Deon Potgieter boxing South African boxing was poised to become a major player on the international boxing scene following Hassim Rahman’s dumping of Lennox Lewis at Carnival City last month. The value of controlling the universal heavyweight champion would have had untold benefits for a country that has not had a good run on the […]

Robert Kirby CHANNELVISION Two of the BBC’s best comedies are showing currently on BBC Prime. The first is Yes, Prime Minister, the follow-up to Yes, Minister, the comedy series about British minister of administrative affairs Jim Hacker’s career. He is now prime minister, followed closely into office by the impeccably hypocritical Sir Humphrey Appleby, now […]

Nawaal Deane In a scenario disturbingly reminiscent of apartheid policing, Andrew Taylor claims two policemen tortured him on Tuesday in Northam in the Northern Province. They dropped all charges and released him the next day. Taylor claims two policemen from the Pretoria murder and robbery unit took him to a private game farm outside Pretoria, […]

David Beresford Another Country There seems to be growing excitement in the world’s laboratories over the success scientists are having in repairing and even enhancing memory in rats and mice, in anticipation of replicating the feat on humans. One’s thoughts on reading such reports must be much the same as would have passed through the […]

Paul Kirk The vice-chancellor of the University of Durban Westville (UDW), Dr Mapule Ramashala, is hanging tough, refusing to resign or retire despite a motion of no confidence lodged against her and a mass exodus of academics. This week UDW lost two more senior academics, Professors John Daniel and Adam Habib, who are both world-renowned […]

Steven Friedman worm’s eye view Why do we not try to be world class at being ourselves? As so often happens in this country, a sporting controversy may be holding a candle to an important trend in our society. This time, it is the argument over the choice of venue for the 2003 cricket World […]

Barry Streek The Speaker of the National Assembly, Frene Ginwala, had taken the lead in unjustifiably challenging Parliament’s standing committee on public accounts (Scopa), its chair, Gavin Woods, said this week. “As both the chair of the committee and as a member of Parliament I see it as a constitutional responsibility that I defend the […]

After years of antipathy between Hollywood and Cannes, the Americans are finally proving that big box office movies can be creative and credible Akin Ojumu At the press conference following the Cannes screening of Moulin Rouge, Baz Luhrmann, the film’s Australian director, proudly proclaimed the film’s Antipodean origins. This was a film conceived and executed […]

Lawrence Booth ‘Corruption report stuns cricket world,” announced one website this week. Remove cricket from that headline, and you might be closer to the truth. Because for those in the game who have followed developments closely since Cronjegate and have greeted each new revelation with less shock and horror than the last there is precious […]

Timothy Wood American notes In January United States President George W Bush was regarded as an illegitimate usurper who would stumble in the absence of an authoritative mandate. In May he is having an early last laugh with a budget and tax relief package that is nearly everything he campaigned on. Intriguingly, the battle over […]