Robert Kirby CHANNELVISION Soft guitar music, sub-aural mutterings, slithery overlays of the loveable smile and at last the title scrolls: Hansie: Fallen Idol. We are into the first of a three-part interview with The Big C. It is hard to decide what M-Net and SuperSport were trying to achieve with this wretched exercise. I tried […]

Emma Brockes Body Language At Club Sirius, the dating agency for “single, well-educated and articulate people”, success isn’t measured by the number of members who marry, but by the number who recommend the service to a friend. By recommending it, members are seen by the club’s management to have faced out a powerful taboo. That […]

Ivor Powell As the world gears up to ban diamonds from conflict zones, the Canadian government is being accused of manipulating a United Nations humanitarian campaign against Africa’s so-called “blood diamonds” to the benefit of its own fledgling industry. The UN’s report, published earlier this year, was initiated and headed by Canada’s ambassador to the […]

Archaeologists are trying to find what really happened at the battle of Isandlwana Paul Kirk Amid the noise of the battle, the screams of the dying and the roar of a cannon, a desperate soldier of the 24th Regiment of Foot took shelter behind the two large boulders on the Isandlwana battlefield and poured five […]

Andrew Gilder On the face of it the recent demise of the State Theatre ballet and dance companies, while politically expedient, seems to be a “giant leap backwards” for South African dance. From one perspective this is true. More than half of the professional dance contracts available in the country were lost. The other point […]

Natasha Distiller crossfire Khadija Magardie’s article, “Put an end to prostitution by removing the demand” (August 18 to 24) contains a number of interesting legal and moral assumptions that warrant exploration. Decriminalising and regulating the adult commercial sex-work industry are important steps towards dealing with the violence and exploitation that occur in the industry. Decriminalisation […]

He was one of the greatest bowlers of all time – maybe even the greatest. So how come most of us have never heard of Bart King? Martin Kettle It was once said of Bart King that he was the best-known American of his time in England. When he went to Britain, people would recognise […]

Khadija Magardie A landmark decision by the Constitutional Court last week endorsing crucial crime-fighting legislation brings to an end a string of legal attacks on the law. The ruling, which stemmed from a raid on controversial tycoon Billy Rautenbach, sets a precedent for similar cases in which targets of criminal investigations might use the constitutionally […]

Thami Mazwai One understands Cosatu supremo Zwelinzima Vavi’s overriding passion for the welfare and well-being of workers. After all, fighting for workers is his profession as well as his bread and butter. But is he not being a bit myopic? There is no point in protecting rights if these result in investor wariness and the […]

Sprint queen Marion Jones and swimmer Ian Thorpe are among those hoping to strike multiple gold in Sydney Grant Shimmin On Monday evening, Australian time, the bulk of South Africa’s 130-strong Olympic team will take up residence in the future Sydney suburb of Newington which is the athletes’ village for this month’s games. For them, […]