REUTERS, Johannesburg | Friday CONSTRUCTION and engineering company, Group Five Ltd, expected a sharp improvement in business, despite the 50% plunge in earnings per share in the last year. The group, which was hit by significant losses in its engineering division and a sluggish performance in construction, expects its EPS to surge by 70% in […]

A fight for the mineral-rich Richtersveld is pitting a small community against the state and its diamond mine Alexkor Barry Streek Three high-powered legal teams are squaring up the in the remote Northern Cape town of Kubus for one of the country’s most significant land claims battles. Communities in the Richtersveld are seeking to have […]

Andrew Muchineripi soccer Think carefully about the question I am about to pose before you answer it: what are the most common words on the lips of football fans ahead of any cup final? A clue. It is so obvious that it may not be obvious. Without fear of contradiction I declare that “Who will […]

users M&G reporter Internet news service News24 has taken steps to track down and penalise three people who have posted abusive messages on its chat forums. Complaints have been submitted to the administrators of the abusers’ Internet Service Providers or domains, who may choose what actions – warnings, blacklisting or criminal charges – to take. […]

South African Music Week: A CDreview special African Jazz Pioneers: Afrika Vukani (Gallo) The Pioneers haul out their old-style South African jazz stuff one more time, but it really is all wearing a bit thin now. Leader Ntemi Piliso, probably the last remaining member of the original Pioneers, groans his way through a song or […]

Evidence wa ka Ngobeni While the police have chalked up several important victories against the drug industry in recent months, they admit they are yet to make significant progress in stemming the proliferation of drugs in schools. Since February this year law enforcement agencies have been targeting various drug transit points and have seized more […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT and REUTERS, Johannesburg | Friday THE South African Diamond Board said its dispute with De Beers, which had delayed two of the firm’s export consignments, centred on how to price diamond exports from the country. In a bid to solve this ongoing saga, the ministry of minerals and energy said it would fast-track […]

Ntuthuko Maphumulo soccer On paper Carlos Queiroz is one of the best coaches ever to set foot in South Africa. He is known as the “professor” in Portugal, but despite his outstanding achievements he was not well known in Africa until world ruling body Fifa recommended him to the South African Football Association (Safa) as […]

Daniel Taylor soccer The first bouquets started arriving just before 11am. It started as a slow trickle, followed by a steady flow. Very soon, as the news reverberated across the old cotton town, Ewood Park had become the focal point for the mourning of a club and its community. Not only Blackburn but English football […]

James Wood Experience by Martin Amis (Jonathan Cape) Experience is a beautiful, and beautifully strange book, and it is unlike anything one expected. One feared a trough of plaint: either a sad, Gosse-like reckoning with the father; or an angry, journalistic reckoning with those journalists who have hunted Amis from tooth to tooth. But Experience […]