FORMER All Black mentor and current Golden Lions head coach Laurie Mains has predicted a torrid time for South Africa in their rugby Test against Wales at the Millenium Stadium in Cardiff on Saturday. “I think Wales will be a real wake-up call for South Africa,” Mains said in Johannesburg on Thursday. “I’m not saying […]

FRIDAY, 12.30PM: THE WELSH side that will meet the Springboks in a one-off Test match at Loftus Versfeld on Saturday will be characteristically full of spirit and fight, but all indications are that the Boks will maintain their unbeaten record over the Celtic visitors, writes Rob Davies . The Welsh rugby road has been very […]

FRIDAY 5.30PM: PLAY was suspended due to rain on the third and final day of the cricket match between British Universities and the touring South Africans at Fenners on Friday. The South Africans scored 394/1 declared in their first innings, and were 130 without loss in the second. The Students scored 199. FRIDAY, 12.30PM: PAT […]

NIGERIAN-BORN WBO heavyweight champion Herbie Hide turned over tables and chairs after losing his temper in a press conference in London on Thursday. Hide leapt to his feet to confront his former sparring partner Danny Williams during a meeting with the press ahead of Saturday’s title defence against Vitali Klitschko at the London Arena. British […]

MIKE FINCH, Johannesburg | Thursday 3.00pm. OLYMPIC 800m silver medallist Hezekiel Sepeng can compete in the world athletics championships in August despite not fulfilling criteria laid down by the sports’ national federation. Athletics South Africa (ASA) announced at a news conference on Thursday that Sepeng had been fined R25000 for failing to attend the national […]

FRIDAY, 1.00PM: LABOUR Minster Tito Mboweni on Thursday announced the government’s long-awaited employment strategy, promising fiscal support of up to R1-billion for jobs creation programmes in the short term. The strategy — which will dictate the government’s position in the coming presidential jobs summit — calls for sacrifices from business and labour. Depending on the […]

Justin Arenstein `Welcome to the bantustan” was the refrain echoing through Mpumalanga’s corridors of power this week following the virtual coup of the provincial government by former homeland leaders. The echoes will ring even louder if former KaNgwane homeland minister and discredited former environmental MEC David Mkhwanazi is appointed as special adviser to the premier. […]

Mail & Guardian reporter Once you were taught not to take sweets from strangers. A variant of this, which should be drummed into every person with access to the Internet, is not to open e-mail attachments from strangers. In fact, if possible, don’t open e-mail attachments at all unless you’re expecting them. The latest nasty […]

The David Gleason Column `There are three kinds of lies,” said British prime minister Benjamin Disraeli, “lies, damned lies and statistics.” So, when the South African Statistical Service (SASS)- let it be said with the full knowledge of the Ministry of Finance and, no doubt, the Reserve Bank, too -produces an entirely revised set of […]

ENGLISH club Bristol have signed Argentine scrumhalf Agustin Pichot on a two-year contract. The 24-year-old Pichot, capped 21 times, will link up with South African flyhalf Henry Honiball at the south-west club. “Agustin is the complete scrumhalf,” Bristol’s Australian director of rugby Bob Dwyer said on Wednesday. “He can run and he can tackle but […]