South African fast bowler Brett Schultz thrives on competing with his pace partner Allan Donald Cricket: John Perlman BRETT SCHULTZ, the story goes, was in the middle of a typically fiery spell against Sri Lanka when Kepler Wessels sent him a message, to be passed along with the ball. It was relayed in Afrikaans so […]

Former defence minister Magnus Malan said the arrests yesterday of himself and 10 former military officials were the “biggest crisis for democracy in South Africa”. Speaking to journalists after the 11 men appeared in court in connection with the 1987 KwaMakhutha massacre, Malan shouted over dozens of black protesters outside the Durban Regional Court, who […]

Karen Harverson South Africa exports more to the French island Reunion than it does to other developing markets such as Chile, Sri Lanka, New Zealand and Ghana. “We have a logistical advantage over European countries in the supply of goods to Reunion which is only 2 820km away from South Africa,” says South African Foreign […]

It was a joyous occasion in Soweto when the English cricketers played there, but some of them were not happy with their form Cricket: Jon Swift THERE is an assurance from all concerned that Soweto’s Elkah Oval is to become an integral part of our cricket, a fixed seasonal venue and the future site for […]

Rowan Callaghan The informal sector provides jobs for almost two million people, according to research by Unisa’s Bureau of Market Research (BMR). The BMR study found that last year almost 1,6-million, or around 15 percent, of the total South African work force was employed in the informal sector. This sector contributed an estimated R26-billion, or […]

Neil Bierbaum A COMMUNITY radio station in Pretoria is challenging a decision by the Independent Broadcasting Authority to grant it a shared frequency. Its court hearing against the IBA was delayed this week for the third time. Radio Visarend has been allocated a frequency to be shared with two other Afrikaans community radio stations, Radio […]

Ernest Thusini used to be a religious leader. But it was the brutal murder of five of his children at KwaMakhutha on January 21 1987 that brought him into politics. “I think the attack motivated me to go into politics because I believed I had to do something to help enable these changes to take […]

A war of words has been declared between Absa and Millenium magazine over an article defending former Tollgate chairman Julian Askin, reports Reg Rumney A number of puzzling questions are thrown up in the squabble between Absa Bank and Cape-based Millenium magazine over a series of articles it has been running on fugitive Julian Askin […]

Northern Province ‘witches’, banished from their communities, huddle together in a tiny village where they eke out a meagre and lonely existence, writes Fumane Diseko A dust road near Pietersburg leads to Helena, an arid and lonely village hidden behind thorn trees. Shacks made in a rush when people first settled have never been improved […]

Louise Asmal THE BLACK DIASPORA by Ronald Segal (Faber & Faber, R135) THIS extraordinary compendium attempts to compress within less than 500 pages not only a description of the trade in human beings from Africa to the colonies of the various European powers, but also an account of the fate of their descendants up to […]