Stefaans Brummer THE all-pervasive influence of South Africa’s securocrat chiefs in the mid-1980s — through an intricate web of covert propaganda projects — has been revealed in a classified State Security Council document released by former spy Craig Williamson. The 1984 document audits “strategic communication” (stratcom) projects run by the police, the military and the […]

Farouk Chothia KENYAN mediator Professor Washington Okumo said this week in an interview from Maputo that he had expected international mediation to take place in the aftermath of the April election in line with an agreement between the three major political parties days before the poll. Okumo brokered the agreement that saw the IFP enter […]

Shadley Nash EZEKIEL MSIZI cast his steely gaze over the paddock where a dozen or more cows were being milked with hi-tech electronic equipment. “We want to come home. The white farmers’ time is up,” he said. Msizi’s impatience signals growing discontent in the ranks of the Mfengu community over the fact that they are […]

Moveable Feast Marino Corazza FROM Benoni to Bedfordview, Florida to Ferndale, Swellendam to Sabi, cafes across the country are invested with same nostalgia. Their names refer to the places their owners emigrated from a long time ago — Mykonos, Apollo, Hellenic, Paphos, The Acropolis, like a travel brochure on Greece and the islands — while […]

Evidence of murders motivated by greed rather than revelations of political crimes dominated the first days of Eugene de Kock’s trial, writes Jan Taljaard BOGGED down in intricate legal argument for the first two days of proceedings, the Eugene de Kock trial did not look to be the curtain raiser to the “truth hearings” or […]

Inge Ruigrok THE Greater Johannesburg TMC this week granted welfare organisations a reprieve until June from the death blow of having to pay full municipal rates on their properties. The move was in response to pressure from the “Lobby Against Rates” — a delegation of Gauteng-based welfare organisations — and took the form of an […]

Chief Mangosuthu Buthelezi resorted to the politics of tantrums this week when he led a walkout from parliament. But more important than criticising this return to his pre-election ways is to understand why he is doing it and President Nelson Mandela’s somewhat limited options in dealing with it. The immediate concerns that lay behind the […]

Weekly Mail Reporter READY or not, Africus: The Johannesburg Biennale — South Africa’s debut on the global fine arts circuit — will be throwing open its doors to the public on Tuesday, February 28. With luck, buildings and roads will have been completed, a dignitary secured to make the opening speeches, and art works will […]

Is Chris Stals about to scrap the financial rand? Jacques Magliolo Looks into the rumours A statement by Reserve Bank governor Chris Stals this week fuelled rumours that the financial rand would be scrapped within weeks. However, according to a number of economists and analysts, the speculation seems optimistic. The finrand was introduced by the […]

Marketing Clive Simpkins IF South Africa is serious about hosting the World Cup and, more distantly, the 2004 Olympics, we’re going to have to rectify accommodation and infrastructure deficiencies. If not, our marketability as a big-event venue is at stake. I was in Cape Town for the opening of parliament. Weeks ahead, there was virtually […]