Shaun de Waal=20 CHEAP LIVES by Antony Sher (Little, Brown, R79,99)=20 SOME years ago, as the first buds of a new South African=20 dispensation began to open, much ink was expended in=20 speculation about what new forms our literature would now=20 take. It was assumed that the exigencies that drove the=20 apartheid-era novels of such […]

Bronwen Roberts Thousands of Eastern Cape taxi commuters were terrified this week as they rode from one town to the next. Many sang and prayed to God to save them from the very people whose service they were using as a vicious war between rival taxi groups fighting over routes continued unabated. The slaughter has […]

Angeline Oyog in Paris Industrialised nations may in the long term have more to=20 gain than lose from the rapid expansion of emerging=20 economies in certain developing countries, says the=20 Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development=20 (OECD) in a new report. Looking at long-term economic interests, the report said=20 the industrialised OECD members should be […]

Marino Corazza MOVEABLE FEAST=20 IT’S Sunday May 29, and I’m at Sol’s very own, charming Sun=20 City. In the Soup Bowl, to be exact. At 6:30pm, it’s=20 showtime, folks: the Loeries.=20 ‘Twas the time of year for the pulp and celluloid maestros=20 to receive their just accolades. Fiction, but nevertheless,=20 let’s not kid ourselves, this […]

THEATRE: David le Page=20 ANTONY Sher would have had a field day at the Windybrow=20 Centre for the Arts, currently hosting a season of New=20 South African Plays. For this is a theatre complex where=20 plays occasionally have to be cancelled, on evenings when=20 cast outnumbers audience. This is not always a fair=20 process. A […]

EYEWITNESS: Mgcobo Ngxukume When I arrived at the rank in Umtata I heard a lot of talk about how the terrible taxi war was intensifying. The routes between Umtata, Port Elizabeth and Grahamstown were the worst hit, everyone was saying. As I was standing there with the other passengers, there was a lot of doubt […]

With a new technique and a new coach, promising South=20 African javelin thrower Philip Spies is ready to take on=20 the world’s best =20 ATHLETICS: Julian Drew=20 AFEW weeks ago South Africa’s top javelin thrower was=20 training at the Rand Afrikaans University track when Clive=20 Rice called from the stands enquiring whether his South=20 African […]

Jane Rosenthal If giving books as presents is a matter of principle to you, then prepare to part with a fair bit of money this Christmas. But console yourself that relatively speaking at least you get value for your money with a book. If you consider that a ball of common string costs R7,50 and […]

The need to create jobs has emerged as the burning issue for the government, labour and business, reports Reg Rumney Suddenly, at the end of a year in which economic growth and fiscal and monetary discipline held centre stage, joblessness has entered like Banquo’s ghost. The official unemployment rate is around 33 percent, but the […]

Reg Rumney=20 While the world waits for South Africa to spell out its=20 privatisation plans, next door, Mozambique has thundered=20 ahead with a far-reaching privatisation programme. By the end of February this year, Mozambique’s government=20 had privatised 21 large, strategic enterprises, and plans=20 to privatise a further 40 or so over the next two years,=20 […]