There were more surprises in store for competitors in the recent Brait Grace to Grace 42km mountain bike challenge in the Magaliesberg than just the treacherous inclines and rocky and sandy terrain, writes Ntuthuko Maphumulo. They also had to contend with a redoubtable mother-and-son team who pedalled off with the top prizes. Jean Paul Pearton […]

Experts also warn that south-eastern Zimbabwe is sitting on a foot-and-mouth time bomb Jenny Sharman In the excitement about the formation of the Gaza-Kruger-Gonarezhou trans-frontier park, a looming problem has been overlooked: land invasions in the Zimbabwe section of the park. The planned “peace park” includes Zimbabwe’s second-largest game park, the Gonarezhou National Park and […]

analysis Jeremy Rifkin For the first 10 days we worried about commercial aeroplanes being hijacked and used as missiles. Now the American people are worried about a new, even more deadly threat: bacteria and viruses being released in populated areas, infecting and killing millions of people. Policymakers are scurrying to catch up, by allocating funds […]

Bongani Majola Africa has the most restrictive laws relating to trade unionism, according to this year’s online survey by the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU). While South Africa and Ghana have arguably First World labour relations, the overall picture for the African continent is increasingly grim. Africa has the third-highest rate of trade […]

Sarah Bullen In May 1996 the rand was sitting at R4,40 to the dollar. On Monday it touched R9,59. Why is a country whose economic and political fundamentals are sound finding itself in a position where its currency is facing demise? Financial guru Suze Orman has an answer. “Why should anyone invest in your country […]

Despite a revolutionary new proposal, there are still several stumbling blocks in the labour legislation Glenda Daniels Amendments to the Labour Relations Act recently hailed as a major breakthrough between labour, business and the government remain bedevilled by controversial sticking points and may not see the light of day this year. Hitches remain over the […]

The violence at Zandspruit is a reflection of more than the country’s racial xenophobic tendencies with South Africans objecting to black, but not white, immigrants Evidence wa ka Ngobeni The violence that erupted at the Zandspruit informal settlement near Honeydew this week not only unearthed the xenophobic tendencies that continue to haunt South Africa but […]

A SECOND LOOK John Young If South Africa’s cricket selection convener Rushdi Magiet really is “cocking things up as Peter Robinson argues (“Convener of selectors should be dropped”, October 12), then of course he should be fired. Robinson finds Magiet inept, incoherent and short of public-relations skills and concludes that Magiet is “the gravest threat […]

Jubie Matlou If you were thinking of where to erect an informal market to sell fruits and crafts to tourists passing between South Africa and Mozambique you couldn’t find a better place than the N4 highway in the Maputo Development Corridor. Informal markets at Mataffin and Matsulu preceded the multimullion-rand development at Nelspruit. For many […]

What the US Federal Reserve chairperson was going to say analysis Larry Elliot For years codebreakers have been struggling to unravel the secret language of Alan Greenspan. But to no avail. Greenspan scrambles his thoughts in his own personal Enigma machine, from which they emerge as incomprehensible gobbledegook when he surfaces from the depths of […]