Wetsho-Otsile Seremane Personal History The Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s decision not to hold public hearings on human rights violations by some African National Congress members in Quatro and other camps (“TRC ducks Quatro”, June 26 to July 2) is shocking, to say the the least. It is a slap in the face for those families […]
Consider comfort as well as cost when you choose an airline, writes Belinda Beresford Legs all the way up to heaven may be considered desirable in some quarters, but they are a definite problem when it comes to flying. Cramped legroom ranks up there with the lousy food and disgusting toilets in economy class. Given […]
Superficially, the former minister of law and order, Adriaan Vlok, may appear to be deserving of some credit for his performance before the Truth and Reconciliation Commission this week. Unlike his former colleagues (Magnus Malan, the former minister of defence, is one name which stands out starkly), he at least had the guts to face […]
Robert Kirby: Loose Cannon It has taken France – at long last – to realise Oscar Wilde’s famous parody of a dreary Victorian homily. Wilde turned the phrase around and made it: “Work i s the curse of the drinking classes.” What French bureaucracy is now doing is realising controversial legislation that will reduce the […]
Anthea Garman experienced the !Xoe Site Specific exhibition around Nieu Bethesda in the Karoo `Do you have a believable sense of place?” is the simple, cheeky, and only bit of written information about the first installation we stop to see outside Nieu Bethesda. This is artwork number five by Marco Cianfanelli and we’ve chosen to […]
Howard Barrell Over a Barrel You don’t have to be a fluent Afrikaans- speaker to know that an oorleg committee is not the same as an oorlog committee. The former seeks consultation; the latter war. A Cape Town English-language newspaper, however, got them mixed up recently. Some of us might even say the confusion was […]
Tangeni Amupadhi A Northern Cape doctor has called for the mandatory use of protective clothing after an outbreak of chemical poisoning affecting dozens of farmworkers. Many labourers in the Kakamas and surrounding areas have fallen ill during the past month after coming into contact with Dormex, which contains a highly toxic chemical called cyanamide. The […]
David Shapshak South Africa’s strength in science gives it a prime position to help drive scientific development and research in Southern Africa, says one of the United Nations’s top science officials. Professor Maurizio Iaccarino, assistant director general for science of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (Unesco), was in South Africa this week […]
Tamar Mason Right to Reply Visualise the following scenario: bored and out-of-scandal journalist sits at an airport and notices the only eye- catching tail design on the tarmac. He takes a closer look. Ah, an unusual sounding name. Further investigation reveals that the artist is none other than a San woman. Immediate conclusion: she’s been […]
showing Brenda Atkinson wonders why ads in trade magazines are so bad – and who creates these sub-standard promotions I was paging through a copy of Engineering News recently. I know less about engineering, but I maintain a healthy interest in a wide variety of topics, and have been known to frequent garages and hardware […]