the cultural year The best and the worst of the continuity presenters PLENTY happened in SABC television this year. We had a relaunch with an unwieldy Jumbo jet and some awkward, second-grade, politically-correct United States TV actors. Felicia Mabuza Suttle looked pleased with herself. Stevie Wonder was asked to comment on the quality of South […]

“Barney, please! Resign! You’re incapable of doing the job! ” – Dennis Davis t o Barney Pityana, chairman of the Human Rights Commission “Johannesburg is a jungle. The problem in Beirut is political, not criminal .. . I feel much safer in Beirut than in Johannesburg.” – Lebanese ambassador Ch arbel Stephan, victim of an […]

One of South Africa’s most wanted hitmen Glen Chait committed suicide in priso n rather than face charges in Britain. The ebola virus claimed its first South African victim when Morningside clinic’s Marylin Lehana lost her fight agains t the horrifying virus. Photographer Mohammed Amin died in the crash of a hija cked airplane off […]

Angella Johnson Police in Ficksburg are proud of their latest crime-fighting weapon – a R46 00 0 aeroplane bought with funds raised by local people – almost as proud as they are of having beaten colleagues across the country to grab the coveted title of best community police station for 1996. The prize of R20 […]

After eight months on the streets, Elias was homesick. Thomas Khoza, a contrib utor to Homeless Talk, helped the streetchild find his way home again Elias, aged 10, came into our lives at 1am on a warm September night in Hillbr ow. He and three other street children were asleep on a patch of earth […]

Stuart Hess The coming of freedom in South Africa has spurred a growing movement among Afr ican-Americans to skip Christmas and instead to celebrate the festival of Kwan zaa. But in South Africa itself, the festival is unknown except to those who have l ived in the United States – and they do not seem […]

The crises besetting Africa’s most populous nation show how the West has turne d its back on the continent, writes Glenn Frankel WHEN Nigeria’s military government hanged the writer Ken Saro-Wiwa and eight o ther political activists in November 1995, world leaders such as Bill Clinton and Nelson Mandela reacted with shock, anger and the […]

Ann Eveleth Three former KwaZulu-Natal security policemen have applied to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) for amnesty, the commission’s chief investigator said this week. TRC investigator Satchie Govender confirmed reports that former Durban security policemen Colonel Andy Taylor and Captain Tjaart Fourie ‘ now with the TRC’s Witness Protection Unit ‘ and Pietermaritzburg policeman […]

Rehana Rossouw ‘I HAVE never been so satisfied with a job well done as I was today,’ said Tito Mboweni, minister of labour and African National Congress troubleshooter hours after witnessing the swearing-in of South Africa’s first woman premier, Dr Ivy Matsepe-Casaburri, this week. Round one went to Mboweni. Round two takes place in February, […]

Despite all the odds ‘against him, Andre Markgraaff’s Springboks have scored the points Rugby: Barney Spender Remember all those headlines eight weeks ago? The shock, the anger, the emotional outrage from pundits and public alike? The botched television announcement of the Springbok touring party? The absence of Francois Pienaar, the inclusion of Theo Oosthuizen, the […]