Gaye Davis PARLIAMENT’S watchdog over the intelligence community faces its most crucial test as it prepares to uncover the truth behind the police spying scandal. The Joint Standing Committee on Intelligence thrashed out its terms of reference for its investigation into police claims that top members were being spied on by agents of the National […]

NIA spying row: Police accuse Dirk Coetzee of being ordered to spy on them — Coetzee denies all and wishes he’d never exposed Police hit Gaye Davis THE stand-off between police and the National Intelligence Agency over allegations that it was spying on senior policemen has sparked fears that co-operation between police and the agency […]

Peta Thornycroft It’s been a long time coming, but Dirk Coetzee has had enough. He now regrets having spoken out in 1989 about killer squads in the South African Police. His confession six years ago about his own role in sanctioned murders and his breathtaking exposure of the rot deep in the South African security […]

An uproar at the Peninsula Technikon following the administration’s failure last year to discipline a student for sexual harassment has once again highlighted this hidden problem, reports Rehana Rossouw SEVERAL months after a student at the Peninsula Technikon in Cape Town reported she had been lewdly fondled by SRC president Solly Lamini, there has been […]

Cabinet members are assessed only on their performance in government — not on their party leadership or conduct outside Parliament (ie barging into live TV studios is not taken into account). They are rated on a scale of one to 10. Ten means they should have the job for life; one means they should be […]

In his profiles of the new South African elite, Mark Gevisser has found that race is still at the core of our national identity William Makgoba and Charles van Onselen. Looking through my profiles of the year, I was struck, over and over again, by their confrontation. Not simply because they are the prime antagonists […]

Mail &Guardian Reporter KWAZULU-NATAL attorney general Tim McNally has two targets in his sights at the moment: Magnus Malan and other generals acussed of “hit squad” activity; and the Mail & Guardian, accused of defamation. McNally this week served summons on the M&G, claiming R250 000. This arises from articles published in the M&G on […]

The Mail & Guardian and its journalists won a string of awards this year. The English Academy of Southern Africa awarded columnist Bafana Khumalo the Thomas Pringle Award for television reviews. The Kaiser Family Foundation named journalist Pat Sidley Health Writer of the Year. Literary editor Shaun de Waal (left) was runner-up in the Leserskring/Leisure […]

1 Which Constitutional Court judge has not served in the court since taking office in 2 Whom did air charter company Foster-Webb sue for R50 000 in November over the non-payment of a two-year-old bill? 3 At which South African university was a lecture interrupted by a student falling through the ceiling? 4 To which […]

Etienne Mureinik, one of the 13 academics who accused Professor William Makgoba, draws some harsh lessons from the controversy of the year As the year draws to a close, it is perhaps time to step back from the detail of the Makgoba affair, and ask what larger lessons it can teach. Three stand out. The […]