Staff Reporter

Loose cannon: Robert Kirby Following a hot tip-off, last week I wangled permission to visit the maximum security dungeon of a well-known South African prison. I went there to interview a leading activist in jail factions, a man currently serving 243 years for a variety of hideous outrages, particularly against several octogenarian blind nuns in […]

Jane Rosenthal VERLIESFONTEIN by Karel Schoeman (Human & Rousseau) The grave of a young war hero killed in an Anglo-Boer War skirmish is what the narrator of this novel, an historian, is looking for. He and his photographer are heading for a cemetery in a Northern Cape dorp. Although the narrator dismisses as limited the […]

no African renaissance’ Despite its limited resources, South Africa stands to gain by developing its own HIV vaccine, instead of waiting for the West to provide, writes Lesley Cowling More than 25 clinical trials of different types of vaccines against HIV – the virus that causes Aids – are under way all over the world. […]

Not CD of the week: Sheryl Garratt Happiness is largely a matter of perception. But if the world is split into optimists who see a glass as half- full and pessimists who see it as half- empty, then Canadian singer-songwriter Alanis Morissette goes further: she sees the glass as a dangerous weapon that will inevitably […]

answered Jann Turner Friday: After a month, I have a whole day off. I’m ready for a day paying off bills. I’m feeling strong, so I start with the post office. Eventually I get to the service-with-a-scowl teller and I pay my phone bill. I’m two-and-a-half weeks late, but hell, that’s not long – is […]

Maureen Barnes Down the tube There is no crisis. That’s what Dr Khulu Mbatho from the Department of Home Affairs said to Chris Gibbons about our electoral . if you’ll pardon the expression . arrangements. Well it depends, of course, on your definition of crisis. Compared to the San Franscisco earthquake, the bubonic plague and […]

Andy Capostagno Cricket South Africa’s selectors may be justified in believing that the first and most difficult hurdle has been surmounted. The four-wicket win against the West Indies at the Wanderers will have settled a lot of butterflies in a lot of stomachs. If there was going to be a fast pitch in this series […]

DENIS BARNETT , Sun City | Thursday 9.00pm. ZIMBABWEAN Nick Price, chasing his third million dollar prize here, mastered the blustery conditions to lead the Million Dollar challenge in Sun City by two shots overnight. Price’s first round 67 took him clear of the chasing pack of Mark O’Meara, Justin Leonard, and Bernhard Langer — […]

When structuring a salary package, negotiate on your net salary, writes Belinda Beresford It’s great getting a new job. But just because you and your employer have signed your sides of the contract, things may not be quite as straightforward as they seem. One cloud about to rain on your parade could be the taxman. […]

Ferial Haffajee Deputy president Thabo Mbeki and Minister of Posts, Telecommunications and Broadcasting Jay Naidoo have been drawn into the e.tv fray. Warring factions in the Midi consortium – which owns e.tv – have reportedly approached their offices to seek intervention in the new channel’s internal and external battles. The approaches to government have provoked […]

World Aids day came and went this week with a big show of concern. President Nelson Mandela spoke out about the silence around Aids and everywhere people were wearing red ribbons. There is clearly a new public awareness trail that has been blazed by Deputy President Thabo Mbeki. But impressive though the awareness campaign has […]

Chris Gordon Four years after the Lusaka accords officially ended Angola’s civil war, the internationally brokered peace process has come unglued. Renewed war seems almost certain. United Nations secretary general Kofi Annan told the Security Council last week that prospects for reactivating the peace process in Angola look bleak. The political and military situation continues […]

Gregory Mthembu-Salter French President Jacques Chirac looked particularly pleased with himself when he announced progress towards a ceasefire in the Congo at the Paris Franco-African summit last week, but in reality the chances are slim. The Democratic Republic of Congo’s President, Laurent Desire Kabila, resumed his fighting talk immediately after the Paris discussions. Rebels in […]

Cameron Duodu: LETTER FROM THE NORTH Reader, if you missed last week’s “penalty shoot-out” in, of all places, the red-leather sumptuousness of Britain’s ancient House of Lords – where the Law Lords decided by a three to two majority that former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet has no “immunity” and must be sent to Spain to […]

Martin Walker in Brussels The European Union is to send a high- powered delegation to its tiny neighbours, from Switzerland to Monaco and from Andorra to Liechtenstein, to persuade them not to become tax havens and to join Europe’s plans for automatic withholding of taxes on non- national bank accounts. For tiny countries like San […]

Peter Dickson Early next year, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s (TRC) amnesty committee will ask a feared ex-security policeman if guns smuggled from Mozambique were used to kill hundreds of people in the Transkei killing fields of Tsolo and Qumbu. TRC spokesperson Vuyani Green said controversial Superintendent Frans “Lappies” Labuschagne, withdrawn from the Robert McBride […]

Tangeni Amupadhi Police in Johannesburg’s northern suburbs, including Alexandra, may have found the right ointment for their Achilles heel – carjacking. The men in blue have cut by half hijacking incidents in the past three months with an innovative crime- fighting initiative. The new plan circumvents the usual excuses about lack of manpower and resources. […]

Gail Smith Akosua Busia does not understand the meaning of the word “no”. The multi- talented actress and writer freely admits: “I come from privelege, and my sense of entitlement is the greatest thing in my life.” This unshakable sense of rightness has enabled Busia to capitalise on every opportunity and setback in the pursuit […]

Donna Block Zimbabwe’s stock exchange is the latest casualty of President Robert Mugabe’s stubborn pursuit of economic policies that have savaged the local currency and plunged Zimbabwe into the worst financial crisis of its 18-year history. Since the beginning of the year Zimbabwe’s share market (ZSE), once one of Africa’s brightest rising stars, lost 18,7% […]

Mukoni T Ratshitanga Athol Fugard may have been writing about inhabitants of the electricity department’s disused building in downtown Johannesburg had the characters of his People are living there not been too few and employed. The inhabitants of the building belonging to the Market Theatre Company – where Fugard’s play premiered in March 1977 – […]

Donna Block: SHARE WORLD When the parties stop and the champagne haze wears off, 1998 will be a year that many of us would love to forget – at least from a financial point of view. Anything that could go wrong did. The mighty Asian tigers transformed into pussycats. The Russian bear got stuffed. Japan’s […]

These days, the Million Dollar Challenge is more about cracking the nod than it is about the prize money, reports Andy Capostagno The most delicious irony of the Nedbank Million Dollar Challenge is that you have to be a millionaire in the first place just to crack an invite. A decade ago when Welshman Ian […]

Chiara Carter The University of Transkei (Unitra) council has accepted the major recommendations of a damning report on its affairs commissioned by Minister of Education Sibusiso Bengu. These include the immediate departure of the university’s controversial principal, Professor Alfred Moleah, the resumption of all official duties by its vice- principal Professor JM Noruwana and a […]

Andrew Worsdale Movies of the week A lthough it’s a box-office hit in the United States, There’s Something About Mary starring Cameron Diaz has film critics divided. One of my peers, who shall remain nameless, said “it’s the biggest load of crap I’ve seen all year”. I, on the other hand, thought it quite enjoyable. […]

The CSIR has developed a unique system to prevent prison escapes, reports David Shapshak An innovative, low-cost motion detector system could be the solution to preventing the hundreds of escapes each year from police cells, say the police and its developers, the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR). The new system consists of two […]

My department and I were disturbed by the leader story in your last week’s edition entitled “Trade Officials Solicit R10 000 for `Free’ Dinner”. The article suggests that some untoward activity and abuse of funds has been practised by DTI officials. Even facts in the story don’t substantiate the allegations. The facts are: l The […]

Preview of the week: Anton Marshall `Hey, have you heard of Renaissance?” I ask experimentally, honestly believing the hype that clubbers are in and slacker journos are out. “Er … Wasn’t that a Leonardo da Vinci painting?” she replies innocently, sipping on a Mule as her low- key rave vest struggles to find a cling […]

Etienne van Heerden’s most recent novel has been translated into English. He spoke to Shaun de Waal With the translation, one by one, of Etienne van Heerden’s novels (and a volume of stories) into English, his status as a major South African writer is becoming clearer to a larger audience. His multi-prize-winning Toorberg, translated as […]

Dave Hill: FIRST PERSON When the British High Court heard earlier this week that former airline pilot James Williams’ “life had been destroyed” by the failure of an operation to give him back a foreskin, some might have suspected a degree of overstatement. Some – but not an awful lot of men, especially if they’ve […]

Robert Mattes: A SECOND LOOK The details of the first Opinion ’99 survey (a consortium of Idasa, Markinor and the South African Broadcasting Corporation) have been widely reported. But once one backs away from the fine brush strokes of the numbers, what emerges is a distinct picture of the South African electorate six to seven […]

Angella Johnson: VIEW FROM A BROAD `Please let him touch your breast. They’re beautiful and he loves breasts,” pleaded the light-skinned black woman sitting on a sofa beside me and my partner. Her boyfriend, a bespectacled German engineer, was draped over the side idly plucking at my suspenders. In a room down the hallway of […]

rewards 30 years on David Gough from Nairobi As Kenya prepares to celebrate 35 years of independence next week, veterans of the guerrilla army who fought a brutal campaign against British colonial rule say that they have been rewarded with nothing but poverty and hardship, and have nothing to celebrate. Hundreds of survivors of the […]