Staff Reporter

Cheryl Carolus looked set for a high post in the ANC government; instead she opted to be South Africa’s first female high commissioner in London, writes Liz McGregor Cheryl Carolus is not your average diplomat. She travels by tube, wears mini-skirts and parties into the small hours. She has strong opinions about her host country […]

Angella Johnson: VIEW FROM A BROAD I had always considered exercise to be way overrated. Not for me the panting ache of pushing my body to the maximum, or the orgasmic high of an endorphin rush. At least that was before I bought into South Africans’ fitness obsession and started working out like a lunatic. […]

Remember Pop Shop: “Put your feet on the ground and reach for the stars”? What some poor monkeys like myself didn’t realise while flailing our arms at the heavens was that the Pop Shop galaxy was a ridiculously limited one. Beyond stars like Duran Duran and the Pet Shop Boys was a multitude of other […]

politics Cameron Duodu: LETTER FROM THE NORTH The Democratic Republic of Congo has always aroused two contradictory emotions in me as an African: the ecstasy created in the soul by appreciation of some of the best music on the continent, and the fear and anger aroused in the mind by irrational, blood-spattered politics that resurfaces […]

invasion Swapna Prabhakaran Some political allies of the African National Congress have remained strangely silent in the wake of the destruction of Maseru that resulted from South Africa’s military intervention in Lesotho last week. While the ANC’s highest organs have supported the intervention, its alliance partners appeared unable to draft a quick response. Human rights […]

handouts Jacqui Boulle Since 1994 there has been much talk about developmental social welfare and the need to move away from grants and handouts to more sustainable programmes. While this approach – which underpins the Department of Welfare’s campaign during welfare month – has had some success, its impact is limited: nearly half the poor […]

Chris Barrie The transformation of the television set from humble programme provider to multi- purpose information hub has continued with the announcement that the box will soon be able to make and receive your telephone calls. As if 200 channels of programming combined with interactive services such as shopping and gambling were not enough, development […]

British trip-hop band Massive Attack arrive in South Africa on Sunday. Charles Leonard did a telephonic interview with Robert `3-D’ Del Naja from his hotel room in Detroit `We’re on a 17-date tour of North America. We’ve been here a couple of times before. They must like us because they’ve invited us back, but we […]

Phillip Kakaza Diva shouts, harmonic sounds and thunderous rhythms swept through the remote village of Taung during the North West Cultural Calabash Festival last week. The high-pitched voices of the undisputed queen of gospel Rebecca Malope and her backing group Pure Magic resonated from the Mmabana (mother of the children ) Cultural Centre where the […]

Dan Jellinek Have you ever stayed up all night on the Internet? Do you live to go online? Is your partner threatening divorce? Internet addiction affects around one in 10 regular Internet users, reports what is claimed to be one of the most extensive reviews of the field. The paper, by Janet Morahan-Martin, psychology professor […]

West Coast Ann Eveleth looks at plans to make economic well-being more than a brief tourist boom Most Septembers a sea of wild flowers drowns the rugged protrusions of the Cedarberg mountains that separate the quaint mission villages of Wupperthal from the Atlantic seaboard. In that lucky month, the narrow roads lead bands of tourists […]

Ferial Haffajee The chiefs in fatigues from the Southern African Development Community (SADC) jetted into Luanda this week to talk war. They could send soldiers to provide military assistance in Angola as the SADC did in the Democratic Republic of Congo last month and in Lesotho last week. The SADC’s new role is a triumph […]

Several investigations are under way into NIA operatives allegedly involved in money laundering schemes, writes Justin Arenstein Police are preparing to arrest at least two members of a shadowy National Intelligence Agency (NIA) unit next week after they allegedly tried to cash stolen share certificates worth more than R180- million. The operatives have also been […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Cape Town | Thursday 10.00pm. A REFUGEE system that considers people’s rights is the aim of the Refugees Bill tabled in Parliament on Thursday. The draft legislation sets out new ways for dealing with refugees in line with United Nations standards and under the supervision of an independent refugee affairs committee. It proposes […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Arusha | Thursday 7.30pm. THE former mayor of the Rwandan Taba commune during the 1994 genocide has appealed his conviction of crimes against humanity by the Untited Nations International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, sitting in Arusha, Tanzania. The UN tribunal convicted 45-year-old Jean-Paul Akayesu of nine counts of genocide and crimes against humanity, […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Thursday 11.45am. THE familiar components of a market bloodbath were all in place on Thursday morning, and local indices delivered. The Dow lost 237 points on Wednesday night, and Asian markets were also down. Further, the International Monetary Fund’s recently released World Economic Outlook halved its worldwide growth forecasts, and projected […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Thursday 7.20pm. SCUFFLES between police and workers at Edgars’ Kempton Park branch on Thursday marked the fourth day of a strike by the clothing group’s workers. South African Commercial Catering and Allied Workers Union assistant secretary-general Herbert Mkhize accused white policemen of complicity with Edgars management: “White policemen at the branch […]

JUSTIN ARENSTEIN, Nelspruit | Thursday 6.00pm. THE African National Congress has formally suspended two more of its senior provincial leaders in Mpumalanga after weeks of persistent press reports about their complicity in irregularities. Provincial chairman and Mpumalanga premier Mathews Phosa said at a special conference on Thursday that the party decided to suspend finance MEC […]

SHARRON HAMMOND and STAFF WRITER, Nelspruit | Tuesday 7.45pm. MEMBER countries of the Southern Africa Development Community are planning to drop their international borders and unite to form one region within the next 30 years, department of home affairs chief migration officer Patrick Matlou said on Tuesday. Addressing a public hearing in Nelspruit, Mpumalanga, on […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Wednesday 7.30pm. LOCAL shares were lifted off their lows by some last minute unit trust buying today, but overall market sentiment was dragged down by disappointment over the direction of US markets. At the close, the JSE’s all-share index had lost 1.84%, the industrial index had fallen 1.65%, the financial index […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Freetown | Wednesday 3.00pm. THE West African intervention force Ecomog needs at least 2000 additional troops to put an end to the war in Sierra Leone. Ecomog spokesperson Lieutenant Colonel Jimoh Okunlola said on Tuesday: “Ivory Coast, Gambia and Mali have promised their support. We need at least 2000 men, real fighters, as […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Wednesday 11.30am. ATHLETICS South Africa general secretary Banele Sindani said on Tuesday that South Africa’s Commonwealth Games athletics victories will mark a sea change in the relationship between athletes and administrators. “We have reached a turning point in South African athletics after the medals we won at the Games and the […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Wednesday 11.00am. DESPITE a bad start, South African middleweight champion Giovanni Pretorius won on points on Tuesday night in his eight-round bout against Russian Roman “Rauf” Babaev, at the Carousel north of Pretoria. The Russian came out well prepared in the first round, landing a heavy left-right-left combination early on, and […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Kampala | Wednesday 8.30pm. A FORMER Ugandan cabinet minister and nine others have appeared in court in Kampala charged with treason. Assistant Police Superintendent Charles Dickens Ojakol, leading the prosecution, said that the 10 accused, and others still at large, plotted in Kampala and the Buganda region of central Uganda to overthrow the […]

DUDUZILE NKOMO, Harare | Wednesday 9.00pm. Duduzile Nkomo CONTROVERSIAL Zimbabwean member of Parliament Dzikamayi Mavhaire has repeated his call for President Robert Mugabe to step down. Mugabe has been in power for 18 years, since the country attained self-rule in 1980. Mavhaire, introducing a motion in Parliament which called on the government to undertake a […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Luanda | Wednesday 7.30pm. ANY threat to a member of the 14-nation Southern African Development Community will justify military intervention by other members, a meeting of defence chiefs has decided in Luanda. The meeting, attended by armed forces chiefs of staff of 10 SADC countries, was chaired by the Zambian representative, Solomon Mumbi, […]

JUSTIN ARENSTEIN, Nelspruit | Monday 6.00pm. THE town council of Ekangala, Mpumalanga, has been ordered to take disciplinary action against the chairman of its housing committee and a senior housing official, after they illegally issued promissory notes worth R78-million. The African National Congress also announced a review of councillor Jacob Masango’s role in the scheme. […]

SHARRON HAMMOND, Nelspruit | Tuesday 8.00pm. MPUMALANGA’S suspended parks chief, Alan Gray, refused to answer written questions about his business dealings with government or government contractors on Tuesday and instead threatened to sue reporters. Gray said in a lawyer’s letter that elements within the media were conducting personal crusades and vendettas against him and had […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Cape Town | Monday, 10.30pm. COMMONWEALTH silver medallist Brendon Dedekind held out against strong-finishing Roland Schoeman to win the men’s 100m freestyle Monday, posting his fourth African record of the Telkom SA short course championships in Cape Town. Deaf Durbanite Terence Parkin annihilated his personal best time to set a continental mark in […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Pretoria | Tuesday 6.45pm. THE South African hitsquad en route to plant a bomb in the African National Congress offices in London ran into numerous predicaments that almost blew the entire operation, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission heard in Pretoria on Tuesday. Former Vlakplaas commander Eugene de Kock told the amnesty hearing that […]

SARAH BULLEN, Johannesburg | Tuesday 5.45pm. LOCAL stock had a disappointing day on Tuesday, closing flat despite expectation that the latest bull run will roll on into the week. Dealers said the pullback was surprising, as all major indices except gold ended in negative territory. Markets were influenced by a both international and domestic factors, […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Pretoria | Monday 7.00pm. APARTHEID security police killed Ruth First because they were unable to catch SA Communist Party leader Joe Slovo, Gillian Slovo told the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s amnesty committee on Monday. Gillian Slovo, along with her sisters Robyn and Shaun, is opposing the applications for amnesty by apartheid agents Craig […]