Ancient manuscripts, which provide tangible evidence of African scholarship centuries before colonialism, are being rediscovered in this desert town, writes Shamil Jeppie Timbuktu is not a venue for any of the African Cup of Nations games currently being played in Mali. It does not have a sports stadium, not even a green patch to host […]

CRICKET Peter Robinson Here’s one for collectors of trivia: who’s the New Zealand cricket coach? Don’t know? The answer is Denis Aberhart who, like South Africa’s Graham Ford and John Buchanan of Australia, had no personal experience of international cricket before being entrusted with his national team. This is not a veiled criticism. There had […]

Sipho Seepe is superficial and contradictory. He accuses the government of failing to deliver while he failed to deliver at Vista University Sebokeng campus. When Seepe assumed the principalship of that campus he promised to “guide the university’s curricular transformation, its social role and its place in the national and international landscape”. He also promised […]

The vast majority of health MECs are in favour of a rapid roll-out of nevirapine, but the minister will play a pivotal role in the final decision Belinda Beresford and Jaspreet Kindra The government looks set to buckle under remorseless internal and external pressures and allow pregnant women country-wide access to the drug that could […]

Once again, the M&G has excelled at using sensational headlines to denigrate our ministers. Did Mungo Soggot and Nawaal Deane feel conflict when they wrote their conflict of interest story (“Diamonds, the tiara and the minister”, January 25)? Do they know Minister of Minerals and Energy Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, what she has done for our country, […]

Robert Kirby on the issue of renaming comes out as a sublime racist who feels that had it not been for whites no one would have progressed or developed. Let me remind him that before Europe and Asia became civilised, most of his ilk were nomads and bandits who killed, robbed and maimed until Alexander […]

Although Mike Tyson and Lennox Lewis will have to find another venue for their clash South Africa, if Rodney Berman gets his way Las Vegas will be hosting another heavyweight world title fight this month, and that between two South Africans. Former International Boxing Federation heavyweight champion Frans “White Buffalo” Botha will challenge World Boxing […]

Jaspreet Kindra Director General of Local Government Zam Titus was sidelined by his minister, Sydney Mufamadi, who believed he lacked the “strategic vision” to steer the department. Departmental and other sources confirmed Titus’s five-year contract, which expired last month, was not renewed because Mufamadi is seeking a director general from outside the department to guide […]

Glenda Daniels New hope for the success of South African civil society’s participation in the world summit on sustainable development emerged this week when the two warring factions left the country for a preparatory committee meeting in New York at the United Nations headquarters. Representatives of civil society from around the world are meeting in […]

It was fun reading Michael Hartnack’s review (“The people vs the elite”, Friday, January 25) of the book on Zimbabwe, Striking Back, to which I contributed a chapter. Hartnack seems stuck in the 1990s, when the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank ruled Harare to the detriment of all but Mugabe, his cronies and […]