Staff Reporter

Peter Dickson On the seventh day he rose from the dead, slipped on some shades and went to collect his life policy. It was an inspired move in the desperate north-eastern Cape town of Venterstad, but not enough for another miracle in the Queenstown Regional Court last week. Former Venterstad mayor Siphiwo Nqayi, who faked […]

independence While welcoming certain aspects of a draft legal Bill, law groups point out that it has crucial flaws Khadija Magardie The legal profession and the government are on a collision course over a plan to launch a regulatory body whose effective control will be vested in the minister of justice. The draft Legal Practice […]

Proposed anti-terrorism laws could see prescribed detention for anyone suspected of involvement with terror attacks Marianne Merten The government is pinning its hopes of stemming the wave of terror attacks in the Western Cape on new anti-terrorism laws giving security forces draconian powers. Justice officials say the draft Bill could be fast-tracked and tabled in […]

Andy Capostagno rugby It might not have occurred to anyone in a position of power in South African rugby, but Conrad Jantjes has just had his life rearranged. The Lions utility back, with Blue Bulls wing Rayno Hendricks, is at the centre of the row over quota manipulations. Jantjes is one of those rare talents […]

Stephen Gray When, in 1914, Henry Rider Haggard inspected Pietermaritzburg’s newly opened Voor-trekker Museum, including the Church of the Vow and so on, he recorded in his diary that it was suitably packed with interesting mementoes of none but the “old Dutch”. Nowadays its ambit is hardly as exclusive, as I visited it for one […]

Confusion reigns about the president’s exact stance on the link between HIV and Aids Belinda Beresford, Jaspreet Kindra and Nawaal Deane The African National Congress has launched a damage-limitation exercise to counter a groundswell of criticism in the scientific community, divisions in the ANC-led alliance and public bewilderment about its stance on HIV/Aids. Triggered by […]

couture set Charl Blignaut It was a classic case of a headline in search of a story, but still, South African Fashion Week (SAFW) will one day be grateful to journalist Craig Jacobs. He may have been the subject of more elegantly hissed expletives than any other hack in the history of local fashion, but […]

Khadija Magardie A controversial column by leading political scientist Steven Friedman has been axed from South Africa’s only Jewish newspaper with the approval of the country’s chief rabbi. The column, The Other View, appeared fortnightly in the South African Jewish Report until Friedman’s unorthodox views became too much of a “kvetsh” (bothersome or needling, in […]

The tripartite alliance has not patched up its differences ahead of the municipal elections, and deeper cracks remain Howard Barrell, Glenda Daniels, Jaspreet Kindra and Barry Streek Leaders of the ruling tripartite alliance came away from their meeting at a secret venue outside Johannesburg on Monday without having resolved any of the deep- seated policy […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Harare | Friday ZIMBABWEAN police have released four officials of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change who were arrested during a raid on party offices on Thursday morning. MDC youth wing chair Nelson Chamisa and Gandi Mudzingwa, personal assistant to MDC president Morgan Tsvangirai, and Join Nkatazo and Socks Ncube were released. MDC […]

Too many coaches in South Africa have an inflated opinion of their own worth Andrew Muchineripi Coaches of Castle Premiership clubs have got to rank among the most arrogant and overrated members of the highly paid, highly pressured group anywhere in the world. They all speak with such authority on the beautiful game, although precious […]

Merryman Kunene soccer Barcelona might pride themselves on being the only major club in the world without a shirt sponsor, but for most teams those words on their chests mean vital money in the bank. But what teams wear – or don’t wear – on the front of their shirts is a thorny issue, as […]

The controversy surrounding the John Robbie interview with the minister of health has clouded the real issues about HIV and Aids Timothy Trengove-Jones We are all familiar with the details of the case Minister of Health v John Robbie. We also all know the theory that history repeats itself, first as tragedy, then as farce. […]

AFP, Harare | Friday FOUR opposition officials have been arrested after police in Zimbabwe raided three offices of the main opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) in search of weapons. One of several lawyers representing the MDC, Brian Kagoro said “they (the police) have arrested and detained” four officials after the early morning raid found […]

The Victorian English public school – rather than the ancient Greeks – inspired Pierre de Coubertin, founder of the modern Olympics Mark Whitaker Taking a short cut recently in the centre of Tunis, a city I’ve known well for years, I found myself in an unfamiliar run-down street. It took some time to find a […]

By concentrating on quality the Film Resource Unit has broken away from the distribution greed factor Andrew Worsdale The fastest growing distribution concern in Southern Africa is the Film Resource Unit (FRU), which started less than 10 years ago as a project run by activists with a television, a VCR, a room and some plastic […]

Denise Ford President Thabo Mbeki appears to confuse the causes of immune deficiency and the specific syndrome associated with HIV/Aids in his interview with Time magazine. If he is quoted correctly in the article, he betrays a startling level of scientific ignorance. He says: “But the notion that immune deficiency is only acquired from a […]

HIGH Commissioner to the United Kingdom, Cheryl Carolus, has emerged as the African National Congress’s most favoured choice for mayor of Cape Town in the forthcoming local government elections, Business Day newspaper reports. An unnamed departmental official said he was aware of moves to end Cape-born Carolus’s tenure in London 18 months early so she […]

He gave up school at age 15 to concentrate on racing – and now he’s a motocross world champion at 17 Gavin Foster In 1998, his first year of 125cc motocross Grand Prix racing, Durbanite Grant Langston, then just 15, finished 35th in the world championships. Last year the youngster took a very impressive 10th. […]

Five lucky readers can each win Woodstock tickets. Call Tel: (011) 646 6441 on Monday September 18 between 9am and 9.30am and leave your name and number. The first caller will win a group prize that consists of four tickets to Woodstock, four Woodstock T-shirts, four Friedjam.com keyring and cap sets and 10 Friedjam.com music […]

Duvall Pettway and Kojo Baffoe fashion Local fashion has climbed to an all-time high with designers pulling out all the stops at the 4th annual South African Fashion Week (SAFW). September can be re- dubbed fashion month with the showing of spring/summer collections at various events hosted around Johannesburg. The season kicked off in full […]

Rupert Neethling With the arrival of Windows Millennium, home users are asking themselves whether they should shell out yet another couple of hundred rand for an upgrade. However, if you’re among those who would rather see how long they can keep on going with what they’ve got, you may be pleased to hear that with […]

Paul Edmunds preview OFTHEWEEK Purple is the colour of majesty, madness and celebration. Purple is also the colour of the dye used by the South African Police when they hosed down peaceful anti- apartheid demonstrators in what came to be called Cape Town’s Purple Rain incident of 1987. To conceive of an arts festival that […]

Peter Robinson cricket In a month during which nothing much is happening in South African cricket, the silliest row of the year broke out when Gauteng were persuaded to sulk in public at not being invited to a four-team bunfight at Kingsmead on October 1. SuperSport has put together a 25-over hit-and-giggle tournament as a […]

Communities in the Hex River Valley and Worcester have united in a way never seen before to save their livelihoods Barry Streek United protests against a proposed toll road between Worcester and the Hex River Valley, European concerns about ethical trading and a major crisis in South Africa’s table grape export industry could bring the […]

Conservative whites lack the cohesive political leadership that is necessary to lead them beyond the laager of exclusion Charles Villa-Vicencio ‘Every time a white person speaks in this conference, another white stands up and says he or she is not speaking for me.” An observation made at the recent racism conference in Sandton. At Stellenbosch […]

The Ethiopian Orthodox Church is a pawn in the hands of Ethiopian immigrants on conflicting sides of home country politics. Osita Nwajah reports You may mistake this for a local political gathering, if the things that you rely on to make a judgement are the red, yellow and green flag hanging above the speaker and […]

Tigana Jon Henderson Jean Tigana could have been excused for feeling nervous at the start of the Football League season. He knows as well as anyone that Mohamed al-Fayed’s munificence – a salary of about oe500 000 for the new manager and resources to buy players that no other first division club enjoys – comes […]

Thuli Nhlapo Zanele Mbeki, wife of President Thabo Mbeki, has emerged as a key player in a saga involving the erection of temporary housing that flouted government policy and tender procedures. The lawfulness of the housing settlement, in Leeuwkop, north of Johannesburg, was addressed in the Pretoria High Court this week. The court observed that […]

Ted Leggett a second look Minister of Safety and Security Steve Tshwete has blamed the Islamic group People against Gangsterism and Drugs (Pagad) for the long string of bombings that has plagued Cape Town. “I am absolutely convinced it is Pagad,” he has said, alleging that the attacks are part of an ideological campaign to […]

Win one of three pairs of season tickets for the KwaZulu-Natal Philharmonic Orchestra at the Durban City Hall. Call Tel: (031) 369E9477 between 9am and 9.15am on September 18 and answer the question: Where does the spring season take place?

pool Grant Shimmin in Sydney In a room in the Athletes’ Village adjacent to Sydney’s Olympic Park, there’s plenty of mutual encouragement going on. It’s a room shared by Brendon Dedekind and Ryk Neethling, two of the elder statesmen of the South African swimming team and, coincidentally, two of the biggest medal hopes. They’ve been […]