A player revolt, shuttle diplomacy and a letter from Nelson Mandela later, the Windies finally arrive, writes Andy Capostagno There were many good reasons to believe that it would never happen, but on Wednesday the West Indies walked on to the field at the Soweto Oval and cut the ribbon on their first ever official […]

Douglas Rushkoff : Online `I’m getting a call, hold on,” my friend explained before clicking off our phone conversation to check on another incoming call. He was the one who had called me – just seconds earlier, in fact. After hearing his voice on the machine (which I use as a filtration device) I figured […]

Andrew Worsdale Chris Eyre’s debut feature film deservedly won both the Audience Award and the film- makers’ trophy at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, the leading celebration of American Independent film-making. Based on the books The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven by Sherman Alexie, Smoke Signals is a winning mix of comedy and […]

As the next election draws closer, and in preparation for the resignation of The Great Mandela, it is stimulating to watch Thabo Mbeki as he patiently welds and rivets himself into position. Renaissance and other long-term projects, like getting shot of Professor Sibusiso Bengu, aside, Mbeki is showing great imaginative tenacity in virtually every field […]

Howard Barrell : Over a Barrel Nkosazana Zuma, it seems, takes the view that, if you want to bring about far- reaching change, do it early, do it hard and give your opponents no quarter. The way the tobacco companies, health insurers and drug companies are now bleating to the courts for respite suggests the […]

Donna Block : Share World For the past few weeks, my four-year-old son, an addict of British satellite television stations, has been driving me crazy, jumping off the sofa and the walls singing a jingle from a United Kingdom toy advert. In a loud, off-key voice he proclaims over and over how, “It’s a great […]

friend Mungo Soggot Hlengiwe Mkhize, the truth commissioner tipped to win a major government diamond contract, this week likened her prospective job of assessing the value of rough diamonds to that of compensating torture victims. Mkhize chairs the local arm of a consortium masterminded by a Belgian diamond broker which is the favourite in the […]

South Africa needs interest rates of 12% or lower if the country is to avoid an economic slump, argues David Gleason Why hasn’t the Reserve Bank dropped interest rates faster and to a greater extent than its miserable efforts so far? And why, during the period in which the rand has enjoyed an entirely unjustified […]

Mungo Soggot and Sechaba ka ‘Nkosi The public protector tried to shield the disgraced rector of Vaal Technikon, who was fired after a commission of inquiry found him guilty of financial impropriety and abusing his position. The technikon’s council ousted Professor Aubrey Mokadi and attached several of his assets this week despite a threat from […]

Mail & Guardian reporter The Human Rights Commission (HRC) has thrown out a complaint of subliminal racism laid against the Mail & Guardian and Sunday Times newspapers by the Association of Black Accountants and the Black Lawyers Association. The request for an investigation was turned down “because the issue of racism in the media is […]