Ivor Powell While Angola’s MPLA government continues to pursue its major offensive against Jonas Savimbi’s rebel Unita movement, recent events an ocean away could do more to influence the course of the 25-year civil war than any event on home ground. Though little information has been forthcoming from ongoing meetings of the newly inaugurated United […]

Howard Barrell OVER A BARREL Opposition, as I have argued before, is too important to be left to the opposition parties alone. We also need to encourage a culture of intelligent criticism within the ruling party – the African National Congress. This is particularly so in the case of its parliamentary caucus – if we […]

Shaun de Waal looks at some of the many Anglo-Boer War books The centenary of the start of the Anglo- Boer War (really the second Boer War – we won the first one, remember?) has seen a plethora of new books on the subject arrive on bookshop shelves. Alongside staples such as Thomas Pakenham’s great […]

Sergeant at the Bar The incidence of rape poses not only a threat to the women and children of this country, but to the very future of our constitutional state. For years we did not take seriously violence against women, particularly black women. Indeed we still have no reliable statistics of the incidence of the […]

THE son of Nigeria’s late military ruler General Sani Abacha, a top security aide and fellow defendants were charged on Thursday with the murder of the wife of late opposition politician Moshood Abiola. Mohammed Abacha, Major Hamza al-Mustapha and three others were charged in a packed Lagos magistrate’s court with the June 1996 killing of […]

The Yfm studio is hosting the cream of South African ragga. Charl Blignaut talks to two MCs who have become DJs It’s a curious scene, no matter how far from a police state we might have come. It’s a sunny Wednesday afternoon in a patently leafy Johannesburg suburb and we’re outside a building called the […]

Andy Colquhoun Rugby World Cup Once again the eager Springboks have been robbed of the reassuring sight of the Cary Grant of the South African game riding down the hill and into town. Sheriff Nick Mallett’s huge sigh of relief has been replaced by a tight- lipped grimace. Henry Honiball has again withdrawn at the […]

The legal claims of 3 000 South Africans against a UK-based asbestos company are spotlighting the issue of multinational companies’ accountability for activities in developing countries, writes Richard Meeran The United Kingdom Court of Appeal has acceded to Cape Public Limited Corporation’s requests to halt the claims of 3 000 South African asbestos victims of […]

Dave Hill BODY LANGUAGE Sorry to bring this up, but I think I’ve got a problem with mating. The thing is, since taking up with my partner five years ago, she is the only female I’ve managed to impregnate. True, I’ve done it twice, but if I’m to maximise my chances of generating offspring that […]

Wally Mbhele and Evidence wa ka Ngobeni The commissioner of correctional services, Khulekani Sitole, is embroiled in a new scandal following accusations that he has used more than R1,2-million of the department’s money to fund a lucrative scholarship he named after himself. The Department of Correctional Services says it has already spent R1-million of the […]