It took former hired killers to catch the hired killers of Zahida Sabadia, reports Stefaans Brummer A week after student doctor Zahida Sabadia disappeared, half a rugby team’s worth of heavies in four cars and a van with Telkom markings, hung around the mansion in Ruslouw where the mother-of-three had lived with her husband, psychiatrist […]
natural disasters Bafana Khumalo OKAY now. I’ve always known that I grew up under a racist regime that intended me to remain ignorant for the rest of my life. What I did not know, however, is how far the regime succeeded. They succeeded so much that the basics of Western concepts remain a mystery to […]
Ann Eveleth AS proceedings got underway in the Malan trial Judge Jan Hugo’s eyes crinkled and his grey bearded face lit up with a jovial smile as he broke the ice to share a joke with Attorney General Tim McNally. Agreeing to postpone the trial to give the seven defence teams more time to consult […]
Gaye Davis AS medical investigations wound their way this week to the predictable conclusion that President Nelson Mandela was fitter than most men of his age, a sense of crisis infused the presidency as the realisation dawned that the question of who will succeed him would have to be dealt with. “There have been informal […]
CABARET: Peter Frost NATALIE GAMSU, back in South Africa after a four-year stint in New York, returns to a closing venue: the Cape Town landmark Upstairs at Elaine’s will go dark after Gamsu’s show closes. Punters should break their necks, however, to see the swansong. Gamsu is better than ever, the beneficiary of some tough […]
We consulted some doctors about Nelson Mandela’s health. They say it’s excellent for his age Rehana Rossouw It’s hard to regard a man who jets across a continent and back in three days, gets to bed after 1am, then chirps energetically at the media seven hours later, as a geriatric. But at 77 years and […]
others GOLF: Jon Swift THIS season heralds great things for Wayne Westner, the runaway winner of the FNB Tour’s Order of Merit with a staggering R709 308 in winnings on the circuit. The hugely talented Westner has ironed some of the inconsistencies out of his game and shown an admirable composure in adversity, such as […]
TWO socialist governments that have long been part of the world political equation disappeared last weekend. In Australia on Saturday, Paul Keating’s Labour administration was swept away after 13 years in office. Then on Sunday Felipe Gonzlez’s socialist coalition lost power after a 14-year reign in Spain. Both Keating and Gonzlez had been lucky to […]
Zimbabwe’s last ‘independent’ newspaper has bowed to pressure to tone down its critical stance. Former Financial Gazette assistant editor and columnist. Iden Wetherell mourns the demise of his country’s free press. DID you jump or were you pushed? The question from colleagues was understandable, given the mounting list of casualties in the Modus House massacre […]
Marion Edmunds ‘This is a walk-out menu,” said Senator Mohamed Bhabha, “I come into the dining room, I look at the menu, and I walk out.” But Bhabha stayed put in the parliamentary dining room this week when he hosted the Mail & Guardian’s food critic, Robert Mulders, manager of Cape Town’s popular Rozenhof restuarant, […]
wall Madeleine Wackernagel Opinion is swinging away from an increase in value-added tax (VAT) in next week’s Budget, as the cost in terms of inflation and labour relations is deemed too high. Instead, Finance Minister Chris Liebenberg is expected to go ahead with the Katz commission proposals to tax the retirement funds, despite strong opposition […]
The row over money spent on an Aids play has brought the relationship between the executive and legislature under the spotlight, writes Gaye Davis THE balance of power between the executive and legislature is becoming a central and highly contentious issue in what some politicians see as improper interference in the parliamentary process by the […]
Ricardo Dunn Every Thursday from 8:30 to 9:30pm, the airwaves of Western Cape’s Bush radio 89.5 fm are tickled pink with an hour of gay programming. Africa’s only “queer” radio programme is a serious exercise in “camp” dialogue and commitment to positive images of gay people. In the Pink, a programme produced by and for […]
The latest person tipped as editor of the Sunday Independent is the Star’s political editor Kaizer Nyatsumba. Nyatsumba is one of many names being bandied about to fill the shoes of Shaun Johnson, who has been appointed editor of the Argus in Cape Town. Johnson replaces the Argus’s longtime editor, Andrew Drysdale, in a couple […]
Justin Pearce ANYONE who had lost hope for international socialist solidarity in the 1990s would have been heartwarmed by the scenes at Johannesburg International Airport on Tuesday, when the first 96 Cuban doctors arrived in South Africa. The placards held by the crowd of people who came to greet the doctors ranged from the mundane […]
Jacquie Golding-Duffy talks to Jill Chisholm, the woman at the helm of SABC television, about the successes and failures of the new- look channels The new-look SABC has some distance to travel before its revamped schedules are up to scratch. While television head Jill Chisholm is by-and-large pleased with the relaunch, she concedes that schedule […]
Gaye Davis CONDOMS should be distributed to prisoners and those with HIV or Aids should no longer be segregated, a special work group investigating health care in South African jails has recommended. The Department of Correctional Services has always ruled out condoms for inmates on the grounds that this would encourage sodomy, which is illegal […]
1 Mr Phakhiti, 35-year-old black male, murdered in Thembisa, Gauteng 2Nimrod Mhlongo, 23-year-old black male, shot in Gauteng 3 Unidentified 25-year-old black male, shot in Pretoria, Gauteng 4Brian Mego, 25-year-old black male, murdered in Lenasia, Gauteng 5Petrus Jama Khumalo, 43-year-old black male, shot in Katlehong, Gauteng 6Unidentified, race unknown, 18-year-old stabbed in Boksburg, Gauteng 7Thabo […]
Last week’s article by Louise Flanagan on Military Intelligence attempts to recruit future Minister of Defence Joe Modise in the early 1990s has provoked a furious row. Here, Deputy Defence Minister Ronnie Kasrils responds — as does the reporter HAVING distinguished itself as a bastion of the free press, and for many years under siege […]
Recipients of generous ‘golden handshakes’ continue to occupy management positions at Pact, reports HAZEL FRIEDMAN ACCUSATIONS of golden handshakes and secret slush funds are being hurled at Pact’s upper echelons following the recent discovery of a mysterious “employer’s fund” set up years ago by Pact management. A substantial percentage of the fund, which in total […]
The offices of the attorneys general around the country are virtually bare, reports Vuyo Mvoko OFFICES of the attorneys general in Gauteng and the Cape are heading for a crisis as senior prosecutors make a dash for entry to the Bar before it closes next week — undermining a whole spate of “third force” trials […]
Karen Harverson Corporate fraud is on the increase and it’s costing companies millions of rands each year. In many cases, companies are reluctant to bring a criminal case against the perpetrator — frequently an employee. “Companies are scared to bring criminal charges for a number of reasons, be it their reputation, lack of knowledge of […]
The special horror of the terrorists’ bomb is only heightened when it shatters a period of apparent peace. The Israeli people are reeling from the same sense of double shock which hit Britain two weeks ago. Not only was the bomb on Jaffa Road devastating in its destruction of human life, but it came after […]
Have the ANC’s young lions turned into pussycats? Rehana Rossouw looks at the dilemmas facing the ANC Youth League THERE was a time when the African National Congress Youth League’s leaders roared and the security establishment’s grip automatically tightened on its rifle butts. This was the 1980s — when the ANCYL was one of the […]
We chose a mid-month weekend, a Friday, Saturday and Sunday — and tried to get a sense of how many died, where, and how. South Africa is one of the most violent societies in the world — and the murder victims are often faceless, unidentified bodies, buried in unmarked graves. In one ordinary weekend in […]
It was a first: an advertisement flighted simultaneously on all four channels. And it cost millions. Hazel Friedman watched the advert which brought mysticism to the concrete industry Strange, inexplicable sightings have been known to take place on the SABC from time-to- time. But nothing could rival the image onslaught that hit viewers during prime-time […]
CINEMA: Andrew Worsdale LIKE a film by Quentin Tarantino, Get Shorty begins in a diner. And, like a Tarantino movie, it has lots of characters who go off on wild monologues about the weather and, specifically, about Orson Welles’s Touch of Evil: main guy John Travolta is an obsessive movie fan. In Get Shorty, Tarantino […]
Marion Edmunds It was a casual weekend — Hernus Kriel was wearing baggy tracksuit pants, Sheila Camerer a light pink slack suit, John Mavuso designer moccasins and FW de Klerk a checked shirt. But behind the informality and bonhomie in Hermanus, the Nats were in deadly earnest. “Tell me,” said De Klerk, leaning in earnest […]
Two months prior to the Constitution’s finalisation date, minority parties are panicking over checks and balances on the future government, writes Marion Edmunds Disillusion is setting in among minority parties, as they believe the new Constitution will not provide sufficient checks and balances on the power of the future majority party government. At the same […]
The Budget must set the stage for investment growth if Thabo Mbeki’s ambitious employment plan is to succeed, writes Madeleine Wackernagel Thabo Mbeki’s ambitious blueprint for economic growth and job creation brings into sharp focus the need for the “right” Budget on March 13. Without the building blocks to encourage foreign and local investment, the […]
Justin Pearce SOMEWHERE in the suburbs of Pretoria, religious prejudices have collided with a roadsign. Last year, the directorate of roads erected signs on the N1 Eastern Bypass indicating a recommended speed limit for night driving. The signs show a crescent moon and a star together with the recommended speed. Then suddenly, towards the end […]
Karen Harverson South Africa’s corporate standards are being polluted by corruption, and the toll on the country is far higher than the mere monetary value. For example, corruption in Nigeria was initially accepted as a way of “getting the job done” — and so the cost of corruption was less than its monetary value because […]