THEATRE:Adam Haupt STELLENBOSCH’S HB Thom Theatre seems like the very last place you would expect to find the Russian Consulate’s Sasha Mukhin. In fact, he was the guest of honour at the opening night of Anton Chekhov’s Die Seemeeu (The Seagull) and took on a performance of his own by addressing his audience in Russian. […]

More international music stars are heading our way. Our reporters preview the Def Leppard and Tevin Campbell tours MUSIC: Hazel Friedman and David Goldberg. THE trouble with interviewing rock stars who have lived the success-excess myth in extremis is that you tend to want to accompany them all the way down the same drain, time […]

Kader Asmal is quietly performing the miracle of regaining control of the country’s water while keeping happy the farmers whom this will affect most, writes Eddie Koch BOET VAN RENSBURG, the owner of a vast Highveld mielie estate that is irrigated with some of the cheapest water in the world, is quite proud of the […]

Two great names in African soccer – who have clashed with some great names in South African soccer – will meet in the final of the African Champions Cup SOCCER: Andrew Muchineripi SHOOTING STARS of Nigeria and Zamalek of Egypt, the clubs who will contest the biggest club event on the African soccer calendar, need […]

Madeleine Wackernagel GROSS domestic product (GDP) figures for the third quarter were in line with expectations at an annualised rate of 3,2% growth. This relative decline, after the unexpectedly strong growth in the second quarter of 3,5%, was only to be expected, says Bernie de Jager, head of the Reserve Bank’s economics unit. “Growth in […]

Max Gebhardt ANALYSTS believe Mzi Khumalo’s Capital Alliance-led African Mining Group has paid a premium for Anglo American’s mining house, JCI. The deal, announced this week with Anglo’s interim results, saw the consortium purchase a 34,9% stake in the mining house for R2,8- billion at R54,50 per share. One analyst said the fundamentals showed that […]

Racism exists in Brazil as it does here, but it is not nearly as overt, argues Mungo Soggot IN a hall which could comfortably swallow three tennis courts dance hundreds of sensual Brazilians to an ear-splitting drum beat. The dazzling couples, some of whom include outrageously camp homosexuals, are products of what must be one […]

Ann Eveleth NORTHERN KwaZulu-Natal National Investigation Task Unit head Mandlenkosi Vilikazi won his third murder conviction last week. Induna Mandlengqondo Mathonsi and his uncle, Patrick Mathonsi, were sentenced last Friday to 16 years’ and 12 years’ imprisonment respectively by the Mtubatuba Supreme Court for the murder of two people in August 1995. They also received […]

Andy Duffy TRANSNET sacked an official after accepting unchallenged disciplinary charges brought against him by chair Louise Tager and denying him legal representation. The hearing refused to let Terrance Naidoo’s lawyers speak, and denied him time for a supreme court review of its decision. Naidoo, the government’s representative on Transnet’s transformation programme, was dismissed last […]

Chris McGreal in Rubava DJUMA LIBURAKARYO is proud of his eight doors. It is the first thing he points out about his mud-and-stone house halfway up a hill in a banana grove. But he cannot pass through them. Strangers slam the front door in his face and so Liburakaryo is confined to an old scout […]