The Robert McBride saga has been presented as an “embarrassment” for the South African government. As time goes by it is becoming apparent that it is far more significant than that. It seems to mask a major threat to national security and McBride is seem ingly not the culprit. For those familiar with the activities […]

‘Ma’am,” said John Edas with a dramatic pause, “motor racing is lily white. At Motor Sport South Africa there is only one person of colour – and that’s me.” The members of the parliamentary committee on sport and recreation looked on grimly as they pondered the difficulties of making motor racing a sport befitting the […]

FRIDAY, 9.00AM: THE North-West provincial government decided on Thursday to close Vryburg High School, scene of racial clashes between black and white pupils and parents. The scholl is effectively being closed early for the Easter holidays, which were to begin on April 1. Said David van Wyk, spokesman for North-West Premier Popo Molefe: “It was […]

Brett Davidson William Smith’s Learning Channel on SABC3 is probably one of the best-known educational programmes on television and one of the most controversial among educators. In its early days on TV, Smith’s channel incorporated hundreds of hours of recorded material, aimed at enlivening the learning experience, and helping students see the relevance of what […]

Mungo Soggot The Pretoria High Court has slapped a temporary interdict on Klerksdorp police who allegedly beat and tortured a robbery suspect. Eric Tshabalala, who has been awaiting trial since his arrest in January, says he was beaten and tortured with electric shocks. His lawyers from the Wits University Law Clinic say he has visible […]

Sylvia Brownrigg THE COLLECTED STORIES by Paul Theroux (Penguin, R54,95) Paul Theroux will go anywhere. He will willingly explore the blighted territory of a failing marriage; the tangled jungle of a mad poet’s secret anti-Semitism; the belated sexual guilt of a Hindu. In this great slab of his short fiction, Theroux is bolde r than […]

Krisjan Lemmer The management at the Dorsbult Bar had to send out for fresh supplies of sickbags this week, what with all the heaving going on among patrons over the Robert McBride story. Our old friend “Suiker” Britz rushed to Maputo and announced it was his considere d and unbiased opinion that the young diplomat […]

Robert Kirby: LOOSE CANNON I see The Great Professor Jay Naidoo is up to his Indian rope tricks again. Should racist-bashers bulge to the previous sentence, let rest. I use the term, Indian rope trick, in its flattering sense. As a part-time magician, I have only praise for illusi ons that both delight and confuse. […]

In less than 14 days the IBA will award the coveted free-to-air TV licence, writes Ferial Haffajee Most of the seven television bid companies were on tenterhooks this week. Many have invested millions of rands in the bid that will attract millions more in foreign investment. No matter who wins, the spin-off from the new […]

Stefaans Brummer Gauteng Premier Mathole Motshekga has spun a web of lies around an accident three years ago in which his luxury Toyota was wrecked. Afterwards, he ran up a car-finance debt of more than R140 000, but ignored a court order to settle. The inconsistencies appear to include perjury, when Motshekga insisted in an […]