MONDAY, 6.00PM: GOLD shares dominated the day’s events on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange on Monday, climbing with unusual energy as the gold price continued to rise towards the $300 an ounce level. Merger speculation helped financials, while industrials followed hopes that the new Reserve Bank repo rate will start at 15%, down from the current […]

MONDAY, 1.30PM SWAZILAND’S Paul Friedlander beat American Scott Dunlap on the second hole of their sudden-death play-off to win the Stenham Royal Swazi Sun Open on Sunday With near-perfect weather conditions for the third and final round of the lightning-shortened tournament, both players parred the 18th at the first hole of the sudden death. Both […]

FRIDAY, 6.00PM: AFTER performing comparatively dismally for some weeks, for once gold shares on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange outpaced the ever record-setting financials. The market was pushed by renewed confidence in Asia and a record-setting day on Wall Street, as well as confidence in an imminent local interest rate cut. The all gold index hurtled […]

Pat McDermott Cricket The nagging thought about the Pakistan team at present embroiled in the second Test against South Africa at Kingsmead is whether their captain Rashid Latif really wants to play or not. Again on the sidelines, as he was during the controversy-racked and rain-sodden abortive opening encounter in the three-Test series at the […]

Coenraad Visser Classical music In its first season without SABC funding, the National Symphony Orchestra (NSO) shows that the energy and sense of purpose which marked its last season were not the last desperate gasps of an orchestra on its death bed. The last three concerts of the newly independent orchestra confirm one’s impression of […]

Steve Morris Rugby In many ways, this Super 12 season marks the start of the examination of the relative strengths of New Zealand and South African rugby, a test that it has taken this country two full seasons in which we have not fully understood the questions being put to our players in the toughest […]

Anthony Egan BEYOND THE COLOUR LINE: PAN-AFRICANIST DISPUTATIONS by Kwesi Kwaa Prah (Vivlia, R49,99) The other subtitle of this book gives the reader fair warning of what to expect: Selected Sketches, Letters,Papers and Reviews. Although the pieces are all about Pan-Africanism and its potential as an alternative to current African policies, the book is a […]

Madeleine Roux Moveable feast Cabbage! That vegetable of fear and loathing, forced-fed to reluctant children and mulish husbands. But a cabbage is sweet. A fresh leaf, crunched raw, has a zingy taste that floods the mouth with an astringent feel and sugary finish – just like good wine. But no wine leaves you with that […]

Are historical epics such as Amistad dishonest, or do they convey human truths that textbooks cannot? Stuart Jeffries and Simon Hattenstone report The historians are sharpening their quills. Academic bile is flying in all directions. And newspaper columnists are ransacking the good ship Amistad. We’ve seen it plenty of times before. In fact, we see […]

Stephen Bierley Tennis Korda the kick. Korda the cartwheel. Korda the Australian Open champion. There is no better story in any sport than when someone of obvious and undoubted talent finally achieves the major victory that his ability so richly deserves, particularly if it arrives as the minute hand on his career clock nudges towards […]