Tracey Simbi While the image of South Africa’s farmers as white, conservative, khaki-clad, beer-swilling men persists, the reality is quite different – most are responding dynamically to changes in the industry and new black entrants are slowly making their presence felt. In fact, a silent revolution is taking place in agriculture. While some changes were […]

Madeleine Wackernagel : Taking Stock I hate to be the bearer of bad tidings, especially at this time of year, but spare a thought for the growing numbers of unemployed for whom this is definitely not the season of joy. News from the Central Statistical Service this week was glum: employment in the mining and […]

The Johannesburg mortuary is preparing for the holiday bodies of evidence, writes Emeka Nwandiko Dr Vernon Kemp has a face you would never forget. But chances are if you were to come into contact with him you would not see him because, most likely, you would be dead. The face of the director of the […]

Howard W French in Abidjan When Madeleine Albright began her first tour of Africa as United States secretary of state, the aim was to open a new era in relations by embracing a “new generation” of leaders that Washington has cited as examples for others to follow. But by the time Albright flew out on […]

Melvyn Minnaar : Potable pleasures Would you believe it? Sherry is making a comeback. Set to join the with-it crowd this summer, it’s certain not to go unnoticed by the trendies preparing to party for the end of the millennium. If vague recollections evoke visions of a pale brownish liquor that mother dribbled into the […]

Stephen Gray : Unspoilt places `Madikwe!” said Oom Schalk Lourens, “yes, I know it. That’s what the Tswanas call our Marico River, because of its rusty colour – the River of Blood. But now with all this new community involvement, we don’t talk of all the bloodshed in those forgotten wars. It’s peace time now, […]

There are grounds for thanksgiving, perhaps, that Nelson Mandela’s sudden taste for loquaciousness did not lead him to challenge Chief Mangosuthu Buthelezi’s record of 11 days as the world’s longest speech. But South Africa has little else to be grateful for where the president’s five- hour “Enemies of Change” address to the African National Congress […]

Neil Manthorp : Cricket Shane Warne and Hansie Cronje shared the spotlight and the headlines in a week of fraught tension and frayed nerves as the pressure builds before the biggest Test series in South Africa’s history. Not that the Australians are taking it lightly. The South African captain was accused of cheating for the […]

Hawkish liberal behind US policy Ann Eveleth The most senior woman ever in the United States Cabinet and the first foreign-born American to represent the US in the United Nations, Albright’s personal history is the stuff of the American nationalist dream. A childhood Czech immigrant twice displaced from the land of her birth – first […]

Andrew Muchineripi : Soccer National coach Clive Barker must rue the moment last week when he declared that only world champions Brazil stood between South Africa and victory in the first Confederations Cup. In a 30-second sound bite, Barker dismissed the chances of Group B opponents the Czech Republic (not Czechoslovakia as the SABC repeatedly […]