The government is determined to push ahead with an ambitious programme of Budget reform. But change will not take place overnight, write Madeleine Wackernagel and Lynda Loxton THE country’s financing process is undergoing nothing short of a revolution, Director General of Finance Maria Ramos said this week. Briefing the parliamentary finance committee, Ramos agreed that […]

The truth commission exhumes bodies from security police death farms, one in an IFP- held area, reports Ann Eveleth ONE of the death farms uncovered by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission last week sits in the heart of an Inkatha Freedom Party stronghold in the volatile KwaZulu-Natal Midlands. Truth commission investigators last week exhumed the […]

Despite reopening old wounds, the truth commission has shifted public attitudes from denial to acknowledgement, reports David Goodman THE nine burly white policemen filed into the packed hearing of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) in Cape Town and took seats in the front row. One of the policemen tapped his foot uncontrollably; another was […]

Mungo Soggot THE R6-million fee United States consultants McKinsey charged the SABC for restructuring the broadcaster suggests Auckland Park had itself McKinsified at a snip. The British Broadcasting Corporation paid the American company several million pounds a year and up to 6-million in the 12 months leading to last year’s announcement of its major shake-up. […]

Ann Eveleth A KWAZULU-Natal policeman looks set to win the dubious record for the largest amnesty application filed so far with the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s (TRC) amnesty committee. Commission insiders said a man who had provided a wide range of evidence to the TRC had recently applied for amnesty in connection with about 49 […]

JONATHAN ROMNEY has fallen in love with Breaking the Waves, Lars von Trier’s powerful new film about the absurdity and grandeur of lust NO FILM I saw last year has held me in its grip quite so hard as Lars von Trier’s Breaking The Waves. Given that your average critic sees upwards of 400 films […]

Gustav Thiel A WEDGE has been driven through Western Cape cricket over the decision to drop an investigation into Western Province Cricket Association vice-president Percy Sonn. Sonn, who is also Western Cape deputy attorney general, told the Mail & Guardian last month that he often drank heavily, had told SABC commentator Martin Locke to “fuck […]

The financial magazine has threatened to sue Business Day and M&G for publishing allegations of unethical behaviour about its owner, reports Mungo Soggot THE battle of the media industry’s financial gurus intensified this week as Finance Week threatened legal action against its rival Business Day and vowed to publish a personal attack on its editor […]

Gustav Thiel CRITICS of Cape Town’s 2004 Olympic bid who say housing should come before sports would find fuel for their argument in the sports hall in nearby Paarl. For the past three months, the tiny hall has served as a temporary shelter for more than 400 homeless people, over half of them children. They […]

Frederick Chiluba and Kenneth Kaunda are allegedly involved in a deal to quash court cases involving their nationality. Anthony Kunda reports ZAMBIAN President Frederick Chiluba and former president Kenneth Kaunda are allegedly involved in secret negotiations which could result in the petition against Chiluba’s nationality and re-election being withdrawn from the supreme court. The petition […]