A farmer has pitted himself against his colleagues in supporting the government’s proposed arms control legislation Lynda Gilfillan Karoo farmer Ken Southey looks anything but the dissident. Yet his appearance at public hearings in Parliament last month on the proposed Firearms Control Bill has placed him firmly on the opposite side from most of his […]

Peter Robinson Allan Donald, South African cricket’s prodigal son, should be welcomed back to the fold on Friday. If he isn’t, Rushdie Magiet and his selection panel deserve to have all six of their heads banged together. Donald took off the South African winter to play for Warwickshire this year. He skipped the three-Test series […]

Tennis authorities are looking at ways of improving the game Jon Henderson How’s this for a scoreline: Tim Henman beat Fernando Vicente 4-2 5-3 5-4? It may look a little cock-eyed, but it is the score by which Henman would have defeated the Spaniard in the first round of the United States Open – rather […]

a round-earther These are extracts from the detailed diary kept by a member of the Presidential Aids Advisory panel May 2000 I was invited to participate on the Presidential Aids Advisory Panel which would have high visibility given President Thabo Mbeki’s famous letter to United States President Bill Clinton and his flirtation with denialists – […]

RETAIL sales jumped more strongly than expected in June, reversing a fall in May and helping to boost the second quarter increase, official data showed. Seasonally adjusted retail sales climbed by 2.6% in June from the previous month, producing a gain of 6.6% from the same month the previous year. It was the biggest monthly […]

Marianne Merten On Wednesday this week, 19 days after the first dead girl was discovered, Kuils-river police started plotting on a map where the missing and the deceased disappeared. Four young girls have been found dead in the Kuilsriver area, several others have vanished and residents fear a child serial killer is at large. The […]

TANZANIA has extended a 20-month-old waiver on maize import duty to December to encourage imports of the staple crop to meet a food shortage due to drought. ”We have extended the exemption on duty on maize to encourage the business community to import maize,” said Gray Mgonja, deputy permanent secretary in the Ministry of Finance. […]

Catch a bus to the city centre for the cheapest show in town, writes Merle Colborne There was a cow on one once. It stood in the aisle and shat. No extra charge. In the bus business when you can gross R4 500 for ferrying the main course and 75 wedding guests from Umtata to […]

Lynda Gilfillan A new, slimmed-down tabloid rose from the dusty streets of a Karoo dorp and the ashes of the fallen media empire last week when the offices of the Advertiser en Karoonuus- News opened in Graaff-Reinet. Thirteen rural newspapers, which had been under the dynastic control of the Knott- Craig family for 40 years, […]

Mercedes Sayagues I pour a triple Scotch for Marcelina and one for me. We sit by the fireplace at her home on a cold winter evening. We are waiting for a phone call. My friend’s legs and arms have been failing for the past two weeks. She staggers, trembles and falls. We are waiting for […]