Marianne Merten The political storm in the Western Cape hamlet of Saron has settled after the African National Congress national disciplinary committee overturned the decision of its provincial officials to expel the mayor and his deputy. For several months tempers ran high in Saron – a tiny town in the shadow of the Swartruggens mountains […]
Deon Potgieter BOXING Francois Botha has landed possibly the biggest fight to involve a South African boxer. He will be contesting the undisputed heavyweight world title against Lennox Lewis in London on July 15. The late trainer Alan Toweel once said: “The heavyweight boxing champion of the world is the number one sportsman in the […]
Robert Mugabe may soon feel he has sufficiently muddled the issues and struck enough terror into voters and his opponents to win the forthcoming elections in Zimbabwe quite comfortably. If so, this may lead him to less violent and irrational political behaviour than he has shown since he lost the referendum on a new Constitution […]
Cool new pocket PCs are ready to turn up the heat on the market leader Jack Schofield Hewlett-Packard is about to launch the sleekest, most stylish and most powerful range of palmtop computers on the market, the Jornada 540 series, running Microsoft’s latest pocket PC software. Compaq and Casio are also using the new operating […]
New additions to the local insurance industry are a women-only policy and maintenance protection Heather Hogan Women (and men) wary of time-consuming, expensive and sometimes futile battles to get financial support after a divorce can now take out an insurance policy to protect them against the maintenance blues. However, people in customary marriages are excluded […]
Two top British poets are among those coming to Durban’s poetry festival Merle Colborne There was a time when poetry was thought of as something only people who spoke posh, wore tweed skirts or jackets with leather elbow patches and drank their tea from bone china cups could enjoy. Now aficionados include those who talk […]
Without funds from the provincial government, some farm schools in the region have been forced to close Lynda Gilfillan Schoombee Trust School is one of the luckier farm schools in the Eastern Cape. It’s still open. But throughout the province schools are closing because the provincial education department has paid neither boarding nor transport subsidies, […]
Khadija Magardie A DAUGHTER OF ISIS by Nawal El Saadawi (David Philip/Zed) Islamic feminism is a virtual candy jar of typologies, incorporating pragmatists, radicals, secular feminists and even “neo- Islamists”. With the backdrop of Islamic laws and traditions, the different camps have one common concern – the empowerment of women within a rethought Islam. What […]
Marianne Merten A debt-collecting company, International Debt Control (IDC), chaired by former minister of finance Barend Du Plessis, has been expelled from the industry control body after being found guilty of unconscionable behaviour, acting dishonestly and failing to account for collected money. It is the second time IDC has been censured by the Association of […]
Donna Block President Robert Mugabe’s government is now targeting top Zimbabwean businesspeople who are independent of the ruling Zanu-PF party as land invasions and violence against farmers and opposition supporters continue. The head of Zimbabwe’s third-largest company, Strive Masiyiwa, is now pondering his future surrounded by bodyguards in London after being warned by sympathetic security […]