A quality of South Africans is that we believe the world is ours for the taking. Not for us the business of playing percentages. There’s nothing of the effete English cricketer in us. No, if there is a game to be played or a race to be run, we know that we can win it. […]

Cameron Duodu Letter from the North By allowing “Eric the Eel” (Eric Moussambani, the swimmer from Equatorial Guinea) to take part in the Olympics Games, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) has done Africa a great favour. But I doubt whether that was their original intention. You don’t need to be a genius to realise that […]

David Macfarlane ‘This is a signal South African universities could have done without right now,” says a shocked senior academic in response to Tuesday’s unexpected announcement that University of the Witwatersrand vice-chancellor Professor Colin Bundy will leave the university less than halfway through his seven-year contract. Bundy leaves not only Wits but the country as […]

Grant Shimmin olympics The season of clutching at straws is almost over and my number in the press medal pool looks unlikely to come up. I went for 10 gongs, including two golds (Penny Heyns and Llewellyn Herbert), so my chances are somewhere between slim and non-existent. That said, with just the last weekend of […]

Shaun de Waal movie OFTHEWEEK Jesus’ Son, in case you were wondering, has nothing to do with the offspring of the messiah, who in any case is considered by the mainstream Christian tradition to have led a sex-free life. Alternative traditions whisper of a passion for the ex-prostitute Mary Magdalene, and a French royal dynasty […]

Gavin Evans Hezekiel Sepeng comes fourth: the rolling picture says it all. Disorganisation, bad timing, leaving it too late – the fate of South Africa’s sole black medal prospect on the track was set well before the losing line. And as with Sepeng so with South Africa’s entire Olympic bid. Eight years ago in Barcelona […]

book of success Thebe Mabanga The secret of Kenya’s success in long- distance running is centred on comparative advantage. The East African road running powerhouse’s rise in middle- and long- distance competition has been carefully plotted over the past decade and a half. It has been brought about by a combination of ideal weather, intensive […]

Pule waga Mabe The vice-chancellor of the University of the North, former Truth and Reconciliation Commission commissioner Biki Minyuku, has filed a review application in the Pretoria High Court against his suspension. Minyuku was suspended last December without knowing the charges against him, or a disciplinary hearing. Minyuku’s attorney, Solly Manamela, says the university disregarded […]

Brenda Atkinson review OFTHEWEEK Since coming back to Johannesburg in 1996 after an absence of more than 20 years, Rodney Place’s work has been characterised by lacerating irony, his perspective that of the city’s prodigal son, returned from his adventures only to find that he can’t get to the fatted calf for the security gates […]

experiments Fiona Macleod South Africa is earmarked for experiments on animals that have already seen thousands of them dying agonising deaths. The experiments involve pumping human genes into days-old piglets and then transplanting their hearts into baboons and monkeys. Top-secret documents by scientists researching the process, called xenotransplantation, show that thousands of animals have died […]