Staff Reporter

The curtain lifts on the new political year with the president’s state-of-the-nation address and the opening of Parliament. The lekgotlas and bosberaads that usually precede these two events, important though they are, amount to little more than the various parties learning their lines for the new year. There is, none the less, a sense of […]

Peter Robinson cricket Is Allan Donald’s head worth R1 000? His wicket certainly is if you are to believe Ray Jennings, the Easterns coach who dumped all over his young fast bowler Andre Nel last weekend for bursting into tears when he felled Donald. Ultra-competitive and ever-abrasive, Jennings was far less concerned about the fuss […]

MORE than 80 former Rwandan Hutu soldiers suspected of having participated in the 1994 genocide have been released from jail, the head of Kigali’s main prison said. The 84 were released because there was not enough evidence on which to hold them, Isidor Gahamanyi told journalists. They had been accused of taking part in the […]

The Nigerian dictatorship killed Ken Saro-Wiwa ensuring his lasting fame, as several new books show Chris Dunton Together with eight other activists campaigning for the economic and environmental rights of the Ogoni people, Ken Saro-Wiwa was executed by the Nigerian government on November 10 1995. Before his death he was already a prominent figure: a […]

Suzan Chala Mandrax and dagga are still the favourites among South Africa’s junkies, but heroin, cocaine and amphetamines pose a danger for the future, says the man who will head South Africa’s central drug authority, Frank Kahn, director of public prosecutions in the Cape. The government has produced a drug master plan making provision for […]

Barry Streek ‘Political tourism” provides huge economic benefits to the Cape Town region and Parliament is worth about R870-million a year to the local economy, according to the chief executive officer of Cape Metropolitan Tourism, Rick Taylor. The presence of Parliament in Cape Town ensures there is a steady flow of political tourism to the […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Friday FIGURES cited by President Thabo Mbeki as proof of a decline in violent crimes actually showed an upward trend in these offences, the SA Institute of Race Relations (SAIRR) said this week. The institute – which Mbeki named in an interview as the source of his crime figures – said […]

Sipho Seepe no blows barred In 1993 Donaldo Macedo, a scholar and follower of the Brazilian educator Paulo Freire, coined the phrase “literacy for stupidification” to describe the inability of many Americans to read the word and the world critically. This incapacity makes people susceptible to political manipulation through big lies. No amount of evidence […]

Robert Kirby CHANNELVISION I have this fear that at some stage, not too far into the South African future, a lot of people will be speaking the crude burlesque of English used in e.tv news bulletins. As a crucible of what might well be described “kitchen English”, there is no finer. Any bulletin from e.tv […]

Belinda Beresford Free anti-fungal drugs widely needed by people with HIV/Aids may be distributed within a few weeks, in line with an agreement signed two months ago by the Department of Health and the donor, drug company Pfizer. The Medicines Control Council has said it will decide next week whether to register the anti-fungal agent […]

AN Islamic court in Nigeria on Wednesday handed down the first-ever conviction against a Christian, who was flogged in the northern Nigerian city of Kano. Officials in Kano State, which introduced the Islamic law known as Sharia in November, had said it would apply only to Muslims. Nevertheless, an Islamic court on Wednesday convicted Alto […]

Deon Potgieter boxing Namibia’s biggest sporting export so far this new millennium, Harry “The Terminator” Simon, could be in for a rough time on Saturday night. Simon, the World Boxing Organisation (WBO) junior-middleweight world champion, makes the fourth defence of his title in Britain. He was to have faced Daniel Santos, the WBO welterweight world […]

Venda villagers sold contaminated paraffin are suing Engen and its agents Evidence wa ka Ngobeni Engen, South Africa’s biggest petroleum company, is facing a multimillion-rand lawsuit from residents of a little village where a person died and many suffered severe trauma after paraffin lamps exploded in their homes last year. Lawyers representing the villagers of […]

Jubie Matlou Schmidtsdrift lies in the middle of nowhere, tucked away in thorny acacia bush about 80km south of Kimberley. The route to the tent township, as the area is commonly known, is not signposted, save for roadside signs warning of roaming game kudu, guinea fowl and donkeys. However remote it may be, Schmidtsdrift was […]

A 76-year-old American attempting to become the oldest person to sail alone around the world was rescued by a container ship after his yacht sank off South Africa’s southwest coast. Dave Clark, from Florida, arrived in Cape Town about a month ago on his yacht Mollie Millar, accompanied by his dog Mickey, after setting out […]

Edward Helmore Her mother is a famous photographer and her father, a former Black Panther, was a convicted murderer. She’s precociously bright, unfailingly sensitive … and nine years old. Sahara Sunday Spain is the United States publishing industry’s latest sensation. As her first book of poems went on sale last week, the New York Times […]

Paul Kirk Big brand name holders in South Africa were in an uproar this week as KPMG one of the world’s top auditing companies refused to take action against an allegedly crooked director who is accused of running a massive scam involving counterfeit goods. The director, Johan Beets, was mandated to investigate customs violations and […]

Suzan Chala South Africa is soon to get its first Aids village the second country after Botswana to provide a space for people with the deadly disease to live out the rest of their lives as productive people. Construction will start this month in Roodepoort outside Johannesburg on land donated to an interdenominational ministry, Sparrow […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Cape Town | Friday BATTERED on the domestic front, President Thabo Mbeki will today seek to win back lost ground when he delivers a state-of-the-nation address that is expected, among other things, to focus on South Africa’s rural poor. The president is expected to unveil an integrated and sustainable rural development strategy, identifying […]

Although several first division referees were suspended after a disciplinary hearing into match-fixing this week, not all the men in the middle deserve the abuse directed at them Andrew Muchineripi Just when the Castle Premiership was bursting into life with the prospect of a thrilling finish to the title race, a new menace has emerged […]

Judith February and Lynne Abrahams The furious pace of legislating that characterised the first four or five years of South Africa’s democratically constituted Parliament has tapered off and last year saw far less legislation passed. Instead, a lot more time is spent monitoring legislation already in place. Amendments or regulations are passed to facilitate the […]

David Macfarlane Staff at Vista University, who are withholding their identities for fear of victimisation, have sent a letter to President Thabo Mbeki, Minister of Education Kader Asmal and Parliament’s public accounts committee detailing a horrific history of mismanagement, embezzlement of funds, abuse of power and nepotism at the university. The letter recalls the hopes […]

ALGERIAN troops carried out civilian massacres while disguised as rebels, shot suspects dead in cold blood and tortured rebels to death during the dirty war against Islamic militants in the 1990s, a former officer claims in a new book. The shocking allegations sparked calls for an international inquiry into the conduct of the former military […]

Catherine Woeber the coyaba chronicles: reflections on the black experience in the 20th century by Peter Abrahams (David Philip) Coyaba is the name the writer Peter Abrahams gave to his home in the hills above Kingston, Jamaica, in which he settled with his wife Daphne in 1956. It signifies a place of refuge and tranquillity, […]

Gwen Ansell theatre It’s 20 years since Gibson Kente’s Mama and the Load played at the Market Theatre. So the playwright/director’s return last night with his new play,?Ezakithi (It Is Us), was something of an occasion. But although it won him a standing ovation from much of the audience and gave him a chance to […]

Maureen Freely Body Language Do you ever look at your husband when he’s fast asleep and wish he were someone else? If you answered yes, Laura Doyle, America’s new self-help queen, has some bad news for you. The person you should be blaming is yourself. The biggest mistake you ever made was throwing away your […]

David Macfarlane and Glenda Daniels The hot seat of Wits University vice-chancellor looks set to be occupied for the first time by a woman. Two of the three shortlisted candidates are women: Professor Leila Patel, currently Wits’s deputy vice-chancellor and vice-principal, and Professor Norma Reid, deputy vice-chancellor of the University of Plymouth in the United […]

The Forum for Debating Aids in South Africa responds to ‘All the president’s scientists diary of a round-earther’ On September 8 2000 the Mail & Guardian published an article entitled, “All the president’s scientists diary of a round-earther”. On December 14 2000 the Appeal Panel of the Press Ombudsman decided in favour of a complaint […]

Pat Schwartz food They do everything better in Cape Town. We know this because Capetonians keep telling us they do. So when I set off to compare the buffet lunches at Cape Town’s Melissa’s and Johannesburg’s The Service Station, I expected to return home humbled and destined to be perpetually dissatisfied. Not at all! Melissa’s […]

A ruling to reinstate workers has stirred debate over the Labour Relations Act Glenda Daniels The controversial Volkswagen South Africa (VWSA) arbitration ruling to reinstate 1300 workers who went on an illegal strike a year ago is exposing serious flaws in labour legislation. It also reinforces a disturbing trend in which courts are failing to […]

EXACTLY a year after torrential floods caused over R70m worth of damage in the world renowned Kruger National Park, the park unveiled its new Riverside luxury chalets in Skukuza on Wednesday. On February 7 last year floods destroyed roads and infrastructure in the park and washed away chalets along the Sabie River in Skukuza camp. […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Kinshasa | Thursday IN a sprawling mansion protected by North Korean tanks and heavily armed Zimbabwean soldiers, with a waiting room full of sleepy guards, President Joseph Kabila said on Wednesday he was ready for peace – but on his terms. The young leader, who is in his late 20s, has promised to […]