Howard Barrell OVER A BARREL You are not alone if you, too, are beginning to think that Zimbabwe’s Robert Mugabe is a few marbles short of a full bag. It is not a question on which we should expect our own Thabo Mbeki or his officials to comment. They are currently engaged in manoeuvres to […]

Lynda Gilfillan ‘Seen from above – from a plane, for instance – South Africa is a dry and empty land: rock and stunted bush, grey and khaki. The landscape art and literature of South Africa’s white settlers harped on the barrenness of their new home, and on its indifference to whether they starved or prospered, […]

Tjaart Potgieter LIFESTYLE Saturday evening. I was fantasising about Sunday lunch at the Troyeville hotel – I hadn’t been there for quite a while – and I thought it would go something like this: here we are, sitting quietly at a corner table waiting for our chicken livers and grilled calamari, sipping a glass of […]

Deon Potgieter BOXING An air of eager anticipation was present as the combatants of the “Night of the Legends” boxing tournament, to be staged at Carnival City on Saturday night, came face to face on Tuesday afternoon at the pre-fight medical. Although the main event between “Baby” Jake Matlala and Hawk Makepula has captivated fans, […]

Cameron Duodu LETTER FROM THE NORTH Who are Robert Mugabe’s political strategists? He ought to fire the lot of them. There is no country in the world in which you can hold a referendum – and expect to win – when there is a fuel shortage. A fuel shortage is like no other economic deprivation, […]

Neil Manthorp CRICKET Having made one of his gutsiest half centuries of a pretty gutsy career during the triangular final last Sunday, Hansie Cronje had just a single day at home before joining the rest of his squad for the the flight to India on Wednesday. What a triumph it was. When Steve Waugh gloated […]

Heather Connon SHAREWORLD When FTSE International meets on March 8 to decide who is in and out, up and down, in the London stock market, construction company BICC’s lowly 330-million market capitalisation means it could be demoted to the small-cap index – of the smallest companies in the market. But Baltimore Technologies, a supplier of […]

Bob Woolmer FROM THE PAVILION Lance Klusener, our hero, and Guy Whittall from Zimbabwe have both been given suspended sentences for swearing at each other. Big deal! If match referees had been in business in 1975, none of the Australian players would have played all year. I was fortunate enough to spend more than eight […]

A critic gets paid $10E000 a day to tell designers not to be too clever Jack Schofield For only $10E000 a day, usability expert Jakob Nielsen will tell you why your website is rubbish. Surprisingly, what you get for the money isn’t a high-powered marketing executive, or even an expert in Web programming. He’s just […]

One of Durban’s biggest police stations has been renting its car park and providing a private security service to a nightclub Paul Kirk As I pull up into the Point Road parking lot, a well-dressed car guard comes up and ensures me my car will be safe. Neatly dressed in blue, and sporting a bulletproof […]