straits Jacquie Golding-Duffy THE South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) is caught between a rock and a hard place with a mandate tailored to serve the needs of a diverse audience, but a lack of funds to fulfill this goal. The mandate has put financial pressure on radio stations still under the SABC’s control. SABC general […]

Iden Wetherell in Zimbabwe AIR ZIMBABWE, once a profitable little airline with an on-time record, now has a reputation for delays and debt as poor management and political interference thwart viability. Part of the problem is President Robert Mugabe’s habit of requisitioning planes whenever he needs to travel abroad – often several times a month. […]

The way in which Thulamela has been excavated has marked a global breakthrough, reports Eddie Koch THE people who built Thulamela, a medieval citadel in the far north of the Kruger National Park that has recently excited fascination in local and international academic circles, will never know it. But they may have helped resolve one […]

THOUSANDS of children are living in terrible conditions in places of safety in South Africa – often without sufficient clothing and bedding at night, without proper educational facilities and in buildings that are unhealthy and unsafe – according to a recently released government report. Of the more than 6 000 children in reform schools, schools […]

Judith Havemann and William Claiborne in Washington THE first provisions of the complex new federal welfare law took effect on Monday, requiring states to begin denying food stamps to non-United States citizens in the initial phase of a process that will ultimately strip benefits from half-a- million immigrants. Efforts to enforce the new law came […]

Anthony Egan, SJ MICHAEL LAPSLEY – PRIEST AND PARTISAN: A SOUTH AFRICAN JOURNEY by Michael Worsnip (Ocean Press, R69,99) CONVENTIONAL boundaries between the genres of political and religious biography take something of a tumble in this generally excellent new book by theologian and church historian Michael Worsnip. His subject is Father Michael Lapsley, priest of […]

Was the arch-colonist a monster? Or is the script just being PC? And was he gay? Marion Edmunds reports THE BBC’s television series on Cecil John Rhodes – coming to South Africa early next year – has sparked fierce controversy over Southern Africa’s most famous colonist: was he saint, sinner or pervert? Or all three? […]

Hundreds have been harassed for being `witches’ in the Northern Province so far this year, and the number is growing. David Shapshak reports SOME looked sheepish, others defiant as 52 youths crowded into the Pietersburg Magistrate’s Court when the biggest-ever crackdown on witchcraft killings in the Northern Province began last Friday. The accused – all […]

David Beresford WHEN the United Kingdom’s Conservative government ann-ounced plans to launch its national lottery in 1992 – the last country to do so in Western Europe – nobody realised the extraordinary impact it would have on British society. With an estimated 65% of the population handing over their 1 every week in pursuit of […]

WE live in a solar-powered world, yet nearly two-and-a-half billion people are desperately short of energy with which to improve their existence. There are two energy crises: the one we know about, in which 21% of the world’s population guzzles 70% of the world’s commercial energy output, mostly in the form of pollution-causing fossil fuels. […]