Tom Lester motorcycling Kenny Roberts secured a place in the history books at the weekend when he became the first son of a former champion to clinch the world 500cc Grand Prix title. “For as long as I can remember this has been my goal. It is like the conclusion to a 27-year season,” Roberts […]

Matthew Burbidge FOOD Woolworths, the home of the unblemished tomato, launched its stylish site www.inthebag.co.za last week and is betting its repu-tation that its tomatoes will arrive unbruised, slightly chilled and on time. Jessica Knight, CEO of inthebag, said while its client base is currently relatively small, its business model conservatively plans on having 300 […]

Khadija Magardie review OFTHEWEEK It is often the case that the progressiveness of a society may be measured by the position of its women. This is even more so in the one facet of society that transcends geographical boundaries – religion. It was no doubt with this in mind that the local chapter of the […]

Andrew Muchineripi soccer Football in South Africa has reached a worrying level when Sundowns have to give away tickets for an African Champions League match against Esperance in Pretoria on Saturday. One newspaper offered 200 tickets this week and another 100 to those who phoned and correctly answered a question, and I am reliably informed […]

ROBERT HOLLOWAY, United Nations | Friday SIX years after the genocide in Rwanda ended, more than 4450 children – including 450 who have been formally cleared of any involvement in the genocide courts – are among the 123000 people languishing in prisons, many without charge, says a UN human rights report. Michel Moussalli, special representative […]

PAUL KIRK, Johannesburg | Friday THE CEO of a cash-strapped NGO has allegedly allotted himself a salary package of more than R500000 a year – for only two days work a week. This week the chair of the Kokstad branch of the South African National Tuberculosis Association (Santa) and executive committee member of Santa KwaZulu-Natal, […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Cape Town | Friday TREVOR Manuel, the finance minister, has asked Parliament to increase his R233,4bn budget for 2000-2001 by R3,9bn, according to the daily Business Report. Because of contingency reserves, higher tax collections, lower debt costs and the reallocation of some votes, this would not increase the deficit to more than the […]

SA Reserve Bank governor Tito Mboweni has stressed the importance of a strong independent central bank, saying that central bankers operated on a longer term time scale than politicians and did not face the same temptation to relax policy to achieve short term objectives. “By delegating decisions about interest rates and other monetary matters to […]

Robert McCrum The day before the 2000 Booker Prize shortlist was announced, I received a puzzling e-mail announcing the selection of JG Ballard (Super Cannes), Zadie Smith (White Teeth), Robert Edric (The Book of the Heathen), Amitav Ghosh (The Glass Palace), Michael Ondaatje (Anil’s Ghost) and Paul Golding (The Abomination). It was only when I […]