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/ 18 April 2008

A season to celebrate the underdog

Ordinarily, this time of the football season would be about which of the traditional top-three teams are best placed to win the Premier Soccer League (PSL) championship. But it increasingly appears that not all, if any, of the three teams that have dominated the PSL honours will make it to the top eight of the log.

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/ 11 April 2008

Getting ready for gold

It took less than a week for South African swimmers to appreciate how tough international competition will be at the Olympics in August. Last Sunday Swimming South Africa announced a record 21 swimmers had posted Olympic qualifying times. But by Wednesday many of these stars had bombed out of the World Short-Course Championships in Manchester.

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/ 4 April 2008

The ultimate meritocracy

Someone neglected to remind the participants at the South African National Aquatic Championship in Durban about the oft-repeated truism that the whole sports thing is more about taking part and less about winning. Perhaps even if someone had, the swimmers would not have been too bothered to listen.

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/ 27 March 2008

Not only tsotsis wear All Stars

You might have seen them. All Star takkies, the young, urban black man’s most faithful friend since the natives first left the ”homelands” to earn a living in the white man’s city. If shoes could talk, there would be none better to chronicle the story of the urban black male experience from day one than the beloved All Star.

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/ 24 March 2008

Fleecing the flock

Religious holidays are always happy times for criminals. Perhaps the overwhelming sense of brotherly love makes cash-flush citizens too trusting and thus easy prey. But a growing category of charlatans is emerging. Instead of pulling a weapon to make folks part with their money, they invoke the name of one deity or another.

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/ 18 February 2008

In league with sustainable cool

Members of the ANC Youth League can’t claim they didn’t anticipate the reaction they got when they announced their campaign to ban the selling of liquor on Sunday. Religious groups, particularly Christians who regard Sunday as the day of worship, have welcomed the campaign. Liquor traders and others inclined towards civil liberties have stopped short of accusing the Youth League of being drunk.