Sechaba ka’Nkosi On the surface, Swaziland is a peaceful country blessed with natural beauty. In recent weeks, however, its tranquillity has been shattered by protests and the brutality of its police exposed. My colleague Ruth Motau and I attended a demonstration in Mbabane on Tuesday to cover the story. We became a story in the […]

The Hurricane has blown out and a new biography gives the reasons Clive Everton Alex Higgins has gone missing. Three months have passed since his last public sighting at the Crucible during the summer; not at the game’s most famous venue, however, but the snooker club of that name which stands in the shadow of […]

Deon Potgieter boxing Musibele “Hawk” Makepula may have bitten off more than he can chew when he climbs into the ring against Irene Pacheco on Friday night in the United States. Makepula, who recently relinquished his World Boxing Union junior-flyweight world title, will be challenging the Columbian for the International Boxing Federation flyweight world title. […]

Ebrahim Harvey left field Rising poverty and joblessness, water and electricity cut-offs, the decimating HIV/Aids pandemic and the privatisation of basic social services, of which poor people are deprived if they cannot afford to pay, make the December local government elections a critical event for communities. It also strengthens the fight for democratic and accountable […]

Peter Dickson Hundreds of Eastern Cape Muslims are heading for the West Bank to help fight Israel. The Eastern Cape residents have banded together under the banner of a recruitment body formed by six local Muslim community organisations called Friends of Palestine, which says it is prepared for the men to sacrifice their lives in […]

The password trick: A crook running a rogue website takes a customer’s credit-card number and password to go shopping at major online retailers that might also have been visited by that person. Many people use the same password for all their online shopping, so the crook will go to sites that only need a password […]

Richard Jago in Stuttgart tennis Wayne Ferreira, one of the game’s great under-achievers and most volatile talents, achieved the best success of his career last week in the longest final of the year. Ferreira, the old-stager alleged to be temperamentally unsound but who has always believed in his mental toughness, beat Lleyton Hewitt in the […]

Tara Turkington The interim CEO of the cash-strapped South African Heritage Resources Agency (Sahra) has been spending a large part of a fund set up to transform the organisation on fancy hotels and personal travel. New CEO Pumla Madiba, who takes office in January, will have to sort out a difficult inheritance: a much slimmer […]

Every music legend deserves a good pilgrimage. Jimi Hendrix fan Hugh Clench visits the state-of-the-art museum inspired by the guitar hero who died 30 years ago If, like me, you are old enough, and committed enough, to have seen Jimi Hendrix play live more than once, then you’ll know the significance of September 18 1970. […]

Howard Barrell and Barry Streek A former Cabinet minister is named on the Internet as having received R10-million for facilitating the purchase of corvettes from Germany in South Africa’s controversial R43,8-billion arms deal. The local and foreign websites also name a senior African National Congress MP as having been one of a group of South […]