Charl Blignaut On stage in Johannesburg By the time the opening night applause had died down to a cacophany of hearty gels and a veritable nursery of spring bouquets had been trundled on to the Civic Theatre stage and into the sinewy, muscled arms of that world famous troupe of male ballerinas, New York-based Les […]

JUSTIN ARENSTEIN, Nelspruit | Friday 2.30pm. MPUMALANGA finance MEC Jacques Modipane on Friday again refused to explain why he failed to warn the Reserve Bank or any other government fiscal body about an illegal R500-million offshore loan deal entered into by the Mpumalanga Parks Board (MPB) last year. Modipane conceded that the International Bank of […]

Marina Benjamin A Second Look When the expectation of crisis at the last century’s end failed to give Oscar Wilde a sufficiently satisfying frisson, he famously complained: “It’s the fin de sicle. I wish it were fin du monde.” Would that he were here to conjure a suitable epigram today. For as this century draws […]

Donna Block Share World The wicked witch of the East is once again spoiling things in the land of Oz. The troubles plaguing Australia’s Asian neighbours has left the country’s stocks sagging and commodity prices hitting new lows. Australia and New Zealand are vulnerable to an economic downturn. Their stock markets are suffering not only […]

Alexander McQueen asked some of fashion’s leading designers to dress people with physical disabilities. His aim? Not to change the world, but to challenge our perceptions of beauty. By Susannah Frankel `W hat do you think?” asks Aimee Mullins. “Pretty funky, isn’t it?” It is, on the face of it, just like any other studio […]

Impotence may be a thing of the past with the advent of Viagra, but the drug does not have the power to re- invent a loving relationship, writes John Illman Viagra could be a marriage wrecker, according to a leading psychosexual expert whose warning about the impotence pill has major implications for hundreds of thousands […]

Chris Roper On show in Cape Town Their name makes me think of some kind of League of Super Heroes, and I picture them in tights and colourful costumes, ta-dahing off into the lurid sunset in pursuit of their evil nemesis, Bad Taste Man. A ridiculous fantasy, brought on by the early hour at which […]

Kitchener A Sudanese MP wants one of Britain’s most revered heroes to be classed as a war criminal. Ian Black reports Britain has no plans to apologise to Sudan for Lord Horatio Kitchener’s behaviour at the end of the 19th century – a demand Khartoum may be planning to lump together with one from Washington […]

performance David Beresford `Castro is a lion,” sang the South African Communist Party choir enthusiastically. At 71, Fidel Castro cut a somewhat aged king of the jungle. Nevertheless, the comparison seemed a fair one as the Cuban leader, with grizzled mane and beard, clambered out of his Mercedes Benz in Soweto on Saturday and made […]

Belinda Beresford gives a few handy tips on how to survive in a wild financial world You might have been getting by with a little help from your friendly bank manager, but now the world economy seems to be going for a walk on the wild side and the most immediate effect for many South […]