Nick Hasted When Ian Rankin created John Rebus, the Edinburgh Detective Inspector he has followed through 12 books now, Rebus was 38, liked a drink, and had one dark buried secret, from his days in the army, that returned to haunt him. But with each book, Rebus’s ghosts, and Rankin’s interest in the skeletons mouldering […]
The Mail &Guardian and the ANC faced each other in court this week over the allegation that a white editor wrote an article and put a black journalist’s name above it, Khadija Magardie reports The Johannesburg High Court looks miles away from a resolution of the dispute between the Mail & Guardian and the country’s […]
Sizwe samaYende American fast food giant McDonald’s has been dubbed “McGreed” in Mpumalanga after refusing to supply anti-Aids drugs to a staff member who was raped after working a late shift. The transnational corporation refuses to supply transport for staff who knock off between midnight and 2am, and who are regularly ambushed by criminals. A […]
Paul Kirk Last week Durban’s largest shelter for the homeless ran out of food. This week, a homeless man had to be turned away because there was no space for him. This is because hundreds of Gauteng’s indigent winter at the coast where, thanks to the warm Indian ocean, daytime temperatures seldom drop below 20C. […]
By Bruce Whitfield Emerging markets specialist Mark Mobius has about $1-billion invested in South Africa, and he’s looking to increase his exposure. He is the president of the Templeton Emerging Markets Fund, and about 15% of the fund’s total assets are invested in a wide range of South African companies. He is looking to increase […]
The movie Fight Club has spawned a craze for ultimate fighting, though the sport is banned in some countries because of deaths in the ring Thebe Mabanga South Africans are catching on to the growth and popularity of the American contact sport, ultimate fighting. Last weekend 2 500 people crammed into the Wembley Arena in […]
Jane Rosenthal Trekking to Teema by Pieter-Dirk Uys (comPress/Book) In this very readable novel, now in actual book form after an Internet debut, Pieter-Dirk Uys manages to be both richly entertaining and rather serious. Written from the heart, it is often tongue-in-cheek, an unpretentious but well-told tale. It concerns one Dawid de Lange who, having […]
A former military officer under the apartheid regime, disabled and shunned by the very system he chose to serve, has not let the curve ball thrown to him by fate stop him from fulfilling his dreams Khadija Magardie It is rare that childhood dreams of becoming a ballerina or a fighter jet pilot are sustained […]
Evidence wa ka Ngobeni A top-level scientific investigation has been launched to detect the possibility of a volcanic eruption at a tiny village near Thohoyandou, Northern Province. The probe, being conducted by a team of six scientists, was started two weeks ago after communities from Siloam in the Nzhelele district reported land deformations and mudslides. […]
Fiona Macleod While the world signed a landmark treaty this week outlawing 12 of the most dangerous chemical concoctions, a major South African company continues to trade openly in one of these toxins. Chlordane, a pesticide used mainly on building sites to get rid of termites underground, is one of the persistent organic pollutants (POPs) […]