All the acrimony around the Minerals and Petroleum Resources Development Bill should not obscure one central fact — there was no way a majority-rule South Africa could hang on to the mineral rights regime of the past. More than any other industry the mines symbolise white domination of the economy.
If I said Judge Kate O’Regan had a beautiful mind, would she use it against me? Is it permissible to say that a Constitutional Court judge has a sexy cerebrum? Or would this impugn the dignity of Ms O’Regan as a person, let alone as a judge?
Taking up almost half a page in last Friday’s Cape Times were six single music staves laying out the words and melody of the first half of the official South African national anthem. There is no headline or caption to this “score”, but at the end a rather snide little pay-off is printed: “Now you […]
South Africa’s tiny propertied elite heaved a sigh of relief this time last year when the government dispatched the “Red Ants” to forcibly remove the thousands of poor and landless people who had occupied the Bredell land. Glibly accepting the state’s assurance that “Zimbabwe-style land invasions won’t happen here because we have an orderly land […]
About 50 war crimes suspects from Bosnia may be tried locally when the country establishes its own war crimes court, the chief prosecutor of the United Nations tribunal said this week. Carla del Ponte, on a two-day visit to Sarajevo, said the 50 were part of a group of 108 people the UN court at […]
On the face of it, the chanting of "Kill the Boer! Kill the farmer!" at Peter Mokaba’s funeral last weekend — and its indulgence by African National Congress leaders — ran directly counter to the government’s professed reconciliation policy.
Here is a message for South Africa: the capital-rich "developed" nations, especially the United States, need a free market in capital more than we need their capital. Nonsense?
The Voortrekker Monument has always been something that you prefer to forget about — if you’re black, that is. There it is, dominating the skyline on the southern approaches to the city of Pretoria, SA’s presumably eternal seat of government.
Jordan’s King Abdullah II and Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak were due to hold talks on Wednesday in Amman on the Middle East crisis, as Israel reoccupied Palestinian land following a bloody bomb attack.
Mohammed Wardi, the popular Sudanese singer whose soaring “golden throat” voice has come to embody the spirit of an entire nation and who recently made a triumphant return from years in exile, is in a defiant mood these days. The 70-year-old Wardi, billed on world music stations as Sudan’s “grandfather of funk,” returned home last […]
I always liked the vicious rumour circulating around the time of the last Oscars, that Julia Roberts had (allegedly) paid Benjamin Bratt to stick with her up until the ceremony because she was damned if she was going to have her moment of glory compromised by being single.
The story of Peter Mokaba was of a man who was not prepared to be defeated, of a man who, whatever his weaknesses, was at the forefront of the liberation movement and close to the core of the African National Congress.
The problem with the 18-month reign of Harry Viljoen as Springbok coach is that it has lowered our expectations. For while the 34-19 defeat of Wales in Bloemfontein last week had much to commend it, less than two years ago the critics would have been pulling their hair out, wondering how the mighty Springboks could […]
If former South African coach Graham Ford wishes his successor Eric Simons anything, it is mostly that his bowlers stay fit. “It helps if you’ve got a settled attack,” reflected Ford this week. “It helps quite a lot.” Ford, who is weighing up his options as he negotiates a settlement with the United Cricket Board, […]
Last week we erroneously reported that the African National Congress called for HIV/Aids to be declared a notifiable disease.
One of the most memorable moments on my return to South Africa in the early 1990s occurred when I was walking with my daughter, then nine years old, through the tumult of central Johannesburg towards the Market Theatre precinct.
The unqualified praise that political leaders have heaped on Peter Mokaba following his death has been more than a little nauseating. Yes, he had great strengths and talents. Yes, we all want to speak well of the dead. But the conscious amnesia on which this effusion has depended is insidious.
There go a few more million, this time in glamorous double-page spreads in the Sundays which, in glorious technicolour, revealed Kader Asmal’s plans for the future of tertiary education in South Africa. Not that Asmal would stoop to using such forthright language.
Now and then we hold extravagant and bloated ideas about ourselves. The problem arises, however, when the ideas become fixed and we remain impervious to reason. We become paranoid and suffer from delusions of grandeur.
The International Press Institute condemned the decision by Zimbabwean authorities to put a United States journalist on trial for having published an erroneous article.
The Sudan People’s Liberation Army said on Sunday it had recaptured the southern town of Kapoeta, which had been under government control since 1993.
Drew Forrest tries to disguise his animus towards Tony Leon and the Democratic Alliance behind the mask of the objective political analyst, but a careful reading of his comment always unmasks it for the anti-DA agitprop it is, in his latest offering, "The DA’s Harksen morass".
About 10 000 people gathered in Bali from May 24 to June 7 for the fourth and final Preparatory Committee meeting (PrepCom) for the World Summit on Sustainable Development. We need investment in technology and infrastructure, we are told.
Critics say the government has come out in favour of whale hunting to curry political support for its proposals to trade in ivory and rhino horn. At a meeting of the International Whaling Commission (IWC) late last month, government representatives supported a scheme that would make it possible for commercial whaling to resume. Japan and […]
There must be a reason why the word "Dahomey" used to set off such explosions of fear, loathing and even respect in the untravelled European mind during the past three or four centuries. Dahomey stood for savage abandon. It also, somehow, stood for wealth and abundance.
As of filing this column I haven’t seen or heard but a small percentage of what’s been written in newspapers or broadcast on radio and television after Hansie Cronje’s death. I believe the race to see who could be the most banal on this subject was won by <i>Carte Blanche</i>.
Ann Pettifor is a familiar and dauntingly effective figure in the latter-day Sin Cities of the world. She directed the Jubilee 2000 campaign from its inception in 1995 — the movement that channeled the worldwide demand for an end to repayment of debt by the world’s poor nations.
Legal action looming: The Treatment Action Campaign wants to act against provinces that, it claims, do not want to roll out the programme to prevent mother-to-child-transmission of HIV since the high court ruling that provinces that have the capacity must implement the programme.
Politicians, sportsmen and ordinary South Africans were stunned by the tragic death of former cricket captain Hansie Cronje in an aircraft crash outside George on Saturday morning.
<li> <a class="standardtext" href="/Content/l3.asp?o=4275">Hansie Cronje killed in plane crash</a><br>
<li> <a class="standardtext" href="/Content/l3.asp?o=4277">Pollock leaves field in shock</a><br>
<li> <a class="standardtext" href="/Content/l3.asp?o=4280">Madiba: SA has been robbed</a>
<li> <a class="standardtext" href="/Content/l3.asp?o=4279">Hansie’s rollercoaster career</a>
It is about this time of year that South African rugby supporters usually start talking up their team and rubbishing the Europeans. Harsh words have been spoken about the difference in quality between the Super 12 final and the European Cup final. Prominent critics who should know better have rubbished Leicester (champions of the latter […]
South Africa go into their first 2002 World Cup game against Paraguay on Sunday buoyed by recent results. After a couple of dismal losses and draws in warm-up matches in Africa and Europe, the Far East is proving to be to Bafana Bafana’s liking, with the side unbeaten in three games. Victories against Scotland (2-0) […]
The Diamond Board’s chief executive officer was suspended this week and replaced by a man who presided over a government office that was raided after allegations of corruption and fraud this month.