Andrew Muchineripi soccer Think carefully about the question I am about to pose before you answer it: what are the most common words on the lips of football fans ahead of any cup final? A clue. It is so obvious that it may not be obvious. Without fear of contradiction I declare that “Who will […]

Daniel Taylor soccer The first bouquets started arriving just before 11am. It started as a slow trickle, followed by a steady flow. Very soon, as the news reverberated across the old cotton town, Ewood Park had become the focal point for the mourning of a club and its community. Not only Blackburn but English football […]

Jaspreet Kindra Liberia’s ambassador to South Africa this week conceded that the arrest of the four journalists in Monrovia on charges of spying was the latest in the series of blows to the country’s credibility. Ambassador Llewellyn Witherspoon said the arrests “did not help the country’s image”. The four journalists, including South African cameraman Gugu […]

Philip Machanick For almost as long as anyone can remember Apple has been promising to deliver a great new operating system. An operating system is the software that controls basic functions of a computer: allowing multiple programs to run without bumping into each other, organising information on a disk into documents and applications … in […]

Ebrahim Harvey left field The black left-leaning Azanian People’s Organisation (Azapo) and the Pan Africanist Congress over the past few months have taken the first serious steps towards unity. This is part of the broader flux and ferment in South African politics, as seen by the merger of the New National Party and the Democratic […]

Barry Streek The innovative Working for Water programme of removing invasive alien plants has, until now, been fighting a losing battle: although it cleared 112 333ha last year and did follow-up clearing on 121 310ha – a total of 238 823ha – invading alien plants are spreading and growing at a faster rate. If the […]

defence pleas Marianne Merten Cape lawyers are preparing an unprecedented use of “battered women syndrome” as a crucial part of a self-defence plea being mounted by a Guguletu woman accused of murdering her husband. The lawyers will seek to persuade the court that on the night of December 21 1998 Xoliswa Mngxaso was justified in […]

An estate usually associated with vineyards and high living is focusing on ecological sustainability and social development Barry Streek A pair of fish eagles has returned to the Eerste river in the Lynedoch area near Stellenbosch for the first time in generations after a R2-million clean-up of a section of the river. Meanwhile, a worm […]

ladder Employee assistance programmes are taking off in South Africa Glenda Daniels Labour legislation is confus- ing employers, workers are stressed and the pressure for greater productivity is on everyone’s shoulders, while the notion of stable jobs has become obsolete. In South Africa there are changes in labour laws, disputed hirings and firings, the implementation […]

Barry Streek Provincial land MECs were given a direct lesson last week on the implementation of land reform in Zimbabwe after Minister of Agriculture and Land Affairs Thoko Didiza invited them to a meeting to discuss the realities of farmer settlement. Professor Sam Moyo addressed the MECs on land reform and farm settlement in Zimbabwe […]