The inventor who gave the world the pollution sniffer and the microwave oven has also made a brilliant contribution to the world of ideas – the Gaia theory. Fred Pearce reports James Lovelock, independent British inventor and Gaia guru, added to his trophy cabinet this month when he went to Japan to claim the Blue […]

Madeleine Roux The oasis that is the Andries Stockenstrm guest house comes as more than a surprise. The gigantic house with its wide, yellowwood plank floors gives on to a spacious stoep and a garden crammed with fruit trees. A delicious smell of rich wine sauces, herbs and fruity pud wafts through the house. Beatrice […]

The recent rape of a matriculant by four fellow scholars has highlighted that not even schools are safe any longer. Andy Duffy reports The 17-year-old Mitchells Plain schoolgirl should have been writing matric these past couple of weeks. Instead, she sits alone at home, victim of a gang rape. For legal reasons, the girl cannot […]

Steve Morris Rugby We would have to take Springbok coach Nick Mallett’s word on the fact that disgraced prop Toks van der Linde intended no deliberate harm during his unsavoury tap dance on the head of French Barbarian David Dantiacq. The French centre and his Gallic counterpart, referee Joel Dume, had different perspectives on the […]

Bongani Siqoko Boxing Legendary champion Roberto Duran knows very well that if he is to get another crack at a world title, he has to win his fight on Saturday. Duran meets Englishman David Radford in a 10-round light-heavyweight non-title fight, in the Jumbo Cash & Carry “Amabutho Empi” boxing extravanganza at the Carousel on […]

Chris McGreal The United Nations has accused the new government of the Democratic Republic of Congo (former Zaire) of showing little more respect for human rights and democratisation than Mobutu Sese Seko’s dictatorship. A report was released as UN investigators returned to Kinshasa to probe massacres of Rwandan Hutu refugees in the east of the […]

Ferial Haffajee Zwelakhe Sisulu is expected to quit the SABC for one of many tempting media executive positions being dangled before him. Senior SABC insiders believe Sisulu is likely to leave in the next “three to six months”. He has not taken the option of extending his contract as chief executive – which came up […]

FRIDAY, 11.00AM: SPRINGBOK scrumhalf Joost van der Westhuizen is considering leaving the Blue Bulls after playing for them for the last seven seasons, because he feels his game is suffering. Van der Westhuizen said he is fearful of losing his Bok place ahead of the 1999 World Cup finals. “At this stage I don’t have […]

Marion Edmunds Pretoria’s controversial high-security CMax prison was kept secret from key Department of Correctional Services officials until a week before it was put into operation for fear it might provoke protests. Even correctional service’s head of prisons, chief deputy commissioner of functional services Timothy Khoza, had not heard about CMax until just before it […]

The editors of the Oxford English Dictionary gave us their own alternative key words for the past two decades: 1978 BMX, Teletext 1979 Space Invaders 1980 Reaganomics 1981 Walkman 1982 Exocet 1983 Star Wars 1984 Aids 1985 Yuppie 1986 Perestroika 1987 Freemarket, Black Monday 1988 Lager lout 1989 Poll tax 1990 Global warming 1991 Citizen’s […]