News/Politics

The Golden Globes rewarded Hollywood’s latest presidential offering John Adams (second president of the USA) with a couple of awards just as Will Smith, having completed his first really deep and serious role, was expressing a desire to play the part of Barack Obama. Indeed there seems to be a never-ending production line of these […]

This week’s Talkback question on the Mail & Guardian Online: What are the implications for the elections now that Zuma could be recharged?

Yesterday morning I wrote about the imprisonment and torture of Nigel Mutemagau. There is an update to this story: he has been released! According to today’s main story posted on The Zimbabwe Times, the two-year-old toddler incarcerated and tortured at the notorious Chikurubi Prison was released on Tuesday afternoon. He has spent three months imprisoned; […]

If Judge Chris Nicholson was the primary catalyst, which occasioned the recalling of president Mbeki and flowing therefrom, the formation of the Congress of the People Party, he may one day be regarded as one of the brave, if somewhat misguided, “warriors” of South African history. Moreover, and herein lies the irony, his judgment, which […]

Denialism no answer to xenophobiaBy Imraan Buccus Imagine if, in 2009, an armed white mob chanting racist slogans stormed a building known to house mostly black people and proceeded to hurl people to their deaths. If local officials and politicians tried to deny that the motive had been racism and said that the mob was […]

There are no limits to the brutality that Zimbabwe’s Zanu-PF government is prepared to employ in ensuring its continued grip on power. Recently, human rights activists and opposition supporters were abducted and thrown into the notorious Chikurubi Prison. Here they have been subjected to torture and beatings. Very little food has been provided. They are […]

Hillary Clinton’s statement to the senators at her confirmation hearing, required for appointment as the next Secretary of State in the Barack Obama presidency, gives a sneak preview at the direction that US foreign policy will take over the next four years. While the transcript sets out her overview of the global approach and is […]

Being extremely risk averse, I seldom stray beyond the bounds of the law. Granted, I once had sex with another man just north of the Limpopo. It was consensual and, to be frank, quite delicious. But unlawful nevertheless. Luckily, however, the privacy of our coupe on the night train to Mutare secured our liberty. Steamy […]

Yesterday’s decision by the Supreme Court of Appeal has overturned the September 12 2008 decision of Judge Chris Nicholson in the Pietermaritzburg High Court, in terms whereof he had held that the National Directorate of Public Prosecutions were obliged to afford ANC President Jacob Zuma the opportunity of making representations before a decision was taken […]