Mark Tran When Kirk Kerkorian started buying shares in Chrysler in December 1990, his closest advisers feared that the famously reclusive corporate raider had gone senile. James Aljian, who had worked with him for 25 years, declared it was “the stupidest thing I ever heard” and Alex Yemenidjian, Kerkorian’s right-hand man, thought: “He’s finally lost […]
South African judges blew millions on Mercedes, BMWs and Volvos, writes Andy Duffy South African judges spent more than R5-million of taxpayers’ money on luxury new cars last year. Most of the money came from the Department of Justice, months before the cash- crunch that forced it to halt overtime pay to its advocates and […]
Andy Capostagno Rugby Deja vu. The Springbok captain is involved in negotiations to form a players’ union, Louis Luyt is in the news and euphoria over Springbok success has died down to a hoarse croak. Take yourself back to August 1995, less than two months after South Africa had won the World Cup. Louis Luyt […]
Robert Kirby: Loose Cannon Like “rainbow nation” we are now stuck with “African renaissance”, both of them admittedly catchy phrases, but that’s about as far as they go. The former is, thank heavens, starting to evaporate now that everyone’s realised that access to the promised pot of gold has turned out to be on a […]
Andrew Muchineripi Soccer The curtain finally comes down on a seemingly endless South African soccer season this Sunday when Orlando Pirates and Sundowns contest the Bob Save Super Bowl final. Pirates have played 52 domestic and African matches since last July and Sundowns 51, so do not be surprised if some players look a little […]
Ferial Haffajee The ruby red BMW roadster races down the main road in Eldorado Park, past rows and rows of grim council houses. At full throttle, the front doors open and close to simulate a bird in flight. The Majimbos are in town – the gang’s symbol is a flying bird and Eldorado Park, south […]
Mercedes Sayagues Controversial American entrepreneur James Blanchard has set his sights on including parts of the famed Inhaca island in his huge Mozambican theme park, despite the fact that he has yet to deliver on his grandiose scheme. Blanchard has asked the Maputo municipal council for a 276ha concession in Ponta Torres, the south-eastern peninsula […]
Larry Elliott It is just before dawn in Kinshasa on October 30 1974. In a boxing ring in the middle of a football stadium lies George Foreman, knocked out by Muhammad Ali in one of the biggest sporting upsets of the century. As lightning crackles overhead, 60 000 Zaireans cheer Ali, world champion again after […]
Dan Ncayiyana Right to Reply I feel constrained to respond to the letter by my friend and colleague, Professor Cecil Abrahams (May 8 to 14), in which he purports to write “in my capacity as an acknowledged scholar of African studies”. Whatever that distinction may mean (I am not aware of an academic discipline called […]
Lizeka Mda: CITY LIMITS The traffic on Jan Smuts Avenue is crawling at a snail’s pace on Friday morning. Oxford Road is no better. So what else is new? To the traffic chaos on its doorstep, the Park Hyatt hotel at the corner of Oxford and Biermann Avenue in Rosebank presents an inscrutable face of […]