Telford Vice Cricket Four months after arriving at the World Cup as champions-in-waiting, the South African cricket team is floundering in a sea of insecurity. The familiar, inspiring strut is gone, faded to slope-shouldered tolerance of the fact that the supposedly low key tour to Kenya has lurched into a harsh spotlight. That is the […]

follow Andy Capostagno At the final of the 1991 Rugby World Cup there was a small group of people in green and gold shirts holding a banner which read, “The Springboks; the real world champions”. On that bright winter’s day at Twickenham, when Nick Farr-Jones held aloft the William Webb Ellis trophy, such bombast from […]

Shaun Harris TAKING STOCK With the end of the year hurtling down on us like a minibus on the N3, a lot of people are trying to form a view on where the local economy and investment markets are going. Those brave enough are even trying to see past the mother-of-all New Year’s Eve parties […]

Researching Herman Charles Bosman’s prison memoir, Stephen Gray got into his death cell Shows how much I knew about South Africa’s most famous inland jail, Pretoria Central Prison. There its most celebrated inmate, Herman Charles Bosman, spent “a somewhat lengthy sojourn”, as he put it in Cold Stone Jug. But that was in the 1920s. […]

Christian Figenschou When the conversation turns to insurance companies, most people just roll their eyes. The general attitude seems to be that insurance is a necessary evil, for which you must pay excessively high premiums, but don’t ever expect to recover your full loss, especially if your car is older than five years. However, in […]

Caught in a civil war, thousands of Mozambicans sought refuge in South Africa in the 1980s, writes Nicola Johnston After nearly two decades in South Africa, a group of 250 former Mozambican refugees have recently been assisted to return to their former villages in Mozambique. They became the first convoy of a group of 600 […]

Fiona Macleod Five men were arrested in Midrand this week when they tried to sell a pair of rhino horns from an Mpumalanga game reserve to members of the police’s endangered species protection unit (ESPU). The horns, which were microchipped, had been hacked off a male white rhino in Songimvelo provincial reserve on June 23. […]

Cameron Duodu LETTER FROM THE NORTH The great noise being made by the rich nations over their decision to “forgive” some of the debts that the “poor countries” owe to them and the institutions with which they rule the world – the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank – tempts me to resort to […]

Andy Capostagno John Leslie (Scotland) Nick Mallett calls him the best inside centre in the world and wonders how the All Blacks can possibly have allowed John Leslie to play for the land of his grandfathers. There is added irony to his choice of allegiance since Leslie’s father, Andy, captained New Zealand in 10 Tests. […]

the tournament Australia They played very well in beating New Zealand in their last game and the return of John Eales and Stephen Larkham will strengthen them considerably. They have a fantastic defence and the World Cup is always won by the best defence. Not knowing how South Africa will perform, I’d tip Australia as […]