Alex Dodd It is Tuesday midday. We are driving along the N1, returning to Johannesburg after taking in Jo Ractliffe’s End of Time show in Nieu Bethesda. It’s hot and the road seems to go on forever. Attention is anaesthetised by an immensity of nothingness – nothing but the blank Karoo landscape and the road […]

Trainspotting made Irvine Welsh cool with its portrayal of drug-fuelled Scottish low-life. But don’t mistake the creator for his characters: he’s had a job in local government and even deals in property. Can he hack it as a novelist, though? Critics say his new book may be his last chance to prove himself. By Andy […]

Local tribespeople have rejected a company’s bid to mine titanium in a pristine area of the Eastern Cape, but it seems that the company can’t take no for an answer, write James Black and Arlene Cameron On the Wild Coast south of Port St Johns in the Eastern Cape there is a small estuary of […]

Theatre: Chris Roper When you take your seat under the sky for the opening scene of As You Like It, this year’s offering at Maynardville, you can’t help but be intrigued. On stage is an aerobics floor, three exercise cycles, a juice bar, and Health and Racquet Club and Reebok flags fluttering in the Cape […]

SUDAN has opted to use the unified European currency, the euro, in its commercial transations as an alternative to the United States dollar. The Bank of Sudan said in a circular to various banks of the country, that “we are going to concentrate in the coming period on conducting commercial transactions in the euro as […]

THE NATIONAL Minister of Health, Dr Nkosazana Zuma, has appointed a task team to investigate the organization of a national health laboratory service. The team will integrate the teaching, training and research activities currently associated with various pathology laboratories.

UNSEASONABLY good rains have filled almost all Northern Province’s dams to capacity and could spark a lucrative agricultural boom in the region. Water affairs officials said on Thursday that heavy rains over the past three months have filled the important Ebenerzer, Klaserie and Magoebaskloof dams to 100% capacity while all others in the province are […]

CNN HAS implemented a poll on whether South Africa ought to implement racial quotas for teams competing in the Currie Cup. They outline a couple of sides of the issue in their piece, and the results are unambiguously against any kind of quota. See the poll, and vote at: CNN and view the results at: […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Abidjan | Thursday 11.15pm. A SENIOR rebel commander in Sierra Leone said on Thursday that he has agreed to a temporary ceasefire to halt hostilities in the capital Freetown. Rebels of the Revolutionary United Front invaded the city last week, and have since been fighting Nigerian intervention troops of the regional Ecomog force. […]

NAMIBIA has reduced the number of its troops deployed in the north-eastern Caprivi region against a secessionist group and the area is calm, Home Affairs Minister Jerry Ekandjo said on Wednesday. The minister denied claims by Caprivi residents who have fled to Botswana that they are being harassed by police Special Field Forces bidding to […]