again Tony Harrison CRICKET Allan Donald, arguably the fastest white bowler in the world, can’t wait to get back to action for his English county side Warwickshire. The South African pace ace is recovering from an accident at Hove when he fell backwards on to an advertising board while attempting to make a catch off […]

Maggie Davey CD OFTHEWEEK Whisper to the Wild Water (Universal) has enough harmony, harps and harpsichords to ensure Maire Brennan’s safe passage to heaven. Maire Brennan is from the magnificently talented Brennan family from Donegal, Ireland, who went on to form Clannad, a band which arguably produced their finest work before they became famous. Their […]

THE country’s mining fatalities and injuries fell sharply in 1999 as mine safety legislation took effect, the Chamber of Mines said on Wednesday. Only one accident was reported in 1999, when 19 miners were killed at the Mponeng Mine in an underground gas explosion, compared with an average of over eight major accidents a year […]

itself As South Africans prepared for the success story of Africa, the country’s first democratic election in April 1994, the Rwandan president’s plane was shot down. It was the signal for an orgy of bloodletting that saw nearly a million people hacked to death in 100 days, a killing rate three times as high as […]

Steven Friedman WORM’S EYE VIEW Solving most of our society’s problems has far more to do with how we handle people and politics than with the fancy techniques we use. Take one of our toughest and most important challenges, HIV/Aids. At first glance the idea that beating a virus has anything to do with getting […]

Barry Streek LETTERS FROM ROBBEN ISLAND: A SELECTION OF AHMED KATHRADA’S PRISON CORRESPONDENCE, 1964-1989 edited by Robert D Vassen (Zebra) From prison, Ahmed Kathrada wrote thoughtful letters, initially twice a year and then once a month, to the outside world, knowing that they would first be censored by prison officials, then examined in detail by […]

Jason Venter SQUASH This week’s South African squash open national championship, staged first at Johannesburg suburban courts and later on a portable glass court in the middle of Sandton Square, is no doubt one of the premier events on the South African sport calendar – as if anyone cared in this era of Hansiegate and […]

Ivor Powell went in search of some of the ogres of the past to find out what they’re up to in the new South Africa The extension of amnesty to “superspy” Craig Williamson for the remote- controlled murders of Ruth First, Jeanette Schoon and her daughter Katryn, put into sharp focus the extent to which […]

cards Glenda Daniels About 400 businesses, involving approximately 400 000 workers, have applied for exemptions from the Basic Conditions of Employment Act (BCEA). This includes South African Airways (SAA), the South African Chamber of Mines, Eskom, and welfare institutions and small businesses. About 21 000 workers are affected at the Chamber of Mines, more than […]

SOUTH African pet lovers have started an air bridge for cats and dogs caught up in the violence in neighbouring Zimbabwe. Spurred by television footage in April of farm pets being beaten to death or maimed by war veterans invading white-owned farms, the Johannesburg-based Wet Nose Animal Rescue Centre stepped in. The centre’s spokeswoman, Elmine […]