Andrew Muchineripi Soccer Au revoir France. Hello Mauritius, Gabon and Angola. As memories of the World Cup fade from the memory bank, Bafana Bafana must start preparing for another African Nations Cup campaign. No longer holders of the most prestigious football prize the continent has to offer, South Africa must go through a six-match qualification […]

superior? Carolize Jansen In research done by the Sports Information and Science Agency (Sisa) in South Africa, the following interesting statistics came to light: when asking women about obstacles they faced in sport: 10% of women between 18 and 24 years mentioned men’s physical strength advantage, compared to the average of 5% of older women. […]

Bryan Rostron Returning home after many years, I have discovered a rudimentary litmus test for gauging how the political land lies. Mention the name Robert McBride. A litmus test, you will recall, produces simple either/or results. In this case: a hero or villain. The reaction seldom has anything to do with McBride. It’s like holding […]

fi Amelia Gentleman Music lovers could soon be free to dispense with cumbersome multi- stacking CD players in favour of pocket-sized devices smaller than credit cards, christened the My-fi. Promoted as the world’s smallest hi-fi, the British-designed machine can play music downloaded from a CD player or direct from the Internet. The music is stored […]

Asian turmoil is hitting luxury goods in the wallet … and the handbag and the shoes, writes Sarah Ryle Patsy from Absolutely Fabulous might have said: “You can never have too many accessories.” If only it were true. The sad reality, from the viewpoint of fashion’s most prestigious houses, is that when the economic climate […]

Economists may need a crash rethink of the basic tenets of economic orthodoxy, writes Larry Elliot Another normal week for the global economy. Russia’s on the point of financial meltdown, the Chinese government is battling to stave off devaluation, bankruptcies are up 35% in Japan, stock markets are down almost everywhere, the biggest industrial merger […]

The level of government pension funding may be cause for concern, writes Mike Metelits The level of funding of government employee pensions, along with the method of paying for these obligations, may be distorting how foreign investors look at the level of indebtedness of South Africa, and thus how they rate our future prospects and […]

the mould Carolize Jansen Women in sport Cast your mind back to the little statuettes of sports players Shell distributed last year. Can you recall how many of those statuettes were of women? To refresh your memory, just one. Of Penny Heyns. Does that mean that there is only one sportswoman of note in South […]

Ferial Haffajee Tensions in the Midi TV consortium have come to a head because major shareholders vetoed an attempt by the board’s chair to secure a highly paid job at the station. Nomazizi Mtshotshisa has lobbied hard to become full-time executive chair, with an annual salary of over R400 000. Her efforts were shot down […]

Marlene Burger The alleged plot to assassinate United Nations secretary general Dag Hammarskjld 37 years ago was the brainchild of at least two British security agencies – MI5 and the Special Operations Executive – and the CIA, top-secret documents show. For once, apartheid’s dirty tricks brigade appears to have been falsely accused of involvement in […]