Neil Manthorp There are many compelling reasons to start the inquiry into Hansie Cronje’s confessions as soon as possible, but the most pertinent for the immediate health of the national team is the growing “rumour circus” that is threatening the sanity of the remainder of the cricket squad. So just how many games were affected? […]

Julia Eccleshare Outsiders were a recurrent theme in this year’s shortlist for the Guardian Children’s Fiction Prize. That did not mean the books are gloomy, but they all reflected an understanding that conventional family relationships have been replaced in children’s lives by broader, more complex structures. Nowhere is this more sharply observed than in the […]

David Hopps There it was. After hours spent looking for a sense of direction in Dubai’s luxurious shopping malls, the perfect gift suddenly loomed into view. It is not often that I have ever felt in need of a corporate stress chair but in Dubai, playground of the moneyed classes, the thought of diving in […]

opposition’ Peter Dickson The Eastern Cape Legislature’s African National Congress-dominated rules committee has been sent back to the drawing board after a blazing row in the Bisho house over a controversial propo- sal to restrict press and public debate on government matters and information. The committee has proposed that “matters referred to, or information submitted […]

Glenda Daniels South Africa’s Skills Development Levy Act comes into effect on May 5 to kick off a process that would see the retraining of the country’s 10-million- strong workforce. However, more than 180E000 employers still have to register with the South Africa Revenue Service (SARS) to comply with the provisions of the new Act. […]

man-made disaster? Jean-Baptiste Naudet Ethiopia has been fighting its neighbour, Eritrea, since May 1998. Two of the poorest countries in the world, they are now both calling on the international community to help them deal with a drought that could, they say, result in famine for millions. Is the disaster they face a natural one, […]

Neil McIntosh The company many like to paint as the Internet’s David finally got its slingshot working again last week. Netscape, once synonymous with the Web and the Internet boom, unveiled its latest Web browser a day after Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson delivered his damning findings of law against the Internet’s Goliath – Microsoft. The […]

Andy Capostagno RUGBY The Super 12 has reached the point of no return. Those coaches who have invested in slide rules to calculate the lowest number of log points required to reach the semi- finals can throw them away on Monday if their teams lose this weekend. That goes for John Connolly of the Reds […]

Fiona Macleod When a dog has a cat up a tree, you hope that it either loses interest or its owner calls it to heel. But what do you do when neither intervention takes place? This is the dilemma facing one of two groups claiming title to the Friends of the Cat welfare organisation, based […]

Shaun de Waal MOVIE OFTHEWEEK It was Edward Said who, in his book Culture and Imperialism, pointed to an aspect of Jane Austen’s 1814 novel Mansfield Park that had not been much remarked upon. It was slavery. Such a heavy issue may seem at odds with the sequestered world of Jane Austen, who compared her […]