Vol 42 No 25 | SOUTH AFRICA Helpless about AIDS 21st December 2001 The High Court's AIDS judgment looks good for health, bad for the constitution The Pretoria High Court ruled on 14 December that the government must supply nevirapine, an anti-retroviral drug, to mothers infected with the human immuno-deficiency virus (HIV). The judgment...
Vol 42 No 25 | SOUTH AFRICA Dicing with death 21st December 2001 The prosecution has bungled the trial of a seedy medical spy Wouter Basson, known as Dr. Death, was the former apartheid regime's leading chemical weapons specialist. He headed Project Coast, developing and testing chemical weapons, and is now charged...
Vol 42 No 24 | SOUTH AFRICA Hard pressed 7th December 2001 The media are failing to adapt to changing times – and they're losing money All South Africa's main newspapers lose money. Journalists fear that that their publishers, by sharp cutbacks in editorial staff, will make the papers even blander and limit investigation...
Vol 42 No 23 | SOUTH AFRICASUDAN Guns for hire again 23rd November 2001 A born-again Executive Outcomes operation is at the centre of allegations of a military contract between ex-South African Defence Force soldiers and the Sudanese army. A former director...
Vol 42 No 22 | SOUTH AFRICA Short-pants to no pants 9th November 2001 The former apartheid party negotiates its way to obscurity The New National Party, heir to the old Afrikaner-apartheid tradition, hitched up in June 2000 to the Democratic Party, whose members claim to inherit South Africa's liberal tradition....
Vol 42 No 22 | SOUTH AFRICA Don't confront, co-opt 9th November 2001 The African National Congress often deals with its opponents by co-opting them, offering jobs and a hearing in exchange for an end to opposition. Co-option began with the...
Vol 42 No 16 | SOUTH AFRICA Sell if you can 10th August 2001 Privatisation is obstructed by unions, communists and world stock markets The first few days of August dealt a double blow to South Africa's privatisation programme, a central part of the government's economic strategy. The plan to sell the...
Vol 42 No 16 | SOUTH AFRICA Unions fight privatisation ideology 10th August 2001 For three years, trades union leader Zwelinzima Vavi has marched his troops to the top of the hill, then marched them down again. This month Vavi, the General...
Vol 42 No 9 | SOUTH AFRICA The plots thicken 4th May 2001 Allegations of conspiracies against Mbeki are widening ANC divisions The Minister of Safety and Security, Steve Tshwete, is not known for political finesse. Nevertheless, he had to be taken seriously when he announced that the police would...
Vol 42 No 8 | SOUTH AFRICA Sniping at the President 20th April 2001 With elections far off, the gossips have fun with Thabo Mbeki Could President Thabo Mbeki risk being ousted by his own party? Will he be challenged for the leadership of the African National Congress at the end of 2002...
Vol 42 No 7 | SOUTH AFRICA Rules of law 6th April 2001 Lawyers claim the government wants to bring them under state control South African lawyers fear that the government's draft Legal Practice Bill could bring the legal profession, including the Bar, under state control. The Bar is up in arms....
Vol 42 No 6 | SOUTH AFRICA Spooky 23rd March 2001 A discreet row has blown up about a newly launched intelligence agency - Ukukhula Security Services - which draws much of its expertise from a group of apartheid-era...
Vol 42 No 5 | SOUTH AFRICA Market failure 9th March 2001 Liberal economies aren't producing jobs or growth Market economics is failing in South Africa. It's not producing jobs, investment or the high growth needed to finance more spending on education and health. Moreover, South Africa...
Vol 42 No 5 | SOUTH AFRICA Even more intelligent 9th March 2001 The National Intelligence Agency (NIA, for domestic intelligence) is training a special investigations unit which, its critics say, could become the political police of the African National Congress....
Vol 42 No 4 | SOUTH AFRICA Not so slick 23rd February 2001 A probe into a secret trading oil trading deal costing the country millions of dollars is threatening some powerful interests In what is becoming a test-case for President Thabo Mbeki's government's ability to investigate corruption allegations, a major international oil trading company faces claims that it connived with...
Vol 42 No 4 | SOUTH AFRICA Wrong number, again 23rd February 2001 South Africa's hopes of reviving the sale of nearly 10 billion Rand (US$1.4 bn.) of G6 artillery pieces to Saudi Arabia seem to have been scuppered by the...
Vol 42 No 3 | SOUTH AFRICA Arms for oblivion 9th February 2001 Who should investigate the multi-billion arms deal with Western companies? The row over alleged corruption in the government's 43 billion rand (US$5.4 bn.) arms deal is damaging the governing African National Congress and raising questions about the constitution's...