Khadija Magardie Mention the word “witch” and the imagination is likely to conjure up a host of images, ranging from black-shrouded spinsters bent over cauldrons to New Age hippies dancing naked in the moonlight. Few will expect them to be a group of rather pleasant-looking women and men, lounging around a garden patio with a […]

Robyn Hofmeyr was part of a small team which set out to make a film about women in war. They visited four regions: South Africa, Uganda, Israel and Palestine, and Bosnia. These are the survivors’ stories Our journey began in the Nkomanzi district of Mpumalanga where we heard the stories of displaced Mozambican women and […]

EGYPTIAN President Hosni Mubarak has been given a clean bill of health after undergoing a series of medical tests on his ear at a Paris military hospital, an Egyptian newspaper reported Thursday. “The tests confirmed he is fine,” the pro-government Al-Ahram newspaper said. Mubarak, who is due back in Cairo later Thursday, held talks with […]

Bill Gates’s embattled Microsoft was highly praised on Thursday by none other than former president Nelson Mandela.

Howard Barrell OVER A BARREL Are the South African working classes about to get the kind of leadership they need? Yes, if we are not being misled. For the signs are there that the leadership of the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) may be giving up on bombast in favour of intelligent engagement […]

Howard Barrell The Commonwealth Summit in Durban is being dominated by a confidential internal report saying the organisation should increase its powers to act against member states for human rights abuses. The document would pave the way for action against the governments of countries like Cameroon, Kenya and Zimbabwe if they did not improve their […]

Heather Hogan Police are investigating a charge of arson after St Peter’s church in Hermanus was vandalised in the early hours of the morning on Halloween. Reverend Dan Auret believes if he hadn’t arrived when he had, the church, the oldest in the town, would have burned to the ground. He is unsure whether the […]

Midi TV this week applied to the IBA to amend its licence conditions. Jubie Matlou attended the hearing Senior counsel Malcolm Wallis led a predominantly white male team that presented Midi TV’s licence amendment application before the Independent Broadcasting Authority (IBA) this week. Kuresh Patel, legal adviser to Midi TV CEO Marcel Golding, sat quietly […]

Ebrahim Harvey CROSSFIRE Let us say that the African renaissance is not a grand diversion from the serious post-apartheid problems that the African National Congress-led government faces, as some argue, and that it is a genuine attempt to resolve the deepening crisis in Africa. Because of this crisis – of which we are a part […]

Ivor Powell and Howard Barrell New light could be thrown on the assassination of Zambian opposition politician Major Wezi Kaunda if foreign diplomats accede to the dramatic courtroom request of one of two men arrested in connection with the murder. On Wednesday the suspects, speaking from the dock in preliminary hearings, called on embassy officials […]