Martina Hingis is still smiling after frittering away a huge lead in the tennis rankings, reports Jon Henderson For burn out, read chill out. If Martina Hingis is indeed slipping inexorably from her pre-eminent position in women’s tennis, we could be witnessing one of the most pleasing declines in the history of sport. Rather than […]

Black-chip companies are the belles of the business ball, but Mike Metelits warns that a bearish hangover is looming To borrow from the fashion world, the new blue is black. Blue as in blue chips, companies which are considered the aristocrats of the financial markets because of their good returns and reliability. Black as in […]

Duncan Mackay : Athletics When Tegla Loroupe returned to Kenya after winning the New York City Marathon in 1994, a party was organised and the villagers presented her parents with nine cattle, 16 sheep and some land. Yet it was the words of the women in her tribe she still values the most. “You did […]

Mungo Soggot The Cabinet has given Minister of Public Service and Administration Zola Skweyiya an extra R300-million to pay civil servants and fund the transformation of the public service. The increase is about 10% of the government’s R3,4-billion budget for what the public service department terms “the improvement of conditions of service”. The increase was […]

connection’ Belinda Beresford The sound and fury of the phone war between Vodacom and MTN over whose signals are better has resulted in MTN being chastised by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA). For the next six months, the errant cellphone company has to submit all its advertising for approval before it can be broadcast or […]

Angella Johnson : VIEW FROM A BROAD It is a cold Saturday afternoon and Rasheda Pahad’s hands are deep in the dough she is kneading to make vetkoek. A pan of oil is bubbling away on the stove in the kitchen attached to her tiny living room. Pahad’s husband and their two young children have […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Thursday 7.00am. EASTERN Province thrashed Boland by 62 runs in their Standard Bank League limited-overs cricket match at St George’s Park on Wednesday night, with their bowlers particularly devastating. Eastern Province scored 224 in their alotted 45 overs, with Louis Koen, Dave Callaghan and Mark Rushmere playing good innings. Koen again […]

Ferial Haffajee A rose by any other name may smell as sweet, but the jury’s out on whether Gear in any other guise is still the same economic policy. The African National Congress has won cheers (from its communist and trade union partners) and provoked jibes (from business and its press) with its stated intention […]

Wally Mbhele Plans for the release of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s final report were almost ambushed this week when the African National Congress attempted to use its power to prevent its publication. This followed the ANC’s blistering opposition to some aspects of the commission’s findings on the party’s activities during the armed struggle. The […]

Sechaba ka’Nkosi Embattled Democratic Republic of Congo President Laurent Kabila ignored his advisers and allies this week by snubbing a comprehensive peace offer from the rebels that could have ended the war that is tearing Central Africa apart. The offer, which was confirmed by high- level sources, was made to Kabila last week, hours after […]