Belinda Beresford It has been vilified as the devil’s excrement and lusted after as black gold, but oil still continues to lubricate the world economy. Whatever you call it, oil has been nothing but bad news for Africa. Those who have it curse it. So do those who don’t. Countries without oil supplies believe their […]
Grant Shimmin SWIMMING On the biographies page of the website run by Fina, global swimming’s governing body, you’ll currently find the name of only one South African and there are no prizes for guessing who it is. The fact that Penny Heyns is the country’s sole representative among a gallery of the biggest names in […]
David Beresford ANOTHER COUNTRY I think I am beginning to understand just a little of what it was like for Sandra Laing – the 10-year-old girl famously catapulted from white South Africa to black South Africa during the apartheid era. It struck me a few weeks ago when I was trying to buy a second-hand […]
The ANC seems to be wooing the opposition in preparation for local government elections Peter Dickson and Jaspreet Kindra The African National Congress this week stepped up efforts to neutralise the fragile opposition in the country in preparation for the November local government elections. In the Eastern Cape, ANC Premier Makhenkesi Stofile told the New […]
sake’ Jean Evans I don’t stand to gain anything by writing my story. Well, maybe I do! I want to know that Professor Werner Bezwoda will continue to be my doctor and that his life’s dedication to the treatment of cancer is not wasted. When I was 34-years old, with a toddler of just two […]
Your work e-mail is about as private as a postcard. How can you protect it from prying eyes? Rupert Neethling The versatility of office computers makes it tremendously tempting to use them for purposes other than work. But if an employee abuses company resources, naturally the boss will want to know about it. What lengths […]
Barry Streek The government spent R108,8-million on buying farmland in all nine provinces for redistribution and tenure during the current financial year, Minister of Agriculture and Land Affairs Thoko Didiza told Parliament this week. But, she added, her department’s first quality of life survey, undertaken in 1998, found a “bleak … overall picture” in agricultural […]
Andrew Muchineripi SOCCER The World Cup inspection team came, saw and were very impressed. Sundowns and Orlando Pirates served up a six-goal feast, and the Amaglug-glug once again captured the hearts of the nation with a thrilling win over Ghana. All is well within the South African soccer kingdom, and there is a real chance […]
Howard Barrell OVERABARREL ‘Louis le Grange has approached a senior Argus executive, Howard, and demanded that the company’s newspapers no longer use your copy on the exiles.” It was about 1983, and Gerry L’Ange, my editor at the Argus Africa News Service was in Harare, where I was based, telling me of another threat against […]
Paul Kirk In the week that KwaZulu-Natal Premier Lionel Mtshali created a new department to regulate expenditure on the royal family, the province’s auditor general released extraordinary new details about the Zulu king’s high-flying lifestyle. In a report tabled in the provincial legislature, Auditor General Barry Wheeler records how the taxpayer footed the bill for […]