Anyone who has ever taken up an iron and swung vainly at that infinitesimal ball will know that golf was invented by dour, unrelenting Puritan masochists to remind themselves of the awfulness of life and the pointlessness of endeavour.
<b>Peter Kirsten writes for the M&G:</b> Like lamb to the slaughter? Hopefully not — even without the mighty Jacques Kallis in the game. Sacrifice would seem to be a key element in our boys’ quest to be brilliant and victorious at this stage of the England Test series.
What do the prosecutions of Tony Yengeni and the wayward Winnie Madikizela-Mandela say? What about the pending corruption investigations into Deputy President Jacob Zuma, Mac Maharaj and ANC hanger-on Schabir Shaik?
It is not easy to describe life in Zimbabwe today. I have several, sometimes conflicting, identities. The vastly different worlds that I inhabit in any one week make my life a mosaic.
Ugandans are divided about a possible return or burial in home soil for Idi Amin Dada, the former president responsible for a brutal regime where an estimated 400 000 people were killed or disappeared for ever.
Rebel leaders ended a weeklong bloodless coup in impoverished São Tomé and Príncipe after the president signed an accord promising to replace the government and give them amnesty.
The South African men’s hockey team needs to win against log leaders Spain in the BDO Champions’ Challenge this Friday.
One of the great sporting metaphors inspired by the Tour de France is that of the race as a road to Calvary. Le calvaire has been routinely used throughout the 100 years since the great race was born to describe the process of a cyclist continuing in the face of great affliction – be it injury, illness or the mental agony that follows the death of a close relative.
The Myanmar junta has released 91 members of Aung San Suu Kyi’s pro-democracy party, in an apparent bid to deflect international pressure over her continued detention.
Saddam Hussein’s sons were crucial to the dictator’s plans for the future of Iraq. Suzanne Goldenberg profiles the brothers killed this week in a three-hour gun battle by US special forces.