Mark Tran in New York Boxing Almost 20 years after Muhammad Ali retired from boxing, another Ali is poised to enter the ring, perhaps as soon as this summer. She is Laila Ali, his youngest daughter. Laila Ali, aged 21, trains at the Los Angeles Boxing Gym, turning up every night for sparring practice. One […]
THREE of Russia’s best pole vaulters will be in South Africa to test Okkert Brits during the Engen Grand Prix Summer Series. Vadim Strogolev, Yevgeny Smiryagin and Pavel Burlatsenko have confirmed their participation in Pietersburg on March 13, Roodepoort on March 19 and in Cape Town on March 26. Joining them will be woman highjumper […]
They’ve been murdered, raped and mistreated for 3 000 years under India’s caste system. But now the untouchable women of rural Bihar are fighting back – with bullets. Jason Burke reports Two scenes from rural India. The first from the summer of 1996. Bhuli Devi, a 30-year- old peasant woman, stands naked in a field […]
John Matshikiza:WITH THE LID OFF I’m summoned to appear in the magistrate’s court at 8.30am. It’s a simple matter. My car was broken into, the culprits were caught a few minutes later with my property still hot in their hands, and the case has finally come before a magistrate. I am obliged to testify. The […]
Elizabeth Wurtzel:BODY LANGUAGE In 19th-century France, the art academies considered it less than respectable to have students paint posed nudes. So, lest all the fun be quashed, the budding artistes made paintings of other people painting naked models. Now Esquire’s at it, too. How else to explain its February issue’s devotion to the topic of […]
Peter Vale: A SECOND LOOK The brave testimony of Dr Bridget O’Laughlin before the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s amnesty committee provides a moment to pause and take a second look at the influential intellectual work of her friend and colleague, Ruth First, who was assassinated by an apartheid letter bomb in August, 1982. It also […]
Charlene Smith In 10 years, the average life expectancy of South Africans may be 40 years, there will be fewer children and many will be in orphanages. Prison populations will be mostly sick and dying, there will be greater absenteeism in the workplace, and farmers will battle to find enough well people to harvest crops […]
TOYOTA South Africa’s car assembly plant was closed for a fourth straight day on Thursday, hit by a strike over bonus pay, but a union official said members will return to work on Friday. “Our members have decided to go back to work on Friday after [we have read] Toyota’s financial statements due out today,” […]
media maze AAn alphabet soup. That’s what the print media industry is becoming. Ownership is changing every day. Shares have changed hands in each of the four major newspaper publishers and they seem to continue to do so as black shareholders buy in. New titles are hitting the news-stands with regularity and new media personalities […]
Howard Barrell South Africans are headed for their most expensive election ever on June 2, costing the taxpayer and political parties a total of R2-billion. Voters will be saturated with media coverage extolling the virtues of parties, as politicians draw on the latest campaigning methods developed in Europe and the United States. By the time […]