Eugene de Kock’s evidence in mitigation of his sentence this week centred on his background and childhood, reports Eddie Koch THAT the 1980s bush war in Namibia and Angola was South Africa’s Vietnam, a turning point in our history that left its mark in many different ways on the psyche of a generation of young […]

HAZEL FRIEDMAN went to two exhibitions that explore the latent art of historical documentation SO many stories to be told. So few ways of really telling them. This is the conclusion some viewers will draw after seeing Roger Meintjies’s visual essay on the Suez/Aida Project and Chinchona Project. Now don’t get me wrong. Meintjies, a […]

A healthy dose of chutzpah could transform the civic organisation into a leading empowerment company, writes Mungo Soggot THE South African National Civics Organisation (Sanco) has stopped throwing stones and is going into business. The radical anti-apartheid civic organisation is poised to move into the heart of capitalism when it branches out into direct insurance, […]

THE new Russian threat is no longer the massive weight of the Red Army but its pitiful weakness, while the enfeeblement of the Russian leadership is no less alarming. There is a sense of governing by mirrors as President Boris Yeltsin reassures the nation from his hospital bed. To be really heartened by the message, […]

Africa Investments Ltd, in THE MARK GEVISSER PROFILE Rhodes, Rupert, Ramaphosa WHEN Nthatho Motlana ann-ounced that Cyril Ramaphosa was to join his New Africa Investments Ltd (Nail) and lead the bid to acquire Johnnic from Anglo American, the Sowetan – wholly owned by Nail – put out a 40-page souvenir edition to commemorate the fact. […]

Connie Masilo-Matsunyane is one of South Africa’s hottest soap opera stars. BAFANA KHUMALO followed her trail and uncovered the real Connie SHE seems thrown by a voice on the other side of the cellular phone requesting, nay demanding with desperation, an interview the following day. But she recovers quite quickly, explaining that she can only […]

Stuart Hess MANY black students believe Professor Johan van Zyl should not lead Pretoria university – because he is white. Whites, according to some black students at the University of Pretoria, should not get the top job at tertiary institutions. Racism underpinned the student protest against the appointment of Professor Johan van Zyl as vice-chancellor […]

Bob Aldworth this week heralded the launch of his book on the Absa saga as an ‘invitation to a public hanging’, reports Mungo Soggot A FRESH broadside has been fired against Amalgamated Banks of Southern Africa (Absa) in a new book by former Absa executive Bob Aldworth. The Infernal Tower: The Damage to People, Careers […]

Gwen Ansell THE recent commemoration of Enoch Sontonga was long overdue. One hopes it isn’t too long before recognition comes to our great living composers – Mzilikazi Khumalo, for example. His Ushaka – on once only at the Durban City Hall on Thursday October 17 – plays with received notions about culture and appropriation. It […]

With Poland an The CzechRepublic as examples, the IMF predicts that Russia has the potential to outstrip European expansion, Alex Brummer in Washington WHEN the countries of the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe – including Russia – finally emerge from the transition to capitalism they could achieve growth levels on a par with much […]