academics investigated The allegedly outlandish perks of the University of the Western Cape’s rector have sparked a probe into top academics’ salaries, reports Andy Duffy A staff memo that values University of the Western Cape (UWC) rector Cecil Abrahams’s pay and perks at close to R1-million a year has helped trigger a government probe into […]

Duncan Mackay witnesses auspicious changes in the status of Qatar’s women The approach to the Khalifa Stadium on the edges of Doha, Qatar’s capital city, takes you down a long road past date palms, papyruses and cypresses. Creamy buildings, which seem to have been lifted from either Paris boulevards or Cairo squares, rise steeply from […]

Because of its position on the equator, a space base on a converted oil rig could have the international edge, writes Tim Radford In October the first satellite launched from a pad in the open ocean is due to arrive in its orbit, 35 000km out in space. Sea Launch, a once-unimaginable business consortium from […]

Norman Reynolds: A SECOND LOOK Public anger about the violence involved in the taxi wars is intensifying. In township after township people have met and marched, but to no avail: citizens remain the victims of an unfair, dangerous and badly organised industry. The government has promised to reform the “taxi industry”. It is trying to […]

Elvis Costello pays tribute to Frank Sinatra My mam tells me that one of my first words was “skin”. I was not an especially precocious child, I couldn’t say whole sentences, but I knew how to request that I’ve Got You under My Skin be played on the family record player. Then again, I might […]

Swapna Prabhakaran Race relations among advocates in KwaZulu-Natal have deteriorated to the brink of segregation, with disgruntled black members of the Society of Advocates of Natal forming an association to protect their interests. Thirty-two black advocates from Durban recently attended a blacks- only meeting and formed the new association, which aims to work within the […]

The South African pharmaceutical industry has been greatly expounded in the media in the past few months. The reason is not, however, as a result of the sector’s amazing rise in share prices, but as a consequence of frequent government intervention. The Johannesburg Stock Exchange pharmaceutical index has risen from a December 1997 low of […]

Neil Manthorp Cricket The first Texaco Trophy one-day international was played on Thursday. The squad now travels in their luxury coach (with microwave, kettle, fridge and toilet) to Old Trafford, Manchester, and Headingley, Leeds, for the second and third matches on Saturday and Sunday. Although the smart money is on South Africa to win, it […]

Charl Blignaut On stage in Johannesburg It is difficult to pin down exactly what it is that makes director Yael Farber’s production of Britpop theatre brat Mark Ravenhill’s 1996 debut, Shopping and Fucking, so powerful. Difficult because the production is consistently awesome. Difficult because, after seven years of being a theatre critic, I have all […]

If you’re looking for a new car, it’s a buyers’ market, writes Charlene Smith Buying a car is one of the most expensive investment decisions many of us make, but with car sales plummeting, now may be the time to bag a good deal. John Cuming, Delta Motor Corporation’s director of sales and marketing, says […]