John Matshikiza:WITH THE LID OFF I’m driving in the rain when I get a call from my private army (well, armed response to you) to tell me there has been an alarm activation at my house. “Should they go round and check it out?” asks the voice on the other end of the line. “You […]

Neil Manthorp in Christchurch Cricket Gary Kirsten’s contribution to South Africa’s seven-wicket win over New Zealand on Wednesday night would have been seen as routine two years ago but this time his 81 not out might prove to be a watershed. It just doesn’t matter how much you have played, and how much experience you […]

Andy Capostagno Rugby There is a theory which states that northern hemisphere rugby will only improve if it changes its playing season to coincide with that of the southern hemisphere. There is another theory which states that this has already happened. (This paragraph with apologies to Douglas Adams). For how else can we explain the […]

Bryan Rostron:A SECOND LOOK Once upon a time, in the bad old days, when I was a rookie reporter in Cape Town, a regular assignment was to greet the Union Castle as it docked, in order to ask some fading English celebrity or ageing actor on the last leg of a declining career, before he […]

Review of the week:Matthew Krouse A morning in the 5fm studio with Mark Gillman is a bit like a morning in the locker room of the local gym. There are lots of brawny blokes about, some wearing Mark Gillman T- shirts that read: “Seize the morning!” There’s something in Gillman’s character that allows him to […]

The Bloodline Series Volume 1 is one of five CDs that Cape Town-based New World Music has released, featuring top Khayelitsha musical talent. The Bloodline Series features three reggae acts, Bloodlines, Urban Mystics and The Future, making this a 14-track roots reggae compilation originally recorded live in the townships and subsequently remastered at New World […]

Andrew Worsdale Movie of the week `That was one of the worst, most homophobic pieces of inane, boring rubbish I have ever seen,” or words to that effect spouted one of my colleagues, a leading movie critic. I don’t agree about Terence Malick’s The Thin Red Line. Overseas critics have also been divided about the […]

After holding the number one spot on the World Music Charts for two months solid, Busi Mhlongo launches her long-awaited second album, UrbanZulu, at home. Bongani Madondo gets to the source of her sound Despite the sea breeze caressing my extra melanin-ebonied skin in a way no massage parlour can, on this particular Friday Durban’s […]

David Shapshak Product: Opera 3.10 web browser Requirements: Minimum 386 SX Processor, 4Mb RAM Supplied by: Opera Software `It fits on a stiffy,” an enthusiastic colleague gleefully told me, presenting me with his latest software discovery. In these days of “bloatware” – as the huge, feature- laden, slow-moving bundled software packages by major developers have […]

Peter Dickson Eastern Cape pensioners almost went without their welfare grants this month when a dispute arose on pay-out day following allegations that teenagers were receiving pension payments. The villages of Dyantyi and Makapela in the Centane district have been feuding for generations, and allegations of corruption in monthly pension payments sparked the latest row. […]