One defeat provoked less than subtle expressions of white supremacy, two released emotions constrained by the excesses of the likes of Eugene de Kock and Craig Williamson. Naively increduluous they asked each other: “You mean our side did that? Well there was communism you know.” On the Talk At Will show, where they feel most […]

Ann Eveleth The Hartebeespoort local council agreed this week to consider an innovative land reform plan hatched by local farmers, but Broederstroom smallholder Roger Roman vowed to continue his hunger strike “until the process becomes unstoppable”. Roman launched his hunger strike on November 25 in a bid to force the conservative local council to kick- […]

Loose cannon: Robert Kirby When, in 1990, FW de Klerk made that watershed speech in Parliament, I wonder if he realised how, in doing so, he was snatching the rug from beneath the feet of innumerable and worthy white liberals, those long snuffled ranks of good souls who had been living so well for many […]

Maureen Barnes Down the tube Without wishing to rub salt into e.tv’s wounds, I noticed that all the recent press schedules for the troubled service show a daily half hour news bulletin at 7pm which hasn’t yet materialised. In its place was a British sitcom, the name of which I don’t know, followed by a […]

doubts Sechaba ka’Nkosi Former Transvaal attorney general Jan d’Oliveira confessed his doubts about the state’s case against the Eikenhof Three to the Chief Justice Ismail Mahomed as early as last September. However, exactly six weeks later, D’Oliveira surprisingly revoked his earlier stance, citing “certain consultations” and said he would oppose any application for remittal D’Oliveira […]

Ken Barris, who won the M-Net Book Prize for The Jailer’s Book, has just published a new novel. Shaun de Waal interviewed him via e-mail Your new novel, Evolution (Zebra) is not nearly as dense as The Jailer’s Book, either on the level of the prose and metaphor, or on the level of the narrative […]

The David Gleason Column This is the last column I shall write this year – and I have to say I’m rather glad 1998 has come to a writing end. It has been a brutal year for me personally, but also for many thousands of South Africans who have been trampled upon, caught by the […]

strength stuns MPLA Unita’s improved military strength is of growing concern to Angola and its neighbours, write Chris Gordon and Howard Barrell Unita military pressure on the government has escalated dangerously over the past week, prompting deep concern among neighbouring governments. A powerful Unita offensive, including tanks and heavy artillery, on forces at Kuito and […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Friday 6.50pm. THE South African “A” team which meets the touring West Indies at the Pietermaritzburg Oval on Saturday are certain to be in for some fireworks. The team, skippered by Gauteng wicketkeeper Nick Pothas, is woefully underprepared for the near-Test situation and half the team will only arrive in Pietermaritzburg […]

David Shapshak Spending It In science fiction, functional technology has long been integrated into mainstream culture as fashion. Technology has often been reinvented as fashion, witness what Bang & Olafsson have done for the dour hi-fi or Apple’s iMac for the home personal computer. The cellphone, that once distinctive sign of a yuppie, is going […]