MONDAY, 8.30AM WITH the Truth Commission’s much-extended final deadline for amnesty looming 24 hours away, possible last-minute applicants include Afrikaner Weerstandsbeweging leader Eugene Terre’Blanche, former SADF chief general Jannie Geldenhuys and former military intelligence agent Johann Verster, linked to the 1988 murder of ANC Paris office chief Dulcie September. Far-right leader Terre’Blanche said yesterday that […]

The big picture is the masculine approach, and its a burden. The so-called historical perspective that people are supposed to be honouring or seeking is a weight. And, as Palesa Nkosi so elegantly puts it, shes not an essentialist, not someone who subscribes to the definitive South African film. Im not expecting to be the […]

Glynis OHara : Massed Choir Festival When Sally June Gain opened her throat and let out powerful, ineffably beautiful high notes in Verdis Sempre Libera from La Traviata, the audience went wild. Right in the middle of the aria. They were on their feet and cheering wildly by the end, so much so that she […]

unfairly? Craig Bishop Eight months into perhaps the toughest provincial job in the country, Eastern Cape Premier, the Reverend Makhenkesi Stofile, is under pressure to take heavy-handed action to control fraud and deliver government services. A recent Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC) survey found he was the least popular premier in South Africa. Stofile (50), […]

Andy Duffy and Marion Edmunds A government bash on Robben Island to celebrate Heritage Day cost the taxpayer up to R1-million R2 500 for every name on the exclusive guest list. The guest list also excluded at least three white opposition leaders National Party chief Marthinus van Schalkwyk, the Democratic Partys Tony Leon, and the […]

M&G Reporter The National Arts Council Bill has finally been passed by parliament after drafters quietly ditched the controversial clause that could have enabled the national arts and culture department to hijack the council. Clause 13 which was seen as a major threat to the councils independence has been replaced with a clause that says […]

FRIDAY, 3.30PM WINNIE MADIKIZELA-MANDELA appeared reluctantly before the Truth and Reconciliation Commission on Friday, her 64th birthday. Subpoenaed to a closed hearing to answer questions relating to her alleged links to 18 gross human rights violations, Madikizela-Mandela requested the inquiry to be public so that “the matter can be dealt with once and for all”. […]

In the week of this years gay pride march, we look at the significance of queer icon Oscar Wilde, and debate the problems surrounding the Johannesburg parade Peter Conrad Ignominy effaced Oscar Wilde as soon as he was hauled off to prison in 1895. His name was summarily blacked out on theatre marquees in Londons […]

Following a spate of murders, 70 officers have been deployed to the troubled Cape Flats, reports Andy Duffy Mogammat Dharsey had little reason to feel threatened. The 55-year-old doctor had worked in Valhalla Park on the Cape Flats for years. He knew it was a region overrun by gangsters he had several on his books […]

Wally Mbhele The Reverend Frank Chikane emerged this week as the new favourite to replace Gauteng MEC for Health Amos Masondo in challenging the leading candidate, advocate Mathole Motshekga, for the provincial chairmanship of the African National Congress. While another powerful, nominated candidate, Murphy Morobe, was still making political calculations before taking a final decision […]