THOUSANDS of Basotho on Friday morning packed the Setsoto stadium in Maseru ahead of their king’s wedding. King Letsie III and his bride Karabo Motsoeneng, 23, from the Free State town of Ficksburg, will tie the knot before the huge crowd during a ceremony scheduled to start at 10am. Former South African president Nelson Mandela, […]

After only two years, South African Rachelle Jonck has made a name for herself in New York’s opera world Coenraad Visser We meet at New York’s famous Carnegie Deli, appropriately across the street from the mecca of classical music. At the table next to us, an unsuspecting tourist ordered the house staple – pastrami on […]

John Matshikiza WITH THE LID OFF Is the Reverend Jesse Jackson an opportunist, or someone who simply knows how to turn any opportunity to a greater advantage? Is there a difference between the two concepts, anyway? From that fateful day in 1968, when he was one of the first people to arrive on the balcony […]

They’re fighting over your personal information, and you’ll need some armour to maintain your privacy online Rupert Neethling The unflattering picture of a person who wants to safeguard his online privacy is typically of a man who doesn’t want to get caught visiting porn sites. Especially if he’s cyber-leching on company time. But the issue […]

Khadija Magardie The Southern African Catholic Bishops Conference has received a $5-million (R31- million) grant to fight the HIV/Aids pandemic in South Africa. The Catholic newspaper The Southern Cross reported last week that the grant is part of a R600-million package to various non- governmental and medical organisations, including churches. The money is the lifeline […]

Peter Dickson Simmering tensions between the African National Congress and the United Democratic Movement over the strike at Volkswagen’s Uitenhage plant exploded in the provincial legislature this week as the ANC accused the UDM of fomenting the labour dispute. Introducing a snap debate on the strike on Monday, Eastern Cape MEC for Finance and former […]

Tjaart Potgieter LIFESTYLE Saturday evening. I was fantasising about Sunday lunch at the Troyeville hotel – I hadn’t been there for quite a while – and I thought it would go something like this: here we are, sitting quietly at a corner table waiting for our chicken livers and grilled calamari, sipping a glass of […]

Shaun de Waal MOVIE OFTHEWEEK Inevitably, once Leonardo DiCaprio got involved, the making of The Beach became a major gossip-fest. Allegations flew about the film-makers’ ecological destruction of the beach where it was being filmed in Thailand; and Leo had allegedly hired an entire island nearby to house his current girlfriend. The rumours that impinge […]

A NORTHERN Province taxi owner has been acquitted of attempting to murder Orlando Pirates defender Gerald Raphahlela. Raphahlela narrowly escaped injury when the vehicle he was driving was sprayed with bullets in Seshego township on December 21 1998. Kobedi Kubushi, 40, a taxi owner from Seshego, was discharged in the Pietersburg High Court on Wednesday. […]

Khadija Magardie Current research indicates that at least one in every 10 South Africans will contract a new sexually transmitted disease (STD) this year. According to Department of Health statistics, the numbers of STDs are spiralling. Every year over four million new cases are reported. Given the close association between STDs and HIV/Aids, it is […]