Howard Barrell More National Party MPs are expected to follow the party’s Gauteng leader, Sam de Beer, who defected to the United Democratic Movement on Thursday. De Beer’s defection is further evidence of the disintegration of the once powerful NP and is a hammer blow to the fragile leadership of Marthinus van Schalkwyk. De Beer […]

What happens when a French philosopher decides to take on the truth commission? To find out, Chris Roper attended Jacques Derrida’s lecture on forgiveness at the University of the Western Cape `Pardon,” says the stylishly clad and devastatingly sexy Jacques Derrida. It is the first word of his lecture – one that will go on […]

William Boot Deputy President Thabo Mbeki’s intervention this week in Lesotho’s election crisis may prove too little, too late to head off disaster in the beleaguered kingdom. Mbeki, Minister of Foreign Affairs Alfred Nzo and Minister of Defence Joe Modise secured agreement from both the governing Lesotho Congress for Democracy (LCD) and the country’s major […]

Miles Keylock Live in Cape Town During the past two years close on 200 South African “rock” bands released CDs. Pretty staggering figures when you pause to think about it. What is perhaps more astonishing, is that not even 10% of these bands are heavy metal bands. And you’d be hard-pressed to find a local […]

Who is . . . Yasser Arafat? Angella Johnson Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat has received red-carpet treatment worthy of a state president during his official visit to South Africa this week. It is a long way from the days when he was viewed as the personification of Arab evil, described by former Israeli prime minister […]

Robert D Hershey Jr If actions speak louder than words, the person many consider the United States’s most astute stock-market investor seems to be whispering “sell”. While Warren E Buffett, the decabillionaire “Oracle of Omaha”, has always argued that market drops provide chances to scoop up bargains, his proposed acquisition of General Re, the US’s […]

Bread Heidi Clark Staff at a school for 250 former juvenile delinquents and street children in the Eastern Cape won a court interdict last week, preventing an attempt by the project’s trust to close it down. The children were facing eviction at the end of September from the institution which has been both their home […]

Exclusive Books recently bought rival chain Facts & Fiction. Shaun de Waal asks Exclusive Books MD Fred Withers what the implications are Exclusive Books and its owners, Mega,recently bought Facts &Fiction, your main rival in Gauteng, the province which accounts for the majority of South Africa’s booksales. Will you be closing any of the Facts […]

The European Union is trying to block the diamond smuggling route from Angola. Violence won’t be far behind. Dan Atkinson in Antwerp, Alex Duval Smith in Johannesburg and Owen Bowcott investigate It was an unpromising start to Europe’s tough new policy on diamond smuggling. Yards from Antwerp’s grand railway station, an African in traditional dress […]