The father of Venus and Serena has coached them into the history books. But his greatest achievement may have been to teach them there is more to life than tennis Richard Williams (no relation) and Duncan Campbell What he likes best is to get people off balance. One day he will be talking about buying […]

With Aids rampant and no cash for Western drugs, Africa is condemned to hopelessness and resentment Maggie O’Kane Malita Maxwell has Aids. But so does just about everybody else in the women’s ward of Chiradzulu hospital, with its broken air conditioner, smell of old, sweet urine and greasy mattresses covered in bright green plastic. In […]

Laura Tisdall (13) and Polly Tisdall (11) in Didcot, Oxfordshire The moment the Hogwarts Express steam train finally puffed into Didcot Railway Centre last Saturday with JK Rowling on board was just totally magic. We’d been waiting for ages and ages with hundreds of other people, clutching our copies of the new Harry Potter book. […]

The Aids 2000 conference in Durban has focused the world’s attention on how South Africa is dealing with the pandemic Belinda Beresford South Africa has been one of the sleeping behemoths of sub-Saharan Africa when it comes to Aids. The country has the greatest number of HIV infections in the world, accompanied by a fast […]

Ebrahim Harvey LEFT FIELD In the apartheid days the tiny black middle class, many of whom were drawn into the maelstrom of the anti-apartheid struggle because all black people were oppressed and denied equal opportunities, played a progressive role. Today, employed in the corporate and state sectors, or operating businesses, their numbers having swelled substantially, […]

President Thabo Mbeki has launched a campaign for an international economic system more advantageous to developing countries Howard Barrell President Thabo Mbeki is not given to timidity when it comes to “the vision thing”, as George Bush called it. Having declared his intention as vice president to rouse Africa into renaissance, as president he is […]

Simon Bowers Like one of the young sorcerer’s own spells, Pottermania is producing some unexpected results in bookshops across the globe. While many stores agree that JK Rowling’s Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire – the teenage wizard’s fourth adventure – is the fastest selling book they have seen, the hype and hysteria surrounding […]

Angus Begg TRAVEL Simultaneously smiling and serious, the blond forty-something wildlife exec called me over to his stall. It was the Indaba 2000 in Durban, the Southern African tourism industry’s annual showcase to the world. “You’ve got to see this,” he said, with a fair deal of enthusiasm. I already had, or so I thought […]

Robert Kirby CHANNELVISION As I begin writing this I await a call from the SABC’s ever helpful Marj Murray, who is busy finding out who was responsible for the bizarre pageant-cum- circus-cum-Sun City Showtime extravaganza which attended the formal opening of the Aids 2000 conference in Durban. The SABC itself didn’t bother to supply its […]

Howard Barrell Minister of Education Kader Asmal takes his controversial plan to rescue South Africa’s school education system before a special meeting of all Cabinet ministers and deputy ministers in Pretoria on Tuesday (July 18) amid resistance in the African National Congress and the Cabinet. The combative Asmal, who is thought to have the support […]