Deon Potgieter boxing Mpush Makambi is in danger of being stripped of his International Boxing Organisation (IBO) middleweight world title. Makambi, who was to have made the fourth defence of his title this weekend in Holland against Raymonn Joval, pulled out of the bout this week. “Mpush wasn’t happy with the purse on offer and […]

Greg Bowes CD OFTHEWEEK With their Nu Breed offshoot, the Global Underground camp add to their already substantial line in DJ mixes (from the likes of Paul Oakenfold and Sasha) a platform for less established but equally thrilling deckhands. Danny Howells, who’s here with Renaissance over the weekend (playing at Nexus in Johannesburg and at […]

experiments Fiona Macleod South Africa is earmarked for experiments on animals that have already seen thousands of them dying agonising deaths. The experiments involve pumping human genes into days-old piglets and then transplanting their hearts into baboons and monkeys. Top-secret documents by scientists researching the process, called xenotransplantation, show that thousands of animals have died […]

As a teenager, Naomi Klein was a dedicated mall rat, fixated on designer labels. A decade later she is the author of a life- changing book on anti-corporatism. Katharine Viner meets the woman who is reinventing politics for a new generation >From the age of six, growing up in Canada, Naomi Klein was obsessed with […]

Glenda Daniels and David Macfarlane The South African Universities Vice- Chancellors Association (Sauvca) this week rejected the heart of the Council on Higher Education’s (CHE) recent recommendations for restructuring tertiary education. The core of the recommendations are that all institutions be re-arranged to create what Sauvca refers to as “a three-tier system”, one that it […]

Rory Carroll and agencies The captain and three crew members of a Greek ferry that sank killing at least 65 people have been charged with multiple counts of murder. Investigators were focusing on reports that the Express Samina, carrying more than 500 passengers, was apparently on automatic pilot minutes before it hit a well-marked rocky […]

Andrea Meeson Mzwandile Zuma has been a farmworker much of his adult life on land near Gingingdlovu, northwest of Stanger. Zuma has planted, weeded and harvested cane on sugar estates and private farms all over KwaZulu-Natal. His hands – calloused, cut and stained blacker than his sunburnt skin – are testament to more than a […]

Barry Streek South Africa’s tougher new gun control regime is rapidly taking shape in Parliament in Cape Town. Prospective gun- owners will have to be older than in the past, demonstrate that they are competent to have a firearm and will hold a licence for a fixed period only, rather than for life. It seems […]

The art of inefficient building in South Africa is by no means restricted to low- cost housing. Like clothes and cars, the design of modern South African buildings is only partly to provide utility – it’s also important to signal the status and fine taste of their owners. In doing so they have lost a […]

Adam Evans I was having a quiet drink with an old friend the other day when he told me, very proudly, that he had just finished his first novel. This was completely out of character – he had never displayed any interest in writing before – and, with mounting amazement, I asked him what it […]