Paul Edmunds preview OFTHEWEEK Purple is the colour of majesty, madness and celebration. Purple is also the colour of the dye used by the South African Police when they hosed down peaceful anti- apartheid demonstrators in what came to be called Cape Town’s Purple Rain incident of 1987. To conceive of an arts festival that […]

He gave up school at age 15 to concentrate on racing – and now he’s a motocross world champion at 17 Gavin Foster In 1998, his first year of 125cc motocross Grand Prix racing, Durbanite Grant Langston, then just 15, finished 35th in the world championships. Last year the youngster took a very impressive 10th. […]

The Victorian English public school – rather than the ancient Greeks – inspired Pierre de Coubertin, founder of the modern Olympics Mark Whitaker Taking a short cut recently in the centre of Tunis, a city I’ve known well for years, I found myself in an unfamiliar run-down street. It took some time to find a […]

Too many coaches in South Africa have an inflated opinion of their own worth Andrew Muchineripi Coaches of Castle Premiership clubs have got to rank among the most arrogant and overrated members of the highly paid, highly pressured group anywhere in the world. They all speak with such authority on the beautiful game, although precious […]

couture set Charl Blignaut It was a classic case of a headline in search of a story, but still, South African Fashion Week (SAFW) will one day be grateful to journalist Craig Jacobs. He may have been the subject of more elegantly hissed expletives than any other hack in the history of local fashion, but […]

The Ethiopian Orthodox Church is a pawn in the hands of Ethiopian immigrants on conflicting sides of home country politics. Osita Nwajah reports You may mistake this for a local political gathering, if the things that you rely on to make a judgement are the red, yellow and green flag hanging above the speaker and […]

Win one of three pairs of season tickets for the KwaZulu-Natal Philharmonic Orchestra at the Durban City Hall. Call Tel: (031) 369E9477 between 9am and 9.15am on September 18 and answer the question: Where does the spring season take place?

Joan Smith Body Language The excuses are familiar: I’ve got a headache, I’m too tired, it’s the wrong time of the month. But now it’s not just women who are finding reasons for avoiding sex. Contradicting age-old assumptions, more and more men are going off it and some of them are prepared to say so, […]

Ivor Powell As police detectives struggle to contain a spate of so-called “Black Dollar” cons the Mail & Guardian has learned of a new dollar scam syndicate operating a confidence trick in Gauteng that puts a peculiarly literal spin on the notion of money laundering. The con operation is run by two men, one – […]

Jaspreet Kindra Former homeland leader Lucas Mangope is considering abandoning his alliance with the Democratic Party in favour of a partnership with the Pan Africanist Congress of Azania ahead of the local government elections. PAC sources said this week that Mangope, the leader of the United Christian Democratic Party (UCDP), has been in exploratory discussions […]