Andy Colquhoun rugby Underdogs in sport have always clung to truisms. They have sworn that it is only “11 against 11”. They have dismissed precedent by pointing out “sport is played on the field not on team-sheets”. And (my favourite) they have talked down the opposition by pointing out “they only have two arms and […]

Douglas Adams’s first novel was was an instant bestseller. Now dogged by writer’s block, he has turned to new projects Nicholas Wroe Soon after The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy was published in 1979, Douglas Adams was invited to sign copies at a small science fiction bookshop in London’s Soho. As he drove there, some […]

Merle Colborne Little evening bags and small binoculars. Tickly throats and Black Magic. And then the final fling, piping “Encore! Encore!” and pounding one’s feet on the floor and even perhaps doing a spot of standing up. Natal was awfully English going to the opera. Now opera audiences in KwaZulu-Natal rise from their seats whenever […]

Shirley Kossick The judges in Exclusive Books’s promotional “Boeke Prize” which highlights six novels, have come up with a really strong shortlist this year. It includes Wally Lamb’s I Know This Much Is True (Phoenix), which topped the American bestseller lists in 1998. This gripping story of identical twins is told by Dominick, whose whole […]

Kenya is in the grip of a drought, but there are runs aplenty at the Nairobi Gymkhana Club Peter Robinson in Nairobi Kenya’s minister for the environment let his view on law and order be known this week. He reckons criminals, even those merely under suspicion, should be taken out and lynched publicly. Put that […]

Andy Capostagno rugby If there’s one thing that sportspeople hate it’s the playing of pointless matches. Which should help to explain the simmering discontent about the “new” Currie Cup system. Last week the Lions, the defending champions, put 96 points on the Northern Free State Griffons, a performance that earned them precisely nothing. The Griffons […]

Jazz guitarist Jimmy Dludlu has come a long way since cutting his teeth with groups like Loading Zone and Mack Denite Thebe Mabanga There are many sides to Jimmy Dludlu. There is the stylish, celebrated jazz guitarist who strums his custom-made, semi-acoustic guitar to the delight of audiences on either side of the South African […]

Thebe Mabanga in your ear I recently had the opportunity to listen to scenario planner Wolfgang Grukel give a talk on his book, Ten lessons from the future. Grukel paints an interesting picture of what life will be like in 2020. When one thinks of radio in its capacity as the country’s most accessible medium, […]

Exit management is the government’s latest proposal to reduce the size of the public service.

BRONWEN ROBERTS, Midrand | Friday IN its latest public disagreement with government, powerful labour federation Cosatu has threatened to launch a general nationwide strike if the government goes ahead with key changes to labour laws. The 1.8-million-member federation drew up a programme of action to fight the changes, which it says would undermine workers’ gains […]