Eddie Koch The Truth and Reconciliation Commission this week faced challenges on three fronts just as it was gearing up to hear applications for amnesty later this month from agents who committed human rights abuses in the apartheid era. Firstly, the families of four murdered activists announced they will launch a Constitutional Court application for […]
By drafting all the top players into their teams, Australia and New Zealand are using the Super 12 competition as national trials RUGBY: Jon Swift TO the average New Zealander, defeat for the All Blacks in a Test series assumes the same sort of hysteria that the ovine form of mad cow disease would engender […]
New sponsors and new faces will greet cricket fans at the start of next season CRICKET: Jon Swift IN sport, very much as in life but in an abbreviated and upfront way, one year past brings with it the inevitable promise of the 12 months ahead. So it is with South African cricket. The game […]
Ann Eveleth The air force flights of former defence minister Magnus Malan and his co-accused in the Durban Supreme Court murder trial are saving the state about R7 000 each weekend, according to a South African Airways (SAA) estimate. South African National Defence Force (SANDF) spokesperson Lieutenant-Colonel Margie Neethling confirmed the fuel and maintenance costs […]
The play: Much Ado About Nonsense Cast: Makgoba, Van Onselen, Davis, Pityana, et al Verdict: New cast, old script. A political farce in two instances Critic: Frederik van Zyl Slabbert It is necessary to put this two-act political farce into the proper perspective. It was performed at smaller, lesser-known venues (I know that universities and […]
Ann Eveleth King Goodwill Zwelithini wants South African taxpayers to finance an extensive new royal bureaucracy to help him woo KwaZulu-Natal’s traditional leaders out of the political quagmire he led them into during decades of submission to Inkatha Freedom Party leader Mangosuthu Buthelezi. A royal budget proposal handed to former Provincial and Constitutional Affairs Minister […]
Jacquie Golding-Duffy Although the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) has increased its overall viewership on two of its three channels by a half-a-million viewers, the average daily time spent in front of the television has dropped since the relaunch. SABC 2 (the former TV1) is the only channel that dropped in overall viewership. It went […]
Jacquie Golding-Duffy Parliament recently had the nominations for the Independent Broadcasting Authority (IBA) councillors’ posts, bar one, thrown out. The nomination which was accepted and approved by the chief whip of the African National Congress was that of Lyndall Shope-Mafole. Shope-Mafole will have her contract renewed as she is already an IBA councillor. The other […]
Rehana Rossouw Government has gone cold on sculptor Danie de Jager’s “beacon of freedom” monument to liberation, freezing his hopes that his “special” relationship with President Nelson Mandela would see his 23m-high fist reach for the sky. Last week’s exclusive report in the Mail & Guardian on plans to build a gigantic monument modelled on […]
Stefaans Brummer BOTSWANA is rapidly expanding its defence force, bucking a trend of demilitarisation in Southern Africa and sparking fears that the region’s most peaceful country may be heading for instability. A controversial order of an estimated 50 tanks from the Netherlands this year follows closely on that of another 36 British tanks. Botswana, which […]