OWN CORRESPONDENT and REUTERS, Johannesburg | Friday JOHNNIC Communications, which is preparing to bid for South Africa’s second fixed-line telephone licence, has raised R3.8bn from a rights offer to consolidate control of acquisitions and eliminate debt. The offer, which was 78.78% subscribed, saw more than R800m rand raised from minority shareholders, with the balance being […]

Neal Collins olympics For those of you who think nandrolene was the bad guy with a cheap torch in Captain Scarlet, think again. It is, in fact, a steroid which helps build muscle, reduce fat, increase stamina, and disappears from the system in two weeks – and has been an enduring Olympic star. That said, […]

Paul Kirk The KwaZulu-Natal government’s investigation into a series of Mail & Guardian exposs on Prince Gideon Zulu has found the MEC for welfare and population development squeaky clean – without checking the bank accounts that implicated him in the first place. Meanwhile, the controversial prince has blamed the rampant chaos in the provincial Department […]

Andrew Gilder On the face of it the recent demise of the State Theatre ballet and dance companies, while politically expedient, seems to be a “giant leap backwards” for South African dance. From one perspective this is true. More than half of the professional dance contracts available in the country were lost. The other point […]

Injuries, bans and retirements have caused a high turnover of personnel, but the new Proteas have blossomed Peter Robinson A few years ago BC (Before Cellphones), cricketers would take themselves off to the golf course for a few hours to get away from it all. For better or worse, this is no longer the case. […]

Neil Williams MADUMO: A MAN BEWITCHED by Adam Ashforth (David Philip) Madumo: A Man Bewitched is a true story. This well-written book streamlines the experiences gained by Adam Ashforth when he lived in Soweto. Ashforth, a Princeton professor, has stayed in Mapetla, Soweto, intermittently since 1990. He has been accepted by the people there. One […]

INFORMATION technology giant Dimension Data (Didata) has become the third largest South African company in terms of market capitalisation, replacing diamond giant De Beers. This comes in the wake of Didata’s share price increase of nearly 5% to R68 a share, which brings the market capitalisation to R78.77bn. De Beers’ market capitalisation stands at R77.40bn. […]

Nawaal Deane and Ntuthuko Maphumulo The first in-depth investigation into the efficacy of South Africa’s Aids awareness campaigns on the country’s youth shows that while the information is getting through, few believe it applies to them. The survey, conducted by the Beyond Awareness Campaign, reveals that most young people see HIV as a threat to […]

David Beresford Another country The end of the world is nigh and will be brought about by wind. This latest triumph in speculative physics (or is it meteorology?) arises from contemplation of the vexed question of what happened to the dinosaurs. For those who are not up to speed on this great scientific debate I […]

Natasha Distiller crossfire Khadija Magardie’s article, “Put an end to prostitution by removing the demand” (August 18 to 24) contains a number of interesting legal and moral assumptions that warrant exploration. Decriminalising and regulating the adult commercial sex-work industry are important steps towards dealing with the violence and exploitation that occur in the industry. Decriminalisation […]