Review of the week:Matthew Krouse A morning in the 5fm studio with Mark Gillman is a bit like a morning in the locker room of the local gym. There are lots of brawny blokes about, some wearing Mark Gillman T- shirts that read: “Seize the morning!” There’s something in Gillman’s character that allows him to […]

Globetrotting for his new book Eat the Rich, America’s favourite rightwing iconoclast found laughter in squalor and corruption everywhere. PJO’Rourke speaks to the Mail & Guardian Eat the Rich contrasts different economic systems around the world. What gave you the idea? I wanted to find out why some countries are so rich and others are […]

Bryan Rostron:A SECOND LOOK Once upon a time, in the bad old days, when I was a rookie reporter in Cape Town, a regular assignment was to greet the Union Castle as it docked, in order to ask some fading English celebrity or ageing actor on the last leg of a declining career, before he […]

THERE is a link between the El Nio weather phenomenon and deadly horse epidemics in South Africa, British scientists said this week. In an article published in the journal Nature on Wednesday, researchers from the Institute of Animal Health said that climate changes resulting from El Nio caused a population explosion of the biting midge, […]

Ferial Haffajee:TAKING STOCK `Sjoe! I gave it to him,” says Nocwaka Lamani in an interview at her parliamentary office. The man she gave it to was former law and order minister Adriaan Vlok, whose forces had arrested Lamani’s son, Tango. “I told him, `I am demanding my son back by May 11 1989 because I […]

Gert Thys steps out from the shadow of Josiah Thugwane, but he’s finding that fame doesn’t necessarily pay, reports Michael Finch For some, the second-greatest moment of the Olympic marathon was when Josiah Thugwane raised his right index finger as he crossed the finishing line. For the historians it was a moment to record and […]

Minister of Finance Trevor Manuel’s budget has been labelled `boring’, but it augurs well for the future. Belinda Beresford and Donna Block report The government may be keen to flirt with voters before the election, but the latest budget showed an administration also keen to display a well-turned piece of economic discipline to international investors […]

Martin Jacques EAST AND WEST by Chris Patten (Macmillan) This is a book in at least three parts. In fact, it often feels more like a collection of essays than a coherent ensemble. But a common polemical thread runs through the book: it might have been entitled Patten’s Revenge. During his spell in Hong Kong, […]

Loose cannon:Robert Kirby As part of its relentless quest for a just society, the government will soon be considering a piece of new legislation, a Bill which prescribes the extent to which schools, private clubs, banks, hospitals and citizens will in future be allowed to discriminate in choosing their associates and clients. To be entitled […]

Ken Daniels Horse racing Picking a Fort Wood horse to win a feature race is about as easy as predicting that the price of alcohol and cigarettes will go up in the budget. After picking off three of the four choice plums in the Cape racing feature season, the Mike de Kock/Weichong Mawing combination returns […]