been Neal Collins After the dazzling closing ceremony, Sydney’s Daily Telegraph said goodbye in 38 languages, including Zulu and Afrikaans. Which got me thinking. What if we were saying salani kahle Sydney 2000, sawubona Cape Town 2004? It makes you think what a Games like this could have done for the rainbow nation, had Cape […]

Andy Colquhoun rugby Underdogs in sport have always clung to truisms. They have sworn that it is only “11 against 11”. They have dismissed precedent by pointing out “sport is played on the field not on team-sheets”. And (my favourite) they have talked down the opposition by pointing out “they only have two arms and […]

Exit management is the government’s latest proposal to reduce the size of the public service.

UK Deon Potgieter boxing It’s not often that a fighter receives a unanimous vote in South Africa as being pound-for-pound the best in the land, but ask anybody in the local fight game the question and you’re bound to get the answer: Lehlo Ledwaba. Ledwaba, the International Boxing Federation (IBF) junior-featherweight world champion, makes the […]

Andrew Muchineripi soccer It has not been the greatest of years for Southern Africa countries when it came to bidding for football tournaments, with South Africa, Malawi, Zambia and Zimbabwe experiencing the pain of rejection. The most bitter blow came in July when Germany pipped South Africa 12-11 in controversial circumstances for the right to […]

Thebe Mabanga In your ear One of the most interesting features of the South African community radio sector is the campus radio circuit. What began as nothing more than a cafeteria intercom as far back as the 1970s around South African tertiary institutions has now grown into an influential, dynamic force. The benefits of campus […]

Douglas Adams’s first novel was was an instant bestseller. Now dogged by writer’s block, he has turned to new projects Nicholas Wroe Soon after The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy was published in 1979, Douglas Adams was invited to sign copies at a small science fiction bookshop in London’s Soho. As he drove there, some […]

Neal Collins So now it’s official. Juan Antonio Samaranch closed the Games of the 27th Olympiad by telling the watching world: “These were the best Olympic Games ever. The last 16 days have been a glorious chapter in Australian history.” You can’t help but agree. Pity he couldn’t have tacked on a quick sentence about […]

RankCountryGold Gold equivGold equiv equivper millionper million people GNP adjust NoRankNoRankNo 1Bahamas1.7545.5716.37 2Bulgaria10.0171.2573.59 3Jamaica3.7321.2282.81 4Estonia1.7551.6652.25 5Cuba20.781.8832.08 6Romania18.0110.78201.92 7Latvia2.0461.00121.69 8Belarus8.6190.86171.59 9Azerbaijan2.3410.29371.47 10Hungary13.0131.3061.44 11Georgia2.0530.40311.41 12Ethiopia5.7270.09551.39 13Lithuania3.0380.75211.34 14Barbados0.3711.10101.26 15Moldova1.0590.25411.21 16Trinidad/Tobago1.0591.00121.14 17Kenya4.7290.17491.14 18Kazakstan5.7260.36330.91 19Mozambique1.0590.05640.89 20Slovakia3.3330.67220.84 21Armenia0.7680.17500.81 22Ukraine13.0140.26390.79 23Australia38.442.0220.76 24Slovenia2.0461.00120.64 25Russia60.020.41290.63 26Czech Rep5.0280.50250.50 27Quatar0.3710.55240.45 28Iceland0.3711.10100.45 29Greece9.0180.82180.45 30Norway7.0221.7540.45 Selected 60South Africa2.3410.06620.08 61United States66.610.25420.07

The first week of the Olympics has thrown up some pleasant surprises to counter the disappointments Grant Shimmin As I looked down from the media centre overlooking the Sydney International Aquatic Centre’s warm-up pool early on Wednesday evening, Graham Hill walked by, clad in his South African shirt and with a tattoo of the national […]