Jaspreet Kindra The Inkatha Freedom Party was bolstered by this week’s poll, beefing up its traditional rural support base in KwaZulu-Natal. The IFP managed to improve its performance in last year’s general election of 41,9% in the province, increasing its share to at least 45%. At the time of going to press the IFP had […]

Justin Arenstein and Michael Matari The Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) on Thursday demanded audio tapes from the SABC following reports that one of its regional Northern Province radio stations encouraged rural resi-dents to boycott the local government elections as part of an ethnic feud. Northern Province chief electoral officer Zwo Nevhutalu said Radio Munghana Lonene […]

Richard Jago tennis For a third and final time Bjorn Borg feels ready to risk the abyss of Life After Tennis. When the born-again Borg began his last tournament in Britain this week, the over-35s Honda Challenge at the Albert Hall, many felt nostalgia while the Swede was eager to demonstrate that he is no […]

Malika Ndlovu is fast becoming very hot property on the national literary scene Andrew Gilder Malika Ndlovu is a journalist’s dream interviewee. She answers questions lucidly, eloquently and at length; and is so eminently quotable that one is tempted merely to submit a verbatim transcript of the conversation rather than compose an article. This is, […]

under-qualified teachers Barry Streek Minister of Education Kader Asmal told Parliament last week that South Africa has 85 501 unqualified or under-qualified teachers, about 80% of whom are primary school teachers in farm and rural areas. The worst-affected province is KwaZulu-Natal with more than a quarter of the unqualified and under-qualified teachers 20 853. Asmal […]

Peter Robinson cricket The two great men of Sri Lankan cricket will not be treading South Africa’s fields this summer, but the third, make no mistake about it, is here. Whether Muttiah Muralitharan is the most effective off-spinner of all time is a matter for debate, but few would argue that in an age when […]

ELAINE MONAGHAN, Cape Town | Friday MADELEINE Albright has launched probably the last big tour of her four years as US Secretary of State, promoting Aids awareness and American interests in southern Africa. Unlike her last three sub-Saharan Africa trips, which took in areas of conflict and the scenes of embassy bombings in Kenya and […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, London | Thursday MINING giant Anglo American has agreed to swap almost all its equity in South African bank FirstRand, its biggest non-core asset, for stakes in rival miners Billiton and Gold Fields. In a move bound to cause anxiety in the Billiton boardroom in particular, Anglo said it had sold three-quarters of […]

MARIAM ISA and OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Friday ANALYSTS have laid the blame for an ”alarming” rise in racial divisions in South Africa’s local government elections firmly at the door of President Thabo Mbeki, who they say ”reintroduced race into South African politics with his two-nation theme of rich whites and poor blacks.” The outcome […]