The revelations that Swiss banks accepted Nazi gold show how history has become more a concatenation of symbols than a memory of experience, argues David Cesarani in London One of the intriguing questions arising from the latest “revelations” about the conduct of Swiss banks during and after World War II is why it took so […]

It should be said at the outset that the controversy which has developed over the appointment of South Africa’s chief justice does not involve great issues of principle. It is little more than a petty squabble, essentially over personalities. But it is nevertheless a damaging one for the judiciary. Perhaps the most unfortunate aspect of […]

Alasdair Fotheringham explains why Miguel Indurain, five-time winner of the Tour de France, is riding in Spain this week against his will MOST Spaniards are loyal first to their family, second to their home town and only considered their country as an afterthought, said the writer and lover of Spain, Gerald Brenan. Had Brenan been […]

The past and present Springbok captains clash when Francois Pienaar’s Transvaal take on Gary Teichmann’s Natal this weekend RUGBY: Jon Swift THERE is little left really for Transvaal this season but to pick up the pieces. A win against Natal at King’s Park in Durban this weekend will perhaps keep them in the running for […]

Greg Streak is the first South African artist to win a place in one of the world’s great sculpture schools, reports SUZY BELL AT LAST, a white male South African who doesn’t spend his days whingeing about feeling dislocated, alienated and oh so lonesome in the new South Africa. Instead, Durban artist Greg Streak (25) […]

Mail & Guardian Reporters The question about why there are virtually no photographs of the judges in the Appellate Division has been answered by the librarian at the Rand Supreme Court. She told a reporter that if the media published the judges’ photos, it would be “putting their lives in jeopardy.” She refused to tell […]

Vanessa Cooke, director of the newly relocated Market Theatre Laboratory in Johannesburg, talks to GLYNIS O’HARA Over 150 000 primary school children nationwide have seen Broken Dreams, a play workshopped and written by Zakes Mda to help them ward off and deal with child abuse and prevent the spread of TB and AIDS. The play […]

Questions are being asked about Thabo Mbeki’s deal with the police commissioners over the truth commission, reports Stefaans BrUmmer Truth commission investigators have been left frustrated by an “intervention” of Deputy President Thabo Mbeki and Safety and Security Minister Sydney Mufamadi which they say gave former police generals a strategic breather before they face tough […]

Eddie Koch EVIDENCE in Colonel Eugene de Kock’s mitigation hearing suggests clandestine support from the police for Inkatha paramilitary units to attack ANC supporters in the early 1990s — long after the movement was unbanned — was not a maverick operation by members of the Vlakplaas unit for personal gain. De Kock told the court […]

Richard Thomas in London The World Bank is privately warning that Haitian peasants could be forced to emigrate in order to find jobs, in stark contrast to the bank’s public endorsement of a “people first” development strategy. Ahead of the bank’s annual meeting in Washington in a fortnight’s time, aid agencies said the disclosure would […]