Howard Barrell South Africa is on the verge of postponing its biggest-ever joint military and police exercise with other countries in the region, scheduled for next month, because of problems caused by the incursion into Lesotho. The South African National Defence Force (SANDF)has told other interested government departments it doubts it can afford the exercise, […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Friday 10.30am. BJORN BORG on Thursday annihilated Argentinian veteran Guillermo Vilas to proceed to the semifinals of the MTN Champions Tournament, being played at the University of Pretoria indoor arena. Borg (42), who held his world number-one ranking for an incredible 109 weeks in his prime, outplayed Vilas in all departments […]

to die Zanemvula (Zakes) Mda has happy memories of growing up among a community of South African exiles and Lesotho locals in the small town of Mafeteng. Last week he returned to find a smouldering ruin Chris Hani used to frequent this restaurant. His father, known to us only as Ntate Hani, owned it in […]

Chiara Carter Nomaindia Mfeketo, the new mayor of Cape Town, tackles the social side of her work with zest because she wants to make sure every function she hosts tackles the city’s “apartheid divisions”. Mfeketo, who became mayor last week, acknowledges the criticism often levelled at Cape Town: that little has changed since 1994 and […]

Andy Capostagno Cricket A collective sigh of relief echoed through the corridors of power in the smaller unions this week when the United Cricket Board (UCB) decided not to impose a two-tier system on the Supersport Series. It was, by all accounts, the most conciliatory UCB meeting for years. The outcome was that, while note […]

CD of the week Michael Odell Sweeting Of course we knew there were two Ringos in the group. The Fugees, the biggest-selling rap group in the world, comprises two blokes employed to shout “One time!” and Lauryn Hill – who combines the singer/songwriter talents of Lennon and Macca. The Fugees was never the arena to […]

The outsider on this year’s Booker Prize shortlist is a bus driver. Peter Kingston caught a ride You’re sprinting for the bus. The driver spots your imploring wave and appears to be waiting, but just as catching the bus looks a real possibility, it pulls away. Why do they do that? “It’s the only pleasure […]

Alex Sudheim `Comedy is the new rock ‘n roll” goes the catchphrase of the moment. Young standups across the country are provoking audiences with a scabrous brand of humour that gleefully pokes and digs at society’s guilty secrets. As with the early days of rock ‘n roll, there is a spirit of anarchic, anti-establishment zeal; […]

Andrew Marr ENGLAND, ENGLAND by Julian Barnes (Jonathan Cape) That England has become a theme-park nation is a chattering-class clich. It is also at least partly true. There is no English crisis, but there is a problem. In England, everything becomes a tradition, and that includes the confection of tradition. But the quantity of contemporary […]

Ann Eveleth: IN THE ACT T hree pieces of labour legislation working their way through the halls of Parliament promise dramatic changes in the workplace. But tight human and financial resources, coupled with the growth, employment and redistribution programme’s (Gear) industrial growth bias, raise questions about how effective these changes will be. The Basic Conditions […]