They like Beethoven as much as Busta Rhymes and kwaito, and TKZee includes the first black member of the Drakensberg Boys’ Choir. Maria McCloy reports Ask anyone – I mean anyone, from South Africa’s hot producers to popular young artists and DJs to the average kid looking for a good time – what they’re getting […]

The food revolution is changing the face of the world, report John Vidal and Mark Milner Six giant agrochemical corporations are poised to dominate world food production with genetically engineered food. The result could be millions of farmers unemployed, poor countries losing whole export markets, a consumer revolt in Europe, and concentration of farming in […]

Fifty years on: Terror Lekota’s victory signals a resurgence of the left and the former MDM activists. Reports by Wally Mbhele, Marion Edmunds and Sechaba ka’Nkosi Former Free State premier Patrick “Terror” Lekota shot back from the political sidelines with a resounding landslide victory over Minister of Sport Steve Tshwete for the position of national […]

Janet Smith The pigeons were shitting all over irreplaceable original artworks, so Lesley Cohn came up with a simple but brilliant solution to the problem: chicken wire in the eaves. If only the pungent details of The Bag Factory’s outstanding rates bill with the Transitional Metropolitan Council (TMC) were as obvious to unravel. More than […]

Ellen Bartlett looks at the significance of the discovery of the bones of two children near Sterkfontein The question that probably will never be answered is how the bodies of two children ended up in a cave on the farm called Drimolen. Perhaps they died there, of cold, disease, starvation. Perhaps they died nearby, and […]

Two Sandton-based ex-military generals of the late Mobutu Sese Seko have been held for travelling illegally, reports Ann Eveleth Two of former Zairean dictator Mobutu Sese Seko’s closest military cohorts – arrested in Johannesburg on Saturday – allegedly spoke openly about their plans to topple Mobutu’s successor, Laurent Kabila, in an uprising which had been […]

Mungo Soggot : A Second Look Judge Monas Flemming bestowed on Allan Greenblo the honour of becoming the new South Africa’s first banned author when he turned the clock back on the country’s media law in the Johannesburg High Court last week. His decision to ban Greenblo’s biography of Sol Kerzner was all the more […]

Max Gebhardt It’s hard to believe Brian Gilbertson was once of the opinion that unbundling wasn’t in the best interests of Gencor. Especially if you consider that he has taken Gencor by the scruff of the neck and given it a well- deserved shake. The once massive industrial conglomerate is now nothing more than a […]

Gavin Evans : Boxing Boxing’s geriatric decade may be ready for a new twist when Thulane “Sugarboy” Malinga fights Britain’s Robin Reid for the WBC supoer middleweight title on Friday night. Throughout his career Sugarboy has been such an erratic boxer that you never know who is going to turn up – the brilliant dazzler, […]

Ruaridh Nicoll The Himba chief stared at the anthropologist who had just asked him to describe what he did. A moment passed before he answered: “I attend meetings and I make love to my three wives.” The Himba wander the vastness of Namibia’s skeleton coast. They drink milk, wear calf- skins, and style their hair […]