Religion has a packaging problem. It is like a supermarket with thousands of products on the shelves which really deal in two things only: calories and cleansing. Kilometres of competing packets turn a simple matter of eating, drinking and washing into a nightmare of choice when all you need is more or less to bounce […]

Donna Block It’s boom time in Rustenburg as metal madness takes over the commodities markets. Speculators, mutual funds and hedge funds are seeing metals as safe investments amid fears of rising inflation and higher interest rates in the United States and Europe. A year ago most precious metals were on the junk heap. Now they’re […]

Riaan Wolmarans CD OFTHEWEEK The Goo Goo Dolls made an impressive comeback in 1999 when their powerful ballad Iris shot up the charts after being featured in the filmCity of Angels. The success of their sixth album, Dizzy Up the Girl (Gallo), might have been attributed to the success of that track, but on closer […]

Cameron Duodu LETTER FROM THE NORTH Who are Robert Mugabe’s political strategists? He ought to fire the lot of them. There is no country in the world in which you can hold a referendum – and expect to win – when there is a fuel shortage. A fuel shortage is like no other economic deprivation, […]

FOOD and fashion retailer Woolworths Holdings Ltd unveiled an 11% drop in interim headline earnings on Thursday, blaming stunted consumer spending despite a recent raft of interest rate cuts. Woolworths, which this week unveiled a restructuring plan to help refocus its businesses to try and allay market woes, reported headline earnings falling 16 cents in […]

Khadija Magardie The government is planning to use colonial- era legislation to impose a R5E000 fine or maximum five-year jail sentence on traditional surgeons who perform botched circumcisions. The proposals are contained in a draft proclamation, drawn up under the 1927 Black Administration Act, which is currently being circulated among health authorities, practitioners and traditional […]

Graham Greene’s love affair with the mysterious ‘C’ is revealed obliquely in his books and private papers. Robert McCrum has read them Graham Greene was a novelist who understood the meaning and mechanics of mystery. He patrolled with impressive vigilance the perimeter fence of his privacy, while at the same time scattering tantalising clues about […]

Brenda Atkinson MIXED MEDIA It’s been a good month for eye-catching advertising and provocative media commentary. Andersen Consulting’s recently launched electronic commerce ad campaign hits where it hurts. Featuring a sheep in wolf’s clothing trying to blend in with a pack of the real yellow-eyed beasts, the advert poses the rather chilling question: “Trying to […]

Lynda Gilfillan ‘Seen from above – from a plane, for instance – South Africa is a dry and empty land: rock and stunted bush, grey and khaki. The landscape art and literature of South Africa’s white settlers harped on the barrenness of their new home, and on its indifference to whether they starved or prospered, […]

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, […]