Stuart Hess Ayanda Ntsaluba does not enjoy the limelight. But his new position as director general of health has thrust him into the public eye. Minister of Health Nkosazana Zuma appointed Ntsaluba three weeks ago. He replaces Olive Shisana, who left the department in June this year in the wake of the Sarafina II scandal. […]

Andy Capostagno : Cricket Contrary to what you may have thought, the cricket season began this week. Specifically it began on Tuesday night at around 7.30pm in the Long Room at the Wanderers, the occasion being the launch of The Mutual and Federal South African Cricket Annual 1998. The provinces have been applying WD40 to […]

Duncan Mackay : Athletics When Tegla Loroupe returned to Kenya after winning the New York City Marathon in 1994, a party was organised and the villagers presented her parents with nine cattle, 16 sheep and some land. Yet it was the words of the women in her tribe she still values the most. “You did […]

The Gay and Lesbian Film Festival turns five this year, and it promises to be bigger and better than ever, with one of the highlights being a local documentary on a gay activist Andrew Worsdale During the late 1980s and early 1990s filmmakers like Gus van Sant, Derek Jarman and Monica von Treut, together with […]

Friday night: Swapna Prabhakaran My weekend sort-of starts on a Thursday afternoon, and my Fridays are usually earmarked as a day to chill and catch up with friends. As the sun sets on the weekend traffic heading out of Durban city, we avoid rush hour altogether by driving into town to meet at the Bat […]

Chiara Carter The heat is being turned on alleged Mafia boss Vito Palazzolo, with moves to step up a police investigation and another extradition request expected from the Italian authorities. Palazzolo, who became a South African citizen in 1995, is on trial in absentia in Italy and was recently listed as a top Mafia figure […]

It’s been a bad week for municipalities in the Eastern Cape, with public figures battered by fraud and sex scandals. Peter Dickson reportsThe mayor grabbed his assault rifle while the town secretary downloaded porn from the Internet and seven councillors drove home courtesy of their fake driver’s licences. Sounds like a brave new world’s ultimate […]

He’s the eternal optimist, the affable family man who happens to be a sex-god superstar. Yet still he doesn’t feel loved. He spoke to Miranda Sawyer Ewan McGregor is one of the most extraordinary people you could ever meet; but what is startling about him is his delightful, dumbfounding ordinariness. His freakish normality. Richard E […]

Andrew Muchineripi : Soccer More than a quarter of the 1998/99 Castle Premiership fixtures have been completed and the shock leaders are Bloemfontein Celtic, a club traditionally associated with the relegation zone rather than the top of the table. How have the 18 teams fared in the first nine rounds of the richest national championship […]