THE Auckland Blues shrugged off their recent indifferent form to upset the previously unbeaten Wellington Hurricanes 22-14 in their Super 12 match in Wellington on Friday. The Blues outscored the Hurricanes three tries to one and were pushing for a fourth and a bonus point at the final whistle. The same two teams kicked off […]

Antjie Krog’s new play is about dialogue – across colour and history, and paint Michael Rautenbach Viewing Antjie Krog’s play Waarom is Di wat Vr Toyi-Toyi Altyd So Vet? at Potchefstroom’s Aardklop festival last October, critic Stephen Gray noted it was “surely destined to become a classic in the repertoire”. Now translated by Krog into […]

Andy Capostagno GOLF The Masters is just around the corner and, as has become the norm, it’s a case of who can possibly beat Tiger Woods. The hottest golfer on the planet has made fools of the odds makers so regularly that he is as low as 125-1 to win not just the Masters, but […]

There is often little connection between the importance of a constitutional decision and the uncertainty of the outcome of the actual case in which the issue is raised. Last year the Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma- controlled Department of Health behaved as expected. It botched up the introduction of the South African Medicines and Medical Devices Regulatory Authority […]

Cameron Duodu LETTER FROM THE NORTH I was extremely upset when I read the report by Anthony Sampson, author of the amazingly brilliant biography of Nelson Mandela, that it had been alleged in a forthcoming book that Mandela “was recruited as an ‘agent of influence’ by British intelligence”. It is also alleged that Mandela visited […]

Marianne Merten It is 9am at the tax court in Bellville, northern Cape Town, and the summonsed tax delinquents are sitting on the court benches – many looking sheepish that they have been caught. Andre Minnie requests a postponement to try get his “IRP5” form from Port Elizabeth. Peter Laque explains he needs time to […]

favour in SA Nawaal Deane ‘Ichi, ni, san, shi [Japanese countdown],” wham, grunt, slap. These are the sounds of two sweating opponents slamming into each other. One pushes his forehead into the other’s chest while gripping him in a bear hug to force him out of the makeshift ring. The opponent is thrown in a […]

Marianne Merten Driving from Cape Town to Khayelitsha, the green of the Western Cape’s first township golf range jumps out from the sandy, bush- covered surroundings. Water sprinklers are going at full force in the howling south- easter wind to ensure the greens and fairways are lush enough to satisfy even Ernie Els. The scenic, […]

WHO IS … PETER DUESBERG Ivor Powell Question: If you were told tomorrow that you were HIV-positive, what would you do? Answer: I wouldn’t get worried about this, not the least bit. The speaker here is German-American scientist Peter Duesberg, professor of molecular and cell biology at the University of California, Berkeley, and doyen of […]

Tim de Lisle Most fast bowlers are sports cars, Ferraris or Aston Martins, exciting but expensive. Courtney Walsh is a Volvo. A number of fast bowlers have been more brilliant, and a few of them are playing today – Allan Donald, Wasim Akram, Glenn McGrath, Curtly Ambrose. But no fast bowler, past or present, comes […]