Angella Johnson: VIEW FROM A BROAD `You’re going to train with the Springboks? Lucky cow!” was the general outcry when I told a group of female friends over lunch that I was spending a day with the national rugby team. Some of them (the white ones, that is) wiggled pleasurably in their seats. “Oooh, that […]
Bongani Siqoko About 130 homeless children, aged between five and 17, living at the Daily Bread Charitable Trust shelter in East London, were severely assaulted and 56 of them kidnapped last weekend. The children were attacked by men claiming to be African National Congress marshals, who accused them of illegal posession of firearms and stolen […]
Christopher Reed in Los Angeles The self-proclaimed shaman and best- selling author Carlos Castaneda, who pioneered the New Age movement with stories about a Mexican sorcerer called Don Juan, has died as mysteriously as he lived. His demise in the fashionable Los Angeles district of Brentwood was disclosed by the Los Angeles Times, almost two […]
Ed Vulliamy Baseball Before he pitched his first ball from the mound at Yankee Stadium earlier this month, Orlando Hernandez paused and looked around at the crowd with an expression that mixed disbelief, joy, awe and a little pain. It was the end of a rainbow, and of a six- month journey, for the Cuban. […]
Richard Nelsson Sports watches used to be simple things: they contained a stopwatch and they glowed in the dark. Now they come equipped with altimeters, barometers, help signal transmitters and some are water resistant to a depth of more than 200m. Along with the fleece jacket and Timberland boots, the sports watch is now seen […]
Sechaba ka’Nkosi The central committee of the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) believes the federation has been sidelined politically and has little say in major policy decisions taken by the African National Congress. At a meeting in Johannesburg this week, Cosatu leaders carefully avoided a public showdown with the government and senior ANC […]
Swapna Prabhakaran Archibald Jacob Gumede, journalist, lawyer and veteran freedom fighter, passed away after a long battle with illness in Durban last Sunday. It was Father’s Day and he died surrounded by his children and grandchildren. His passing was peaceful – appropriate for a man known as “Archie, the gentle giant”. Gumede played no small […]
Wally Mbhele An African National Congress statement this week conceding that detained foreign affairs official Robert McBride was framed by agents of the former government came after weeks of differences in the party about its approach to the issue. It is understood the matter came to a head recently when a briefing document on McBride […]
Tangeni Amupadhi The Truth and Reconciliation Commission has decided that people responsible for human rights atrocities in African National Congress detention camps will not have to testify publicly about their deeds. Dumisa Ntsebeza, head of the commission’s investigative unit, said this week public hearings on Quatro and other camps will not fit into the commission’s […]
clues The Karoo is the richest repository of therapsid fossils, the group that gave rise to early mammals, writes Ellen Bartlett To the average motorist passing through it, generally at an unconscionably high rate of speed, the Karoo is that barren bit of infinity that must be crossed to get to Cape Town or Johannesburg: […]