The Robert McBride saga has been presented as an “embarrassment” for the South African government. As time goes by it is becoming apparent that it is far more significant than that. It seems to mask a major threat to national security and McBride is seem ingly not the culprit. For those familiar with the activities […]
Emeka Nwandiko With a sharp intake of breath, followed by an oath, Aubrey flicks his left wrist and casts to the concrete floor a pair of dice. A three and four is scored, notching up his winnings to R50. He is all smiles: considering that when he began the game of ama dice he had […]
Andrew Muchineripi: Soccer His French accent was thicker than coarse-cut breakfast marmalade, but the message spelt out by new Bafana Bafana coach Philippe Troussier at his first media conference this week was crystal clear. The White Witchdoctor believed the national team had great potential and would not provide cannon fodder for Group C opponents France […]
Richard Williams: Movie of the week When Wim Wenders points to the change in the nature of violence in the mainstream cinema, he is stating the obvious. He says he made The End of Violence to get us thinking about how explicitly gruesome sights that would have been unthinkable 10 years ago appear to be […]
Marion Edmunds Former Denel chief executive Johan Alberts walked away from the arms parastatal with a whopping R18-million in pension and restraint-of-trade payments, according to a senior government source. Minister of Public Enterprises Stella Sicgau is sitting on an explosive forensic audit that exposes how Alberts and other top managers at Denel paid themselves huge […]
Craig Bishop: National Festival of the Arts The astonishing art of two-tone singing is practised by just three cultures: Tibetans, Mongolians and by a small group of Xhosa-speakers in the Lady Frere district of the Eastern Cape. Lady Frere’s Ngqoko Choir practises a singing art so special that it has been recorded and studied by […]
When the Minister of Minerals and Energy, Penuell Maduna, requested my resignation on March 10, it came as quite a surprise. The unceremonious manner in which my employment was terminated – “submit to me by fax your resignation with immediate effect and vacate the office you were occupying hitherto forthwith” – and the accusations levelled […]
Lower interest rates and a consumer-friendly budget are sure to put extra money into the pockets of consumers – which should bring smiles to the country’s retailers and value to their shares. While some of the bigger South African stores have had a difficult time in the last year with low levels of consumer spending […]
I find myself sitting next to Mike Atherton as the England cricket team crowds on to a small plane leaving Guyana for the next Test in Barbados. He is reading the memoirs of Pablo Neruda, the Nobel Prize-winning poet from Chile. Atherton is also impressively familiar with Guyanese literature and mentions the recent death of […]
fallout from Vryburg Bongani Siqoko The ongoing racial clashes at Vryburg High School in North West province have put a strain on many Afrikaans schools around the country – some of them battling to overcome the perception that they are all racist. The principal of Elandspoort High School in Pretoria, Sarel du Toit, said Afrikaans […]