The latest spin on the trend of international DJs like John Digweed, Sasha, Paul Okenfold and Carl Cox gracing local clubland with their zeitgeist sounds is a kicking new deal between Virgin Records, 206 live, Pickle and the UK’s leading Big Beat label Wall of Sound Recordings. As two of South Africa’s largest supporters of […]

Mungo Soggot The world’s most famous pop star exchanged his trademark white glove for a yarmulke last weekend when he attended a bar mitzvah at the Sandton synagogue and nearby Capri hotel in Johannesburg. Michael Jackson jetted in from the United States especially for the event, stunning guests with his enthusiastic participation in the festivities. […]

Ferial Haffajee Top names in television journalism have been linked to the new channel e.tv, which is still without a news executive after its the first incumbent and his deputy were sacked in internal battles. This week news veteran Allister Sparks and former Independent Broadcasting Authority (IBA)councillor John Matisonn were named as contenders. Sparks said […]

Andrew Muchineripi Soccer In a compact, white-walled room with a yellow door, a well-worn greyish carpet and small windows covered by rattling venetian blinds, Bafana Bafana coach Trott Moloto laid bare his soul this week. It was Tuesday, the temperature had climbed to 30C by midday at the Esselenpark complex north-east of Johannesburg and the […]

parole Tangeni Amupadhi The Department of Correctional Services deemed Samuel Sidymo fit to be freed on parole nine months before completing his sentence. But one day after he broke his parole conditions Pretoria police arrested him on suspicion that he is a serial murderer who went on a killing spree from December 1998 to January […]

FOUR leaders of the Inkatha Freedom Party in the KwaZulu-Natal midlands have defected to the African National Congress. David Mdladla, Mbuso Memela and Johannes and Mzofayo Phoswa, from the Bulwer and Donnybrook areas, said at a press conference in Durban that they have joined the ANC. The four said they quit the IFP because it […]

STELLENBOSCH University’s Sunsat satellite remains earthbound after the ninth postponement of the launch by the United States National Aeronautics and Space Administration Delta II rocket carrying South Africa’s first home-grown satellite. Sunsat was to blast off along with payloads for the US Air Force and Boeing. The latest postponement was once again due to “adverse […]

Camille Paglia SITE SEEING www.nytimes.com The Internet has changed my whole approach to print media. I find it a much more efficient and democratic way to monitor the press. I now have a lot less patience for papers piling up all over my floor. I don’t read The New York Times in its print version […]

Wally Mbhele and Justin Arenstein Mpumalanga refused to learn from its 1995 Eugene Nyati scandal and instead secretly contracted the discredited political analyst less than one year later – only to be fleeced by the smooth-talking wheeler-dealer again. New information leaked this week indicates that Nyati used more than R200 000 intended for a tourism […]

Writer Ashraf Jamal has never shied away from epic and dangerous themes. Andr Wiesner finds that happiness hasn’t removed his sting Playwright Ashraf Jamal is flipping through a pad of photographs, and the portraits they reveal look cindered, burnt black and grey by the intensity of their subjects. In one image, a blood-streaked Billy Idol-lookalike […]