pool Grant Shimmin in Sydney In a room in the Athletes’ Village adjacent to Sydney’s Olympic Park, there’s plenty of mutual encouragement going on. It’s a room shared by Brendon Dedekind and Ryk Neethling, two of the elder statesmen of the South African swimming team and, coincidentally, two of the biggest medal hopes. They’ve been […]

Economist Hernando de Soto is hailed as a saviour of poor countries. But he is nothing of the kind, writes Madeleine Bunting Hernando de Soto has pulled off a remarkable feat. You may not have heard of him, but governments around the world are apparently queuing up to hear what the Peruvian thinker has to […]

Roshila Pillay One of South Africa’s most progressive schools, St Barnabas College in Johannesburg, faces closure after Standard Bank refused it further financial assistance – despite a World Bank request that it provide temporary financial support. The school has a unique approach characterised by a long-standing history of commitment to education where redress is most […]

Humphrey Tyler Popcorn, Crashing the Night and Glass Roots started off as the quickest sellers for this weekend’s Hilton Arts Festival but people have been snapping up tickets since for an almost bewildering range of other shows and special events. Last week booking for shows on the main programme averaged 80% and several shows on […]

justice shop Peter Dickson Port Elizabeth’s St Albans prison is set to become a one-stop justice shop for awaiting-trial prisoners when South Africa’s first court within a jail opens next month. Bankrolled by Business Against Crime (BAC) in the Eastern Cape, the venture aims to reduce escapes and slash transport costs between the prison and […]

The 23rd anniversary of Steve Biko’s death was commemorated with the first annual Steve Biko memorial lecture presented by Njabulo S Ndebele. This is an edited version I confess to being one of those who have had an ambivalent attitude towards the recent national conference on racism. On the one hand, I welcomed the attention […]

Ben Cousins Crossfire Dr Gilingwe Mayende’s reply to my criticisms of the manner in which land reform in South Africa is currently being managed (”Didiza’s doing what she should”, August 25 to 31) fails to reassure on the quality of current leadership in land reform. The central thrust of criticism – declining government capacity – […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Thursday THE biggest black empowerment initiative in South African banking is to be announced by Nedcor, which is selling a controlling stake in Peoples Bank and FBC Fidelity Bank to Western Cape based listed company Brimstone. Nedcor’s hostile bid for for Standard Bank Investment Corporation was disallowed by government earlier this […]

A group of women gathered outside the Louis Trichardt Magistrate’s Court in Northern Province on Wednesday demanding that stiff sentences be handed to three people accused of painting a teenaged girl white. The accused – Thelma Strydom, Julia Munyai and Albert Mbezi – were not asked to plead on charges of theft, assault and crimen […]

THULANI MTHETHWA, Mbabane | Thursday SWAZILAND’S royal advisory council warned that it would forcibly close the Media Institute of Southern Africa (Misa) branch if it persisted in publicly criticising the kingdom’s political system. Misa’s Swaziland national director Comfort Mabuza said members of the Swaziland National Committee appeared to be annoyed with a prominent article in […]