THE attacks began in Du Noon on Thursday, May 22, exactly five years ago, when Somali shop owners were targeted. That same evening the terror spread from Khayelitsha, Nyanga and Kuils River to Capricorn, Masiphumelele and also Knysna.

A big tree has fallen, the Afrikaans saying goes, and with the death on May 7 of Peter Stark, the legendary "White Bushman" of Namibia, a big tree has fallen indeed.

One good thing has come out of the tragedy at a Bangladesh clothing factory building: a new focus on the working conditions of the distant workers who produce some of the clothes we wear.

Many of the tens of thousands of people affected by the mess created by Arthur Brown and his colleagues at Fidentia may not even know his name.

At a Venda primary school I sat with nine adults involved, in different capacities, with a scheme combating sexual, gender-based and domestic violence.

There are people who are in a job for a long while, but never really make an impression, and others who hold a post for a brief time and leave a legacy.

The couple wandering down the dusty road called Binnekring were older than most, perhaps in their mid-sixties, Afrikaans by the look of it. She was wearing sensible farm clothes, he was wearing boots, bush shorts, a bush hat and a T-shirt that read "Normale mense maak my bang" (Normal people scare me).

Liverpool's match in Cape Town was supposed to be a celebration of football and a chance for the many Liverpool supporters to watch their favourite team in South Africa for the first time in more than two decades.

The most revealing thing about Guptagate is that apparently no-one in the Presidency or the cabinet is to blame.

An extraordinary event took place over the past six days in the remote, harsh fastness of the Tankwa Karoo.