Joseph Kahn `From the standpoint of the United States economy, Russia does not matter.” That was the line coming from US stock market optimists until late last week. Of all US exports, the reasoning went, less than 1% were to Russia. The Russian economy is no larger than that of the Netherlands. Few people invest […]

Andy Capostagno Rugby The Currie Cup has reached its halfway stage and no one is yet counting any chickens. That in itself is remarkable, for the competition has been shared between an elite four provinces for so long that at the very least a well-informed guess should be able to provide the semi-finalists. Natal have […]

Swapna Prabhakaran The trials of the alleged kingpin of a major KwaZulu-Natal crime ring – known as the “Curry Mafia” -were this week adjourned until late next year, because the Pretoria courts are too busy to deal with the matter now. Pietermaritzburg businessman Suresh “Surie” Maharaj will appear before court in three trials set down […]

Arundhati Roy took the literary world by storm last year with her first novel, The God of Small Things, which won the Booker prize. In her first piece of writing since then, she expresses her horror at the nuclear arms race in her native India “The desert shook,” the government of India informed us (its […]

Mungo Soggot It does not take long to grasp why those familiar with Monrovia scoff in disbelief when they hear that Emanuel Shaw II says he checked into the John F Kennedy Medical Centre. It was once considered to be one of West Africa’s finest medical facilities, but is now the public hospital for the […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Thursday 9.00pm. PREMIER Soccer League spokesman Andrew Dipela said on Thursday that the decision to clear referee Petros Mathabela of any wrongdoing in officiating a league match was taken by a sub-committee of Safa and not the Motsimele Commission as was reported on Wednesday. “The Safa committee was acting on the […]

Mail & Guardian reporter The Mail & Guardian has had a glimpse of the financial rewards enjoyed by Don Mkhwanazi, the former chair of the Central Energy Fund whose decision to hire Emanuel Shaw II, his friend and businesss associate, triggered the state oil scandal. Documents obtained by the M&G show that in 1996 Mkhwanazi […]

Jonathan Freedland and Ferial Haffajee There was a telling moment in 1994. World leaders trooped into the grounds of the Union Buildings to watch Nelson Mandela’s inauguration. Polite applause greeted each one. When Fidel Castro arrived, the newly elected young members of Parliament went ballistic. Applause turned to wild clapping and then to a toyi-toyi […]

Mercedes Sayagues First Person I was recently in Bulawayo, city of dreams and of shebeen queens. It has remained in a time warp because there has been little construction, because its economy is in the doldrums, because Harare has taken first place. Bulawayo is full of pretty colonial buildings and exudes a laid-back charm. Close […]

Angella Johnson VIEW FROM A BROAD `When I cool the base, rock this place,” chanted the female singer over the mega sound system. I watched entranced as gum-chewing young men wearing headphones and outsize clothes studiously fiddled with vinyl records on industrial-size players. The Foundation club in Rosebank was certainly rocking. Soon it would be […]