Robert Kirby LOOSE CANNON Last week yielded another of his feared public tantrums from Mr Mbeki’s chief soothsayer, Mr Mankahlana – or as he’s affectionately known these days, “South Parks”. In his newest ragings Mr Mankahlana described those who disagree with the president on the HIV/Aids issue as his “assailants”. I have to agree. With […]

Stephen Gray To the wilder north of the Aughrabies Falls is another reserve area, also with a complicated history, and at last opened for tourists of the hardier breed. This is no place for sissies in sedans, for there are no air-conditioned chalets with fine-menu restaurant, good shop and well- marked walks. You should use […]

Jonathan Watts in Seoul Asian policymakers have moved closer towards accepting the need for improved social safety nets in the wake of a financial crisis that has worsened regional inequality and shaken the belief that economic development alone can alleviate poverty. At a forum in Seoul last week, finance ministers and leading economists from Apec […]

Fourteen years after coming to power in Uganda, President Yoweri Museveni remains unswerving about the course he has embarked on John Matshikiza My first encounter with Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni took place in the romantic atmosphere of a guerrilla army in boisterous and compassionate occupation of captured territory. It was March of 1997, and the […]

Paul Kirk More details about the intelligence services’ complicity in KwaZulu-Natal political violence came to light this week when it emerged that a top army spy held secret meetings with one of Richmond’s most notorious killers while the killer was being hunted by police. Bob Ndlovu, otherwise known as “Comrade Bob”, was once described by […]

THE ACT Brumbies on Thursday named an unchanged side for Friday’s Super 12 match with the Otago Highlanders in Canberra. ACT coach Eddie Jones unsurprisingly stuck with the same starting 15 that trampled the Cats 64-0 a week ago to lift the Brumbies into third place on the standings, just a point behind the Highlanders. […]

Lebohang K Moleko T he report “SA’s Lesotho massacre ‘cover- up’” (March 20) says “silence surrounds a massacre in Lesotho by South African paratroopers, straining relations between the two countries”. Eighteen months ago, Southern African Development Community (SADC) forces came to Lesotho when three opposition parties, with the assistance of elements of the Lesotho Defence […]

Anglo-American has driven a hard bargain for the mines it acquired in the Zambian Copperbelt last week Gregory Mthembu-Salter In a historic ceremony last Friday in Lusaka, Anglo- American regained the major mines of Zambia’s Copperbelt, including Konkola Deep. A consortium led by First Quantum Minerals (FQM) acquired the Mufulira and Nkana mines on the […]

The SABC’s African Language Radio stations are probably an anomaly peculiar to the South African radio industry. Between them, they use nine of the country’s 11 languages. Last November, the stations enjoyed roughly 70% of radio’s 23,8-million adult listeners, with the largest of these belonging to the Zulu-language Ukhozi fm (5,5-million), followed by the Xhosa- […]

Ebrahim Harvey CROSSFIRE The Civil Society Initiative launched recently by Roelf Meyer and Ray McCauley, head of the Rhema Church, is significant, if only because it highlights, more than anything else, the decline of South African civil society over the past few years. Vital to building a vibrant democracy is an active and involved civil […]