Sowetan Ronnie Modimola has been performing stand-up comedy since 1997. He is fast becoming a well-known face on the growing comedy circuit in the country and last Saturday was seen at the Sun City Superbowl in Laughter Blaster, a major gathering of just about every local comedian worth his salt. Modimola’s routines are, however, in […]

Not one South African side won a Super 12 game last week – not even in the game between two local sides Andy Capostagno The long faces at the Newlands press conference said it all. And then referee Andre Watson spoke. “I don’t want to be negative, guys, but this was an atrocious game of […]

Alex Sudheim James Joyce had Ulysses wander the streets of Dublin in his majestic novel; William Kentridge took Faustus to Africa for the re-invention of conventional theatre and Akiro Kurosawa despatched King Lear to medieval Japan for the epic film Ran. So the concept of placing an antediluvian character in a contemporary context is not […]

Throughout history super soaraway shares have defied gravity – for a while Ben Laurance With the benefit of hindsight, the grass skirt should have been a giveaway. It was the mid-1980s and the investors’ love affair with biotechnology companies was at its most passionate. Robert Swanson, a venture capitalist by training, was chief executive officer […]

A new generation of adventure-holics has turned snowboarding into a mainstream sport Jean Spear James Bond has to be the greatest skier. From Siberia to Austria, 007 always manages to carve an elegant line while dodging bullets and saving beautiful women from nasty foreign agents at the same time. But if Bond is going to […]

The government has set stiff guidelines for non-profit organisations which hope to seek tax breaks Barry Streek Registered non-profit organisations (NPOs) are to be compelled to provide extensive information to the government on their activities if they want to retain their registration and qualify for tax incentives when these are extended to the non-profit sector. […]

Cameron Duodu LETTER FROM THE NORTH Tuesday night saw two of the most outstanding African diplomats of our time – Kofi Annan, secretary general of the United Nations, and Emeka Anyaoku, secretary general of the Commonwealth – on the same podium in London. Annan, of course, will go down in history as the man whose […]

Donald Trelford was on the brink of being sacked as Observer editor by tycoon Tiny Rowland after he exposed atrocities in Zimbabwe. Sixteen years later, he reveals the full story of the scandal that may yet end Robert Mugabe’s presidency It began in the parched earth of Matabeleland, among the cactus and the baobab trees, […]