Marion Edmunds Pragmatism has defeated romance at Villiera Wine Estate just outside Stellenbosch, where wine-maker Jeff Grier has swapped natural corks for synthetic stoppers to seal his cheaper bottles of wine. While some wine aficionados have decried the move as a tragedy for South African wine drinkers, others are praising Grier for bravery. They are […]

Rupert Murdoch is way ahead of his media competition. Henry Porter wonders if anybody realises his power IN Full Disclosure, Andrew Neil’s telling account of his life as a Murdoch editor, he reveals that Rupert Murdoch’s presence is so strong in News International that he appears to his executives in their dreams. It’s a pity […]

Gauteng throws its investigation nets wider after shocking revelations from matric cheats, reports Andy Duffy Confessions from Gauteng’s matric cheats this week have prompted the province to widen its investigation to include the elite academics who drew up the exam papers. Gauteng Education MEC Mary Metcalfe told the Mail & Guardian that statements from several […]

Martyrdom would be the best way for the hostage-takers in Peru to secure change, argues Richard Gott THERE is a long and honourable tradition of guerrilla activity in Latin America that has ebbed and flowed over decades and centuries. Independence from Spain in the early 1800s would never have been successful without the innumerable guerrilla […]

redundancies THE Education Ministry is struggling to determine whether its drive to reshape state schooling has achieved much more than lose South Africa thousands of experienced state teachers and unnerve those who remain. Pressure is growing on the ministry -even from its own officials – to rethink the programme, which is supposed to redeploy teachers […]

Leon de Kock The Road Out by Dan Wylie (Snailpress, R34) Dan Wylie is one of those hopeless romantics whose CVs include, as a matter of necessity, extended detours into solitary, footloose travelling, shunting, ship- crewing and intermittent writing. Eventually these voyagers return to one of the points of departure, get a job teaching or […]

The proposed special deal for KwaZulu-Natal is a serious threat to the rule of law, says deputy chair Alex Boraine. Ann Eveleth reports KwaZulu-Natal’s “special amnesty” proposal would undermine the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s current amnesty process, promote a culture of impunity and pose a serious threat to the rule of law, the commission’s deputy […]

source Anthony Heard GEORGE heard covered Parliament for the Rand Daily Mail. He published a remarkably accurate account of the national Budget two days before it was delivered. I have never been able to find out from whom George got the information, although I have suspicions. The forecast was too accurate to have been totally […]

Two key media figures are at each other’s throats prior to the truth commission’s probe into the press, writes Jacquie Golding-Duffy The Freedom of Expression Institute and its chair, Raymond Louw, have come under fire for volunteering to assist the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) in its investigation of the media. The Black Editors Forum […]

A senior South African journalist tells the story of how, as a young reporter in the apartheid era, he was delegated to act as a guide to Eartha Kitt, showing her around Cape Town. The reporter (white) was sitting in the back seat of a chauffeur-driven car with the great singer, lecturing her on the […]