Ann Eveleth probes the ANC’s threats to boycott the KwaZulu-Natal elections on May 29 Poor leadership, organisational chaos and overstretched party machinery are the real reasons behind the African National Congress’s election panic in KwaZulu-Natal. ANC sources argue that the party leadership failed to grasp the significance of conceding victory to the Inkatha Freedom Party […]

Simon Segal THE great seven-year haggling game between divergent interest groups around the establishment of a regulated bond market appears at last to be moving towards a resolution. Last week the Bond Market Association (BMA) submitted its application to the Financial Services Board (FSB) to be licensed as South Africa’s bond market exchange. The FSB […]

attitude Madeleine Wackernagel The rand retreated from its record lows this week, no thanks to Trevor Manuel’s insistence that the government’s position on exchange controls remains firm. The finance minister is labouring the point, said one economist. He should have made suitably reassuring noises at the onset of the crisis, and then let the markets […]

With Cyril Ramaphosa shunted from the frontline, there are deep concerns in the ANC caucus. Gaye Davis reports CYRIL Rampahosa did not jump, he was pushed. His decision to opt for a corporate position was not his first choice: he would rather have been finance minister. But he found his political options closed off as […]

Visiting jazz pianist Keith Tippett explores three decades of South African connections in conversation with GWEN ANSELL ‘SERIOUS musicians have to make a choice,” says visiting UK jazz pianist Keith Tippett. “Are they going to be curators or creators?” The question is typical of the man, whose own three-decade career has spanned jazz, jazz- rock, […]

Mike Loewe The most ambitious public relations stunt by a South African newspaper is degenerating into farce as two ill-prepared women climbers scramble for the top of Mount Everest. South African mountaineer Cathy O’Dowd, a Rhodes University photojournalism masters student and daughter of Anglo-American director Michael O’Dowd, will carry with her the hopes of her […]

RUGBY: Jon Swift IT IS not overstating things to say that we all live in an unequal world. This is true at the top of the rugby pile where George Orwell’s contention that some are more equal than others freely applies. Certainly this is the type of thinking that prevails in England’s top rugby circles […]

oldies Some of South Africa’s triumphant team of African Nations Cup champions have been described as too old, and now they must take on a young team of magicians from Brazil SOCCER: Andrew Muchineripi BRAZIL are the benchmark by which national football teams are judged and at the FNB stadium on Wednesday evening it will […]

Jacquie Golding-Duffy The conventional belief among commercial radio stations that education programmes lose rather than gain listeners has been challenged by the popularity of educational programmes on community radio stations. Siven Maslamoney, director of Ulwazi educational radio project, a non-profit, pilot educational radio project for adults, says it is “encouraging to see that the commitment […]

The green jacket that comes with winning the Masters at Augusta is the most sought-after prize for golfers GOLF: Jon Swift THERE is surely no professional golf tournament which concentrates the mind of the world’s top players more than the Masters at Augusta National. There is little time to stop and smell the azaleas along […]