Gustav Thiel Safety and Security Minister Sydney Mufamadi’s plans to tie the entire police force into performance contracts could be throttled by a lack of funds. The plans, which Mufamadi unveiled in February, were vaunted as a key step toward lifting police performance – rewarding the good and punishing slackers – in a strategy designed […]

Steve Morris : Rugby As expected, Louis Luyt has shaken off the hands which would grasp the tiller of South African rugby administration and confirmed himself as the kingpin of the South African Rugby Football Union (Sarfu) by retaining his presidency. He did so in his accustomed imperious manner, ridding himself in the process of […]

Ann Eveleth The head of security at the SABC has dumped one of the broadcaster’s top private security firms after it blew the whistle on him. An internal SABC probe found that its protection services manager, Chris Solomon, had discussed employment with at least two companies while he negotiated the privatisation of SABC security operations […]

ANIMAL PICKETSANIMAL rights activisits picketed in Johannesburg on Saturday against Environmental minister Pallo Jordan, demanding that he resign for allowing a consignment of 40 baboons to be exported to a controversial French animal experiment laboratory. NOBODY NOTICES DIAZ The weekend marked the 500th anniversary of the event that launched the colonial age in Africa — […]

Marion Edmunds The Cape justice system was in the dock in Parliament this week when the province’s portly attorney general, Frank Kahn, was forced to acknowledge his impotence in the face of escalating gangsterism and crime. Angry Cape Flats residents filled the benches on one side of the old senate chamber, across the aisle from […]

V Roger Prabasarkar : Cricket Despite two wonderful victories against Pakistan and the West Indies on Monday and Tuesday, South Africa still had not made certain of a place in the final of the quadrangular one-day tournament, Hansie Cronje’s assertion to the contrary at the post-match prize giving function notwithstanding. With so many accidents befalling […]

Melvyn Minnaar : Potable pleasures Despite a multitude of folkloric fixes and other frivolities – or the remedies mothers-in-law dictate over the phone when the baby needs to be fed at dawn – there is no instant cure for the hangover. If you haven’t taken enough Essentiales or Prohep (that means a handful) the night […]

A new musical about the famous saxophonist Kippie Moeketsi is in rehearsal at Windybrow. Gwen Ansell watched It’s been said you can classify creative artists as Apollonian or Dionysian. The Apollonians are the cool intellectuals who think their shit out logically and fastidiously, eschewing guts and passion: it was probably their crew who invented New […]

Matthew Engel The current election is one that President Moi ought to lose. Coming from a small tribe, the Kalenjin, he has no natural power base and the three main tribes – the Kikuyu, Luo and Luhya – are all against him. To win on the first ballot, Moi needs a plurality rather than a […]