Andy Capostagno Rugby It is something which the Americans realised early. If you’re going to play games regarded as little more than school-yard pastimes in other countries, best you instil a sense of tradition sooner rather than later. The Superbowl is all of 30 years old, yet it is spoken of with awe, to quote […]

redistribution’ Derek Hanekom Ann Eveleth’s article “Land reform targets are far, far away” (Monitor, June 5 to 11) ignores the remarkable progress we have made in the past four years and the complexity of land-reform processes. The central argument is that we will never meet “the reconstruction and development programme promise to redistribute 30% of […]

David Beresford It was j’accuse flavoured with a dash of mea culpa when Adriaan Vlok this week appeared before the Truth and Reconciliation Commission to explain how he contributed to “law and order” by blowing up office blocks and cinemas. Vlok, who was minister of law and order between 1986 and 1994 – the most […]

Ferial Haffajee As former law and order minister Adriaan Vlok came clean before the Truth and Reconciliation Commission this week, a smaller act of absolution was happening in Potchefstroom. Willem Boshoff, a destitute 58-year- old, has apologised to journalists Laurence Gandar and Benjamin Pogrund for his role in a trial which chalked up a dark […]

Claudia H Deutsch from New York For years now, environmentalists have tried to persuade investors to eschew putting money into companies that pollute. Not surprisingly, Wall Street has sneered, insisting that a good way to maximise shareholder wealth is to minimise environmental costs. But now the do-gooders are confronting the money folk with evidence that […]

Tangeni Amupadhi Armed robbers have gone cerebral. Second-hand bookshops are the latest targets for an enterprising criminal duo who have hit at least six outlets in the past six weeks. The smartly dressed men, armed with their own “closed for business” sign, have made off with an undisclosed amount of money and left behind few […]

Neil Manthorp in Nottingham Cricket Napoleon may have been a great general but it doesn’t mean to say he would have been as successful today as he was then. Nonetheless, the study of Napoleon remains as intrinsic to the modern soldier as it is to the student of European history. The same applies in sport […]

Advocates rarely make sensational statements out of court, the Bar being a profession which prides itself on discretion and aloofness. So it was not an impulsive decision on the part of the General Council of the Bar to hit out last week at the appointment of South Africa’s first “super attorney general”, Bulelani Ngcuka. Ngcuka’s […]

Mariam Mayet The draft Environmental Management Bill (“Putting the people in charge”, Monitor, July 17 to 23) marks an extremely important departure from previous environmental policy and legislation. Unlike most current environmental legislation, which has been criticised for being a paper tiger, this Bill contains provisions that empower citizens to take up the cudgels for […]

Wally Mbhele Truth and Reconciliation Commission officials claim police Superintendent Frans ”Lappies” Labuschagne, accused of a series of assassinations of senior African National Congress members in Swaziland, has applied for amnesty. Labuschagne, also suspected of involvement in setting up foreign affairs director Robert McBride for arrest in Mozambique, is believed to have announced this bombshell […]