borders Gregory Mthembu-Salter `Beware,” reads a sticker, “you may be swallowed by a pothole.” The advice seems apt as our taxi bumps its way from the Zambian copperbelt town of Chingola to the Kasumbalesa Congolese border post. At a roadblock, the policeman argues with the driver. The dispute rages until the policeman gives up. “He […]

Andrew Muchineripi Soccer When a team is hanging on to the slenderest of leads in a two-leg cup tie and has conceded an away goal, the last place in South Africa they want to go is the Independence Stadium in Umtata. The Eastern Cape ground is not going to be a contender when – hopefully […]

Marianne Merten A key figure of the Cape Town gang and drug underworld has moved out of town in the face of new anti-organised crime legislation to clamp down on the profits of illegal dealings and assets bought with illicit profits. For some time Colin Stansfield, head of the drug cartel, The Firm, has been […]

The Nobel laureate’s visit to Lagos is the embodiment of hope and as good as a permanent return, Alex Duval Smith reports from Lagos After four years in exile, Nigeria’s most high-profile campaigner against military rule, Wole Soyinka, came home on Wednesday night. All the men and women guarding Lagos airport made sure their fatigues […]

Cocaine, whisky, grass, Dunhills, whisky, cocaine… Staying up all night with the bad boy of US literature is a trial. Marianne Macdonald lived to tell the tale Hunter S Thompson’s big things have always been raising hell and taking drugs, and though he is now 61, neither hell nor ill-health will stop him. He holes […]

fears Barry McIntyre She may have healthy green eyes and a vibrant pink complexion, but this model female head could prove to be a headache for the cellular phone industry. The unchristened head, packed with probes and sensors, will play a key role in a 500 000 European Union- funded study to measure the electromagnetic […]

l The Nobel Prize in Physics: Professor Robert S Laughlin, Stanford University; Professor Horst L Strmer, Columbia University; and Professor C Tsui, Princeton University for discovering that electrons acting together in strong magnetic fields can form new types of “particles”, with charges that are fractions of electron charges. l The Nobel Prize in Chemistry: Walter […]

Mathews Phosa believes he is doing what he promised the people who voted for the ANC, writes Wally Mbhele He sees himself as a crusader against officials who have given his province the reputation as the most corrupt in the country; a victim of an unfair and persecuting media, even a fall guy for the […]

Andy Capostagno Rugby With The Truman Show about to overrun our cinemas there will be those who look upon the final weekend of log fixtures in the Currie Cup as another example of media manipulation. Griquas play the Falcons, Western Province play Natal and the Blue Bulls play Free State. In terms of log positions, […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Friday 11.00am. TWO local golfers, looking for their first wins as professionals, set new course records of nine-under 62s at the Royal Johanesburg West on Thursday, when they shot their way to the top of the second-round leaderboard in the Gauteng leg of the Vodacom series. Ryan Dryer (26) and John […]