Andy Capostagno Rugby Everybody said it wouldn’t work and they were right, but it is still sad to see Dawie Snyman being shown the door for not taking the Golden Lions to the semi-finals of the Currie Cup. When Snyman was appointed last June it was widely believed that he had been brought up from […]

Barbara Ludman POINT OF ORIGIN by Patricia Cornwell (Little, Brown) Patricia Cornwell’s life generally spills over into her books. In this one, it threatens to take the book over. She’s made a background theme of the FBI’s prurient interest in its agents’ affairs ever since she was named as co-respondent in a divorce suit lodged […]

Ferial Haffajee Brussels and Paarl are worlds apart. One is cold and rich. The other poor and hot. Brussels is also the site of trade negotiations between South Africa and the European Union which has 400-million consumers in 15 countries. An agreement could have a huge impact, bringing Paarl and South African industry more firmly […]

Raymond Joseph Police say Mark Thatcher will be subpoenaed as a state witness in the fraud and theft trial of officers who acted as “bookrunners” for his failed money-lending business. Police say 11 of Thatcher’s runners have been identified. At least three runners will appear in court by the middle of next month, and others […]

Maureen Barnes Down the tube The Emmy Awards – the Hollywood TV industry’s mutual back-scratching night out – took three-and- a-half hours to screen, and this was the edited version. In that amount of time, I imagine, the Almighty created a sizeable chunk of the earth and the creatures thereon. Having been caught before, I […]

KHAREEN PECH, Johannesburg | Friday 1.00pm. A WEALTHY rightwinger linked to arms cartels and several rebel groups in Africa plans to destabilise South Africa in the run-up to the country’s second democratic elections in 1999. Former Civilian Co-operation Bureau operative Johan Niemller is directing preparations by the “Boerevolk” for a “Fourth Boere Revolution” by galvanising […]

Robert Kirby: Loose Cannon This past week, I wandered down to the bottom of my garden to see how the fairies were getting along. What with the lack this year of anything you might have called a rainy season, I had left them to their own devices. In the “new” South Africa, fairies, like everyone […]

Is Camille Paglia duffing up the right-on `feminazis’ on behalf of bad girls everywhere? Or is she peddling outdated, simplistic views completely out of touch with the Nineties? Angela Phillips on the working-class motormouth who enrages as much as she engages This should have been Camille Paglia’s week. The woman who put the sex back […]

Swapna Prabhakaran The managing director of Crawford Preparatory School in Benmore, Graham Crawford, has apologised for offending parents when he called the multiracial institution “the last bastion of European culture”. The remark was made at a parent/ teacher meeting at the elite private school, which caters specifically to “academically advanced” children. Crawford said this week […]

Robert Potts SIMPLICITY by Edward de Bono (Viking) Edward de Bono’s many, many books include Conflicts: A Better Way to Solve Them; Handbook for the Positive Revolution; How To Be More Interesting; and Teach Yourself to Think. These seem to have sold extremely well, both to human beings and also to (the apparent target audience) […]