Charl Blignaut: On stage in Pretoria In 1997, South Africa’s leading concert promoter Attie van Wyk announced that he and showbiz afficionado Bernard Jay would be establishing a new company, In-Concert Theatre. They would be looking to inject a dash of star quality on to the local stage by importing international stars to perform in […]

Poet, novelist and critic Lionel Abrahams is one of the most influential figures in South African literature. Mark Gevisser pays tribute to him on the occasion of his 70th birthday There is something transformative about a first encounter with Lionel Abrahams. At the outset, it is hard not to be overwhelmed by his extreme physical […]

Krisjan Lemmer Last week Die Burger ran a sanctimonious article chiding two eminent neurologists for disclosing details of former president PW Botha’s stroke in his spat with the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. The crime the medics commited: disclosing to the world, without asking Botha’s permission, that the old crocodile had probably become mentally unstable as […]

Holistic land management has begun to take root in South Africa, reports Belinda Anderson Every year, almost 400-million tons of precious South African topsoil are washed into dams and rivers by inefficient management techniques. It is estimated that by the year 2020 all of South Africa’s dams will be silted up. The government attributes erosion […]

Ralph Borland A division of a major advertising agency has been contracted by cigarette giant Rothmans to create a brand aimed at a new generation of smokers: 18 to 24-year-olds. Insiders at Ogilvy & Mather Rightford Searle-Tripp Makin say the Cape Town- based advertising agency took up a multi- million contract to market brands owned […]

Peter Vale: A SECOND LOOK We made the military, now the military makes us: to recognise this bromide is to understand the inevitability of what historians one day will surely call Georg Meiring’s Folly. Far too quickly for democratic comfort have searching questions over the military been driven to the corners of our national life. […]

Michael Walker FA Cup At times it was tense, at times it was unconvincing, there were even times when it looked as though it might not happen at all, but ultimately, as they say, class will prove decisive and a touch of it from Alan Shearer last Sunday delivered Newcastle United their first FA Cup […]

Andy Duffy The investigation into the fiery killing of Cape Flats gang leader Rashaad Staggie has exposed a deep split within the ranks of the Western Cape police. The probe has already looked at police allegations that top police intelligence operatives have collaborated with People Against Gangsterism and Drugs (Pagad) – the vigilante group responsible […]

Wally Mbhele President Nelson Mandela this week threw his weight behind the theory that Robert McBride was set up in Mozambique by security force elements keen to give credibility to the discredited “Meiring” coup report. At a briefing for opposition leaders, Mandela said he had considered the possibility that McBride’s arrest was orchestrated to bolster […]

Andy Capostagno Cricket Spare a thought for our national selectors. While the pyjama game goes merrily on its way around the country, attracting full houses from Johannesburg to Paarl, Peter Pollock and his cohorts have to sort out a squad to play proper cricket on a proper cricket tour. To whit, five tests against England […]