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 […]

Mike Finch Commonwealth Games South Africa’s track and field athletes returned home from the Commonwealth Games on Tuesday clutching 11 medals – their biggest haul at a major event since returning to the international scene in 1993. Unfortunately, only one of the medallists was black. Olympic 800m runner Hezekiel Sepeng, almost a veteran member of […]

Andrew Muchineripi Soccer The Rothmans Cup spin doctors never cease reminding us that the competition is “unbelievable” and the multimillion-rand event certainly has generated more than its fair share of excitement. It has, however, also proved unbelievably predictable with Kaizer Chiefs, Sundowns, Manning Rangers and Orlando Pirates reaching the 1997 semi-finals and only one of […]

Wonder Hlongwa The Yeoville Community Development Forum has a dream: it wants to see the streets of greater Yeoville cleared of crime and grime. It wants to create an environment that encourages economic, social and cultural development in the cosmopolitan community in eastern Johannesburg. The forum unveiled its dream at a brain- storming workshop this […]

Hein Marais: A SECOND LOOK Eighteen months ago, questioning the virtues of the free market was tantamount to flashing a membership card of the Flat Earth Society. Today, there’s standing room only on the bandwagon of second thoughts about laissez- faire capitalism. Minister of Finance Trevor Manuel, President Nelson Mandela, British Prime Minister Tony Blair, […]

the right note John Higgins The silence was broken by a series of fragile notes from the bared mechanism of an old, abandoned musical-box. Some 80 people – crammed into a room meant to hold 50 – sat or stood in rapt attention as the British poet, Tom Raworth, fed a sheet of card through […]

Ann Eveleth Almost four million households could soon benefit from subsidised electricity in a move expected to save hundreds of millions of rands in health costs associated with the use of inferior fuels. The National Electricity Regulator told Parliament last week it plans to introduce a subsidy, or poverty tariff, to reduce basic cooking and […]

future Tim Radford Kevin Warwick has just made history. The 44- year-old professor of cybernetics at Reading University, United Kingdom, got his own doctor to implant him with a silicon chip. He then opened a doorway into the future. Actually, he opened a doorway into his own university department. As he stepped into the building, […]

Tracy Murinik On show in Cape Town ‘Put the mauve bowl with that green one, and grab that vase: they’re just fantastic together!” she screamed. Such was my humble introduction to the Beezy Bailey Art Factory and Shop, and ”she” was an obviously excited and ardent shopper who had (obviously) just discovered the perfect match […]