Pensioners in the Eastern Cape are up in arms over chaos in the Welfare Department Peter Dickson Pensioners have rampaged through the Transkei, assaulting provincial Department of Welfare pay-out officials and taking others hostage, after the department quietly removed 20E000 welfare grant beneficiaries from the provincial register. The violent protests took place in Qumbu, Mqanduli […]
Robert Potts BOSS CUPID by Thom Gunn (Faber &Faber) Thom Gunn’s poetry has always been celebratory. In the Fifties, as an English poet of the Movement generation, his icons were leather-clad bikers, Elvis Presley, soldiers – the rough, tough men of action – and he famously wrote “I praise the overdog, from Alexander/ To those […]
BAFANA Bafana are still the best soccer team in Africa, according to the monthly Fifa rankings. Morocco are are in second spot, with Tunisia in third. Egypt, Cameroon, Zambia, Angola, Ghana, Ivory Coast and Nigeria make up the rest of the top-ten. Somalia, who still compete despite a long-running war, are rated the least powerful […]
Is teen pin-up Anna Kournikova bad for women’s tennis? Jon Henderson looks at the triumph of style over substance When word reached the photographers in the Wimbledon press restaurant that Billie Jean King’s opponent was in trouble on an outside court, they barely looked up from their games of cards. After all the year was […]
Khadija Magardie A newborn South African baby can expect an average of 40 healthy years. That’s the grim news from researchers, as the HIV/Aids pandemic slashes up to seven years of healthy life expectancy off the average South African life. Next to Sierra Leone, Malawi and Namibia, South Africa ranks as one of the lowest […]
Moving beyond play readings, the Kultcha Klub takes on Gladiators, sex and life after death Robert Colman Anyone who’s looking for an intelligent, stimulating and safe one-night stand should try the Wits Downstairs Theatre in Braamfontein – you’ll find a tireless group of artists, who are launching a festival of 10 original South African plays […]
Several vacancies could pave the way for the appointment of more black judges to the Supreme Court of Appeal Khadija Magardie The Supreme Court of Appeal could soon undergo a major shake-up as several vacancies provide the opportunity to significantly alter the composition of an institution long criticised for being too white and too male. […]
NAWAAL DEANE, Johannesburg | Friday 12.30pm. SOCCER City will set the stage for a thrill-a-minute showdown between arch-rivals Sundowns and Chiefs in the BobSave Super Bowl final on Saturday. The berths for the final were decided following Chiefs’ 3-1 drubbing of Bush Bucks, while Sundowns went through with a 1-0 clincher against AmaZulu. Tradional pre-match […]
Britain has called for a ban on sales of diamonds from Sierra Leone that, as in Angola, have fuelled the country’s civil war Ewen MacAskill in Antwerp and David Pallister In a small room above the Diamond Bourse in Antwerp, a dealer expressed regret over the mutilations and deaths in the African civil wars in […]
Jazz artist Errol Dyers has a new album, which he says is about who he is and how he speaks to people Thebe Mabanga The Cape is renowned for its laid-back splendour. It provides a perfect setting for artistic inspiration. It also possesses a rich musical heritage honed by generations of Khoisan communities over a […]