Ferial Haffajee VETERAN journalist and SABC board member Allister Sparks is to be hired to revamp the corporation’s television news and current affairs programming. But Sparks is unlikely to be welcomed by journalists brought in to do just that a few years ago. Last week, the current editor-in-chief of the television news division, Joe Thloloe, […]

THE mixture of human excrement and rotting rubbish festering on the banks of the Jukskei River creates a pungent aroma that hovers over the riverside shacks in Alexandra township. When the Jukskei floods, the front line of motley shelters built precariously on the flaky bank is usually washed away. Last year eight people drowned. Margaret […]

Scotland’s former F1 champion Jackie Stewart was thrilled with second place in Monte Carlo MOTOR RACING:Alan Henry RUBENS BARRICHELLO revived the love affair between his team owner Jackie Stewart and the Monaco Grand Prix with his flawless drive to second place in last weekend’s rain-soaked race. It is 33 years since Stewart, now 57, first […]

Researchers can’t agree on whether we are sleep-deprived, writes Jay Rayner from London, but the evidence suggests that few of us get enough IN their recent paper We are chronically sleep deprived, doctors Michael Bonnet and Donna Arand from Dayton, Ohio, produced facts and figures to support their title. They found that 50% of college […]

Jim Day THE number of black students studying to be doctors declined this year, leading government health officials to question the commitment of university medical schools to change. But medical deans reject this and blame the poor-quality education of many would-be medical students. South Africa is educating enough doctors for its needs, said the Health […]

SOCCER: Andrew Muchineripi THE soccer programme this weekend is nothing if not varied with two Zimbabwe clubs in South Africa, Aces staging a home match several hundred kilometres from their Witbank base, and some strange kick-off times. On Saturday afternoon, Harare Glamour Boys Dynamos are at PAM Brink Stadium in Springs to face Jomo Cosmos […]

THEATRE: Lesley Marx ‘IF you want to film a definition of irony,” Brian Astbury tells me, ”do it here.” The point is well taken. He has been directing David Mowat’s The Guise for Capab Drama. The Guise was the last play to be banned at The Space theatre nearly two decades ago. The Space itself […]

LORRAINE SITHOLE, a mother of three, looked up at the sky and sighed, mumbling, ”I’m sure God will help us”. She does not know how long her corrugated iron shack will remain on the dusty Pretoria hillside. In January Sithole – who is ”not sure” how old she is – and 2 800 other families […]