The greater the risk, the more he revels in the challenge. Adam Sweeting profiles Formula One’s ambitious mastermind, Bernie Ecclestone Such is Bernie Ecclestone’s reputation as the shadowy mastermind behind Formula One, that it is tempting to think he personally orchestrated the chaos of the season’s opening event in Melbourne. “You couldn’t have wished for […]

With only two ministers expected to retain their positions, speculation about the look of the new Cabinet is growing, writes Howard Barrell Speculation is increasing in political circles over the composition of Thabo Mbeki’s first Cabinet after the elections on June 2. Most attention is focused on who will become deputy president and who will […]

Andrew Muchineripi Soccer The draw for the 1999 African Champions League club competition was particularly kind to Sundowns as they dodged potentially awkward opponents from Angola, Zambia and Zimbabwe in the preliminary rounds. They duly disposed of enthusiastic but limited Telecom Wanderers of Malawi in the first round, with burly Nigerian striker Raphael Chukwu scoring […]

Dan Wylie takes a look at some recent volumes of South African poetry In the hand, Jeremy Gordin’s Pomegranates for My Son (Random House) feels solid, the font unpretentious on a cover of warm amber whose texture is at once rough and even. Ditto for the contents. These poems are generous as a bear hug, […]

Nicole Turner There were a lot of firsts when Interdesign ’99 Water kicked off simultaneously in Mexico, Australia and South Africa in April this year. Industrial design experts from around the world had gathered to brainstorm about water, which all those participating agreed was life itself. Although this was the 32nd Interdesign conference since 1972, […]

John Matshikiza:WITH THE LID OFF Abstraction rules. I am one of many abstractions, queuing with my faceless peers for the chance to vote for abstract promises. Crime will be defeated. There shall be jobs and housing. Your neighbours shall end up loving you as you love them. An abstract situation. A man looks at me […]

Loose cannon Robert Kirby Background music, Muzak, piped music, whatever might you call it, has become one of the most toxic of urban excreta. It doesn’t matter where you go, you can never escape it. In restaurant and supermarket, in the street, on the telephone, at the filling station, even in your barber’s chair you […]

Adrienne Viljoen’s favourite saying is, “‘n Boer maak ‘n plan,” which she translates as “a man makes a plan”. As manager of the South African Bureau of Standards Design Institute, she believes that Africans have the innate ability to design solutions to day-to-day problems. “People are ingenious at solving problems, but they don’t think in […]

Ted Leggett As if the South African Police Service (SAPS) wasn’t in enough hot water over the filming of police brutality by BBC-TV, it recently had to deal with a series of attacks from the country’s deputy president. At an election rally in the Indian suburb of Chatsworth recently, a police member asked Thabo Mbeki […]

What are your options in the cellular market? David le Page takes a look As the winter chills descend, the thought of warming your ear and adjacent cerebellum with microwaves can become attractive, and you’re considering leaping afresh, or for the first time, into the cellular market. It’s a good time to do it. Pressures […]