Focus 23 - Third Quarter 2001

The proposal to detain suspected terrorists for 14 days without charge is an ominous reminder of the apartheid era. Comment by Martin Schönteich.

To make sure he wins next year's presidential election, Robert Mugabe is using violence to get rid of the whites and subjugate the black population. RW Johnson reports.

Are investors reluctant to do business in South Africa because they are afraid of suffocating in red tape?

Opposition criticism of the arms deal is beginning to tell, says Patrick Laurence. The ANC is no longer so confident that the deal is safe from corruption or financially viable.

The Constitution should not be the subject of multiple amendments in a "timesaving" omnibus bill.

In May 2001 Mbeki agreed that the existing electoral system needed re-examination.

Newspaper editors and government have vastly different views of the media's role in a democracy.

Just because the ANC fought for democracy does not mean it is immune from turning into an oppressor itself.

Recently it was reported that Bulelani Ngcuka was seeking to charge Phillip Powell with illegal possession of weapons.

Effective policing is our only route to that critical mass of voluntary compliance with the law which the economy requires.

Mzwakhe Mbuli has one last chance to appeal against his 13-year prison sentence. Jean Redpath re-examines all the evidence and suggests that there has been a miscarriage of justice.

The spate of urban land invasions is not just a response to homelessness by groups of poverty-stricken people.

Over two decades in office Mugabe has diverted plum political jobs and state-funded contracts to a network of clan members.