in one country The people of R,union form a world of ethnic combinations in one country. Shaun de Waal attended the arts festival on the island which attempts to reflect this cultural intermingling Flying over the island of R,union in a helicopter, the old catchline of the South African tourist board comes to mind: “The […]

Howard Barrell Armed rebels are making skilful use of rainy season in the jungles of the Democratic Republic of Congo to push back President Laurent Kabila’s army and allied Angolan, Namibian and Zimbabwean forces, say intelligence sources and security analysts. The rebels, familiar with local conditions, have been pressing forward mainly on foot in the […]

Links to Executive Outcomes may have made an Angolan mining company a target for attack, writes Chris Gordon DiamondWorks, whose Yetwene mine in north- eastern Angola was attacked last week, may have been a target because of the links of its parent company, British-based Branch Energy, to the South African mercenary company, Executive Outcomes. Branch […]

Mercedes Sayagues `I sing the body electric,” wrote Walt Whitman. I am reminded of this line as I watch the bulging biceps, palpitating pecs and throbbing quads of Vaughan Carl, Mr Zimbabwe Bodybuilder 1998. Harare’s 700-seat Seven Arts theatre is half-full for the finals of Mr and Ms Zimbabwe Bodybuilder. Mr Zimbabwe 1996 is the […]

Jim White : A Second Look Brian Lara is renowned in cricket as an active disciple of the Geoffrey Boycott school: nothing matters as much as himself, or rather his bank balance. Yet in an affair which initially seemed little more than another piece of financial brinkmanship by the world’s most gifted batsman, it is […]

John Perlman Nick Mallett doesn’t look worried. “It’s a very nice problem I have,” says the Springbok coach of the fact that his back row, widely seen as the finest in rugby, currently excludes a 22-year-old more and more people regard as potentially the finest loose forward in the world. Bobby Skinstad doesn’t seem too […]

Ann Eveleth : In the Act Civilian victims of the latest series of conflicts afflicting Southern Africa will welcome the news that South Africa’s first- ever Refugees Bill is rapidly traversing the corridors of power. More than three decades after anti-colonial and civil wars first engulfed the region – creating large numbers of refugees – […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Friday 12.45pm. A SHOWDOWN between diversified African industrial group Lonrho Africa and its largest shareholder, emerging markets fund Blakeney Management, is looming as Blakeney is vying for control of the board after accusing it of giving a dismal performance. Lonrho annouced on Thursday it has scheduled an extraordinary general meeting for […]

Sharon Hammond Driving south of Malelane, in Mpumalanga, into a land of sugar cane fields and burnt- out minibus taxis, you enter a world where women own nothing and get little respect or recognition from men. “Even if you work and buy something with your own money, it’s not yours, it’s your husband’s,” explains a […]

Angella Johnson : VIEW FROM A BROAD Sophia Jardim was trawling the aisles of her local supermarket, one of her “children” precariously balanced on her hip, when a woman approached and lobbed a gob of spit at her. It was just another in a string of unpleasant attacks this 43-year-old divorcee has had to endure […]