Philippa Garson CONSTRUCTIVE steps to solve Wits University’s crisis were taken at this week’s council meeting, and indications are that all parties to the dispute have agreed on a way forward. The council has mandated four of its high- profile members — Nthato Motlana, Enos Mabuza, Bobby Godsell and Ken Maxwell — to revive the […]

Rehana Rossouw The prostitute’s corpse was found buried upside down in bushes near Milnerton in November 1995, her legs and buttocks protruding above the ground. The post mortem revealed she had probably been buried alive. This month another body was found in bushes near Durbanville, and police announced a serial killer was on the loose […]

ROCK: Hazel Friedman A STRANGE sense of dej vu permeated last weekend’s Crosby Stills and Nash concert in Johannesburg. Attended by a small but frenzied crowd of followers, the show served as a nostalgic reminder of an era which, for many South Africans, was like the sexy older woman next door. We were the pimply, […]

Edwina Spicer spoke to Margaret Dongo, the woman who took on Robert Mugabe and his Zanu PF party, and won ‘WILL someone remove this barking dog from our midst” President Robert Mugabe is reported to have said of Margaret Dongo, MP for Harare South, during the run-up to Zimbabwe’s general elections last year. Dongo lost […]

The SABC will have to rewrite its television licence application with the IBA’s assistance, writes Jacquie Golding-Duffy The SABC’s application for an amendment to its television licences — hastily submitted during a stand-off with the Independent Broadcast Authority — is fraught with errors and will be declared null and void. The corporation will then attempt, […]

Crispin Pemberton-Pigott I wonder if you up in Johannesburg could hear us rolling off our chairs in laughter as we read Patrick Bond’s ad hominem response (M&G January 12 to 18) to Dominic Tweedie’s compelling argument for the provision of land first (and fast) to the homeless (M&G January 5 to 11). We who, like […]

The housing crisis: Three lively responses to this newspaper’s recent coverage Simplistic solutions to the housing crisis will bring unintended results — such as the apartheid-style settlement of the poor away from cities, argues Dr Angela Tait It is beginning to sound rather hollow to blame the housing shortage on the backlog inherited by the […]

Eddie Koch and Mehlo Mvelase Police either colluded in the Christmas Day massacre at Shobashobane or are guilty of negligence in the run-up to the attack that left 19 people dead in the KwaZulu-Natal village, according to a television documentary to be broadcast by SABC’s Agenda programme on Sunday night. The documentary includes strong criticisms […]

Brendan Martin questions who will benefit from privatisation of state assets There would have been no prizes for predicting, a year or two ago, that the fragile unity of the new South Africa would founder on government action to secure “black economic empowerment”. But how many sages foresaw that it would be the ANC’s alliance […]

South Africans are not alone in grappling with the balance between the financial pressures to boost its arms trade, and the cost to human rights. Britain this week deported Saudi dissident Mohammed al-Mas’ari to Dominica instead of considering his application for asylum. He had not breached any condition for political refugee status. It was not […]