For organised crime in Asian betting scams, read artistocratic mega-punters in English sport 250 years ago. Gambling scandals are nothing new – especially in cricket, write Kevin Mitchell and Luke Tansey Any suspicion that there is a mole in the England cricket team leaking confidential information of varying quality and relevance to an illegal bookmaker […]

A Bill aimed at protecting indigenous knowledge appears to be more intent on gaining full control over the information garnered, writes Rachel Wynberg Legislation aimed at protecting and promoting South African indigenous knowledge has developed within the context of Deputy President Thabo Mbeki’s “African renaissance”. The intended outcome is to transform indigenous knowledge and technologies […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Luanda | Friday 5.00pm. UNITA rebels shelled the town of Malanje in northern Angola early on Friday, Catholic radio station Ecclesia reported. Several people in two neighborhoods were reported injured in the attack. On Thursday evening several shells landed within a kilometre of the governor’s residence in Malanje and dozens of civilians were […]

campuses Evidence wa ka Ngobeni The African National Congress’s main student ally, the South African Student Congress (Sasco), is losing its grip on campuses across the country. Freedom Front-aligned parties recently won student representative council (SRC) elections at the former Sasco strongholds of Pretoria University, the University of South Africa and the Pretoria Technikon. The […]

Harriet Lane NOTES FROM A BIG COUNTRY by Bill Bryson (Doubleday) Bill Bryson, an American who settled in North Yorkshire and wrote – affectionately and very successfully – about the vagaries of the British, appears to have moved back to the States almost by accident. Having written 77 Mail on Sunday columns about the eccentricities […]

Eikenhof Three … Bryan Rostron Both Judge Piet van der Walt’s response to the Eikenhof Three bail application and the disarray of evidence in the scandal display uncanny similarities to the many notorious miscarriages of justice that came to light in Britain during the 1990s. In cases such as the “Guildford Four” and “Birmingham Six”, […]

Peter Dickson They come over the mountains from Lesotho on skis every full moon, invisible in their snowsuits, lethal with their AK-47s. In experienced bands of five, on a good night in the virtually perennial snow that erases their trail in seconds, they will drive off at least 100 head of livestock. For a time […]

Andy Capostagno Cricket There were many reasons to be cheerful if you were a South African in Port Elizabeth last Saturday. The national side had just beaten the much vaunted West Indies by 178 runs to go 2-0 up in the five Test series and there was much back slapping and cheery chat about the […]

Sean O’Brien CHARLOTTE GRAY by Sebastian Faulks (Hutchinson) With Charlotte Gray, Sebastian Faulks completes a trilogy begun with the slim inter-war romance The Girl at the Lion d’Or and substantiated by the large and massively popular Great War novel Birdsong. The new novel takes us to World War II, to Vichy France, the various fractious […]

strength stuns MPLA Unita’s improved military strength is of growing concern to Angola and its neighbours, write Chris Gordon and Howard Barrell Unita military pressure on the government has escalated dangerously over the past week, prompting deep concern among neighbouring governments. A powerful Unita offensive, including tanks and heavy artillery, on forces at Kuito and […]