Christmas shoppers may be keen to avoid the shops this year, but are there any gifts available on the Internet? Ann Eveleth reports South African Christmas surfers on the Net are likely to be disappointed again this year, with few options for local shopping as retailers take a cautious approach to virtual marketing. Apart from […]

festive season Stuck in Jo’burg over Christmas and new year? Bridget Hilton-Barber provides some good ideas for things to do 1 Top Star Drive-In. Just because the council can’t afford to switch on the Christmas lights in downtown Jo’burg this year, doesn’t mean festive Gauties should go without a spectacle. The Top Star drive- in […]

The researcher who spoke too soon Lizeka Mda Olga Visser is so surprisingly ordinary she easily fits the stereotype of home-maker. But that would be far from the truth. For one thing, this mother of six does not cook, and her husband Zigi swears she is a hopeless slob. Which is all very well as […]

Neil Manthorp : Cricket South Africa’s double-whammy victory over Australia in the last week, defending scores of 200 and 170 in 50 overs on awkward rather than impossible pitches in Sydney and Melbourne, has left this proud (all right then, arrogant) country nursing a wretchedly bruised ego. It is one thing to lose a battle […]

empowerment Madeleine Wackernagel : Taking Stock If it weren’t so tragic, it would be farcical. The great black empowerment dream has turned to dust – and not just because of the slump in the gold price, which, granted, didn’t help. What transpired at the JCI board meeting this week is a tale of mismanagement and […]

worst enemy The Truth and Reconciliation Commission is hesitating over a decision whether to subpoena members of the judiciary to appear before it following their failure to do so voluntarily. The hesitation apparently results from indications by the Bench that such a move would represent a constitutional challenge to the independence of the judiciary and […]

Andy Duffy The man who killed a Dutch pensioner and stuffed the dismembered corpse into a suitcase is to take legal action against the Department of Correctional Services for transferring him to controversial high- security prison C-Max. Jano Nortje, convicted last year of murdering a 76-year-old Dutch family friend, and triple murderer Casper Kruger were […]

Sechaba ka’Nkosi and Wally Mbhele Never in its history has the African National Congress approached its national conference as deeply divided as the party appears to be at the moment. The greatest challenge the ANC faces next week is not from its opposition, but its membership. President Nelson Mandela’s departure as ANC president is already […]

Trevor Lawson Just when you thought it was safe to go back on the motorway in your lead-free petrol, fuel-efficient, catalytic-converted car, along comes a report which suggests that your exhaust pipe is just the tip of a very noxious pollution iceberg. According to a report by a British environmental group, vehicles, like people, decay […]

Don Mkhwanazi continues the Central Energy Fund’s tradition of non-accountability, writes Mungo Soggot The Central Energy Fund’s handling of Emanuel Shaw II’s appointment to a lucrative state job signals disturbing levels of cronyism in this key state institution. The chair of the fund, Don Mkhwanazi, vouched for Shaw in the Liberian politician’s application for permanent […]