Friday night: Khalo Matabane `Where should we go?” This became the most popular Friday- night question of 1998. Every Friday we moved from sushi bars to kwaito bashes, lefty parties to restaurants and clubs. Driving back home, we complained about the lack of entertainment for young black professionals to such an extent that Tumi decided […]

Howard Barrell African leaders were guardedly optimistic about making progress towards peace in the Democratic Republic of Congo at their meeting in the Zambian capital, Lusaka, which began this week. South Africa has rejoined Congo peace efforts, indicating that it has received assurances from African states supporting Laurent Kabila, Congo’s erratic president, that the new […]

Julian Borger Basketball `Please say it ain’t so”, pleaded the headline in the Chicago Tribune. But the moment the city prayed would never come has arrived. This week Michael Jordan, arguably the best basketball player of all time, retired. The 1,95m gravity-defying Chicago Bulls phenomenon, who seemed to float high above opposing defences, his tongue […]

Mungo Soggot A Soweto man has received South Africa’s largest personal injury award – R17- million – in compensation for the paralysis and dismemberment he sustained after being shot wrongfully by the police. The Johannesburg High Court granted the award with costs in December – more than 10 years after the man was shot. As […]

Many financial institutions offer a range of products for the small people, writes Belinda Beresford Slipped furtively into appreciative little hands or neatly tucked away in a Christmas card, gifts of money to children are one of the traditions of the festive season. An unexpected bonus to pocket money and the grind of begging from […]

SOUTH Africans tuned in to watch the launch of South Africa’s first satellite from the Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, USA, were disappointed on Friday when controllers ruled the launch a “no-go” at the last minute. This was the second attempt to launch the satellite named Sunsat, which was built by the engineering faculty […]

Joan Smith:FIRST PERSON Bob Dole is too old to run for president in the year 2000, but his wife is not, Elizabeth Dole has stepped down as president of the American Red Cross, encouraging speculation that she intends to declare herself as a contender for the White House. Elizabeth Dole, who was transport secretary in […]

Peter Conrad A MAN IN FULL by Tom Wolfe (Jonathan Cape) The brash, skyscraping egos of America love to build monuments to themselves. In his second novel, Tom Wolfe surveys the skyline of Atlanta, the country’s latest mushroom metropolis, and notes that those spires of ghostly, uninhabited glass are sustained by nothing more than speculative […]

SOUTH African boxer Soon Botes is angry after being notified from Germany that WBU super middleweight champion Norbert Noriega has refused to meet him in a return bout. Botes lost a disputed decision against the German with the vacant WBU title at stake in Dortmund last year, and was assured by WBU president Jon Robinson […]

CD of the week: Dave Chislett The recent vast successes of the Springbok Nude Girls, best exemplified by the track Blue Eyes, has tended to overshadow the roots of the band, and the fact that, without a doubt, they are really an alternative act. At Nude Girls shows at the moment, you will find trendies, […]