Console Tleane a Second Look The recent furore surrounding Max du Preez’s comments on radio about President Thabo Mbeki’s alleged infidelities, and later carried by a daily newspaper, begs a relook at the role of the press in South Africa. Such a retrospection becomes even more critical following a call by the Western Cape African […]
Unions at Vista University have formally declared a dispute with the institution over its planned retrenchment of 20% of its staff David Macfarlane In a bizarre move, Vista University is planning to shed 365 of its staff at the same time as the government proceeds with plans to dismantle the institution. Even more bizarrely, there […]
Stefaans Brmmer and Jaspreet Kindra A pamphlet said to have originated in the African National Congress alliance calling for “one president, one term” has fuelled the latest round of accusations around supposed plots against President Thabo Mbeki. This has been the month in which tensions around the president, long simmering in the ANC and tripartite […]
David Le Page One of South Africa’s most prominent financial services companies stands accused of exposing policyholders’ funds to excessive risk. Senior figures in the financial services industry this week took the rare step of raising serious questions on the record about Fedsure’s handling of their smoothed bonus Guaranteed Fund. Such funds are designed to […]
whipping boy It was during a night meeting at Greyville in Durban, four months ago, that horse racing seemed to go through the looking glass into the realm of the absurd. Everything seemed to be going smoothly, until jockey Andrew Fortune stepped into the footlights with his own brand of tragicomedy. Fortune’s mount, a smart-looking […]
South Africa’s victory over the West Indies puts the Proteas within reach of greatness Peter Robinson Just over two years ago South Africa beat the West Indies 5-0 in a home series, only the fourth five-Test clean sweep in Test history. Rather than acclaim for a considerable achievement, however, the triumph was dogged by incessant […]
Hanif Kureishi is a playwright, novelist and film-maker. He talks to Robert McCrum about death, his father and the suburbs of Bromley Hanif Kureishi started out as a playwright, with his first play, Soaking the Heat, staged at the Royal Court Theatre in 1976. He wrote the script for the acclaimed Stephen Frears film My […]
Deon Potgieter Two of South Africa’s best will be in action on the undercard of the Lennox Lewis-Hasim Rahman universal heavyweight world title fight at Carnival City in the early hours of Sunday morning. Lehlohonolo Ledwaba, the best pound-for-pound boxer active in South Africa at the moment, makes the fifth defence of his International Boxing […]
Ntuthuko Maphumulo soccer Just two Bob Save Super Bowl quarterfinals will take place this weekend, with Kaizer Chiefs’ and Orlando Pirates’ games postponed so their players and officials can attend the funerals of the 43 victims of the Ellis Park stampede. Santos will face Maritzburg City on Saturday and Sundowns will face Manning Rangers at […]
John Matshikiza with the lid off One of the early successes scored by the Belgian cartoonist Herg was a book-length adventure called Tintin in the Congo. Written in the 1930s, it has Tintin, the morally impeccable, orange-quiffed wonder boy from hell, storming around the then Belgian colony with his smart-alecky talking dog, bashing up scheming […]