Christopher Zinn in Sydney While Australia mourned the death of rocker Michael Hutchence at a funeral described as akin to a state event, police retracted their statement that it was a “straight case” of suicide in the light of the Sydney coroner’s report. Hutchence was found naked, hanging by a belt from a door’s self-closing […]

Angella Johnson Senior black managers in the South African Police Service (SAPS) warned this week that they are no longer prepared to accept widespread and endemic racism from white colleagues, and would strike if necessary to force the police to stamp out racism. Officers from national and provincial police structures met on November 2 to […]

Alex Bellos The Prodigy’s video for their single, Firestarter, was of singer Keith Flint grimacing in a tunnel – and holds the record of Britain’s Top of the Pops televison programme for number of complaints. For the band’s latest offering, the single Smack My Bitch Up, out went Flint and his frightening green-fins haircut and […]

The TRC Special Report is slim on resources but big on ideas, writes Gustav Thiel The team responsible for television’s award-winning TRC Special Report is watching the latest edition of their programme at the Brixton, Johannesburg home of one of the producers. Situated just under the SABC’s huge transmission tower, the room is quiet as […]

Donald McNeil reports on one of the greatest ostrich-smuggling scams of all time Timotheus Voges says he has gone straight these days, but there was a time when he was the most devious ostrich smuggler in Africa. He’s just another businessman now – like any other who owns 8 000 birds that dress like model […]

Is it true that a black face on the cover of a fashion magazine causes a 20% drop in sales? While many white South African models have made good overseas, we have yet to produce a black model to steal the limelight. But all that could be changing, writes Charl Blignaut You know that fashion […]

The TRC’s back-room fighter Ferial Haffajee Back-room boys become that way because they shy away from profiles like this one. Hanif Vally (42) is foremost among them. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s national legal officer doesn’t want to be profiled. “I’m not interested in that kind of thing,” he says. But his bounteous frame has […]

Interactive films may have finally found the plot, writes Jim McClellan There are two words guaranteed to reduce the average games player to a whimpering heap in the corner. Not “game over” but “interactive movie”. Back in the early 1990s, sections of the games industry thought mixing up full- motion video and linear narrative with […]

The end of the Asian miracle could lead to the collapse of governments in the region, writes Nicholas D Kristof As Asia’s miracle seems to fade to a mere marvel, many experts on the region worry that growing economic frustrations risk provoking political and social upheavals. The underlying challenge is that for decades an implicit […]

Andrew Muchineripi : Boxing South African boxing is on its death bed and the only doctor capable of resuscitating the sick patient is Minister of Sport Steve Tshwete. Matters were brought to the attention of the public, officials and the government with the resignation of the Gauteng Provincial Boxing Commission lawyer Mandla Mbongwe. Mbongwe alleged […]