Ncube’s production of Patrick Marber’s acclaimed contemporary British play, the whole thing is really only just beginning to sink in and […]
Stewart Dalby Spending it The tantrums and antics of some modern chess masters are nothing new, it would seem. Histories of the game tell a story, possibly apocryphal, that the earliest recorded enthusiast in Britain was the Viking King Canute (1016 to 1035). It seems that Canute quarrelled one day when playing Earl Ulf, who […]
Jeremy Cronin These are the South African Communist Party’s concerns about the government’s growth, employment and redistribution strategy (Gear): l In the first place, and consistently since June 1996 (when Gear was first unveiled), the SACP has been critical of the process that led up to Gear. In contrast to the reconstruction and development programme, […]