Take part in the 2000 FNB Vita Art Prize nominations. The often controversial competition was introduced in 1996 in response to the need for wider acknowledgement of South Africa contemporary art. Put yourself in line to win a holiday for two, to a local destination, by nominating any artist countrywide for the FNB Art Prize. […]

Police Commissioner George Fivaz may not have been telling the whole truth when he branded Deon Mostert a liar, report Ivor Powell and Marianne Merten Deon Mostert, the man National Police Commissioner George Fivaz branded a “chronic liar”, passed a lie-detector test administered by police counter-intelligence less than six months ago. Mostert, detained last week […]

Marianne Merten Urban terror is proving a boon for personal injury lawyers in Cape Town. This week, a group of policemen lodged a civil claim for almost R500E000 against People Against Gangsterism and Drugs (Pagad) for injuries the officers claim they sustained in a clash three years ago. The officers were wounded at the end […]

Steven Friedman WORM’S EYE VIEW Sometimes principle is more of a paying proposition than pragmatism. The welcome afforded Ethiopia’s former dictator Mengistu Haile Mariam and the Dalai Lama’s frosty reception have focused attention again on principle (or lack of it) in our foreign policy. For some, being nice to dictators and dictatorships is a small […]

David Le Page and Khadija Magardie Extraordinary powers to tap cellphone calls and Internet communications are on the way for South Africa’s security services following proposals by the South African Law Commission to amend bugging legislation. Among the proposals are: l Forcing cellular networks to purchase extremely expensive monitoring equipment l Establishing permanent centralised monitoring […]

The marque of the cat returns to Formula One racing, as Jaguar becomes the latest manufacturer to pursue sales through the phenomenal success of the sport, writes Paul Weaver Jaguar, after a catnap worthy of Rip van Winkle, is back in motor sport. The famous marque, which in the 1950s won a considerable reputation at […]

grows up Paul Allott Cricket When Mornantau “Nan-tie” Hayward, South Africa’s latest bowling discovery, first attracted the national selectors’ attention it was for one reason only. He was fast. In 1998 Hayward was picked for the tour of England, a speculative choice that showed immense potential. That potential has taken two years to develop, a […]

Can a computer write fiction as good as that written by a human? Judge for yourself by going to InstantNovelist.com/human.html. Posted on the site are five 500-word stories, four written by humans, but a fifth by Brutus.1, a fiction-writing program developed by the Minds and Machines Laboratory. Only 25% of site visitors have identified it. […]

If the world does end on December 31, at least it will be having a good time. Christina Goumeas and Marthali Brand survey the globe’s millennial celebrations The first permanently inhabited place to see in the millennium officially is Pitt Island, part of the Chatham Islands, 850km east of New Zealand. Just 55 people, thousands […]

Hutu detainees are fighting disease and hunger in concentration camps, while the Burundi army blocks attacks on the capital, writes Chris McGreal Josephine Ntahuga fears her son is dead. He was among 350 000 Hutus herded by Burundi’s army into dozens of camps beyond the capital, Bujumbura. Then he vanished. The army said he must […]