CYCLING:Gustav Thiel SOUTH AFRICA’S cycling fraternity will receive what some term a belated wake-up call when the African continent hosts the first-ever World Cup event in this sport in Stellenbosch this weekend. The first leg of the prestigious Grundig UCI World Cup for mountain bikes in South Africa heralds the genesis, if event organiser Carinus […]

A CROWD of 200 quietly formed in a semi- circle around the main shack. They remained silent for about 45 minutes, apart from one woman’s exuberant cries of yebo when she heard something she really liked. They were listening to the interview with Agrinette Madwayi (40) and two other senior members of the residents’ committee. […]

Charl Blignaut ANYBODY out there love the Village People? Anybody, in those heady days, when disco inferno met queer lib, regard them as fabulous, fluffy-slut pop role models? Well darlings, shock and horror: not only did the Village People never sing their own songs, but only one of the six was even gay. In an […]

FRIDAY, 11.00AM The insider trading task group, chaired by Mervyn King, has recommended plea bargains, civil sanctions for malfactors of three times the amount gained through insider trading and fines of R2-million or 10 years in prison. The report was presented yesterday to the Policy Board for Financial Services and Regulations, appointed by the Finance […]

BOTH teams have Italian strikers – Chelsea have Gianfranco Zola while Middlesbrough boast the talents of Fabrizio Ravanelli. But there will be many other foreigners on display making Saturday’s FACup the most cosmopolitan ever staged, with 10 different nationalities represented in the expected starting line-ups. Italy will have the biggest overseas contingent, with four. Other […]

FRIDAY, 1.00PM PARLIAMENT’S communications committee convened a hasty meeting today (Friday) to be told that councillors were required to give three months notice. Only the president may dismiss a councillor for misconduct. But the committee resolved to accept the resignations and call for new applications for posts as speedily as possible. The IBA is unable […]

FRIDAY, 5.00PM AFTER six weeks of talks, the two largest of Gauteng’s warring taxi factions agreed to merge, ending a bloody five year war in which both drivers and passengers were casualties. The Soweto Transport Services and Soweto Taxi Association, rivals on the routes in south and southwestern Soweto, will now be known as the […]

FRIDAY, 5.00PM SWAZILAND’S government has ‘suspended” the country’s Federation of Trade Unions (SFTU), using the pretext that it failed to submit its financial returns on time, officials said today (Friday). The government of King Mswati II has been in dispute with the unions all year, over union demands for a democratic society. A month-long national […]

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 […]