There’s only one person in pop who is not fascinated by the myth of Bob Dylan and that’s Bob Dylan. Now approaching 60 and with an Oscar in his grasp, he remains infuriating and elusive. What keeps him keeping on? Sean O’Hagan investigates ‘It’s not a question of breaking the rules, don’t you understand?” the […]
Glenda Daniels Pale males are still the storehouse of skills in South Africa. And the impact of equity legislation will drive up salaries of white males significantly, says Andrew Levy, head of P.e.o.p.l.e, the biggest labour consultancy in the country. At an annual launch of his labour relations report this week, Levy said because there […]
KwaZulu-Natal police remain tight-lipped about the protection deal, but some casinos have now been closed Paul Kirk On the first working day after the Mail & Guardian exposed a secret deal to protect illegal casinos last week, a series of police raids closed the establishments. The secret deal, struck between the police and illegal casinos, […]
Andrew Muchineripi soccer The evenings are chillier, the leaves are losing some of their green lustre, and darkness creeps over Gauteng just that little bit earlier. It’s African club competition time again. Being a major football power in Africa, our clubs do not have to bother with prequalifying for the annual Champions League, Cup Winners’ […]
Barry Streek South Africans need to move beyond analysis, complaints and blame, and into united action to make a difference to the lives of the poorest people, Minister of Social Development Zola Skweyiya told a national consultative conference attended by MECs for social development and representatives of the non-government sector. Skweyiya’s remarks were made on […]
Cornelius Thomas Although jazz vocalist Sathima Bea Benjamin has nine albums to her credit and has recorded with Duke Ellington, Billy Strayhorn and Buster Williams, she is largely unknown in South Africa. For jazz connoisseurs who wish to know Benjamin better, though, help has arrived in the form a book, Sathima Bea Benjamin: Embracing Jazz. […]
Former KZN ‘warlord’ Thomas Shabalala’s tryst with tragedy is helping break the stigma attached to Aids Jaspreet Kindra ‘She had full-blown Aids. She was very ill one day her brother was carrying her out of the house to rush her to the hospital. He slipped, fell and injured his head. Both of them died on […]
South African rugby can only be the winner as the teams riding high on the log clash Andy Capostagno Last Saturday Rudolph Straeuli smiled. It is not that the Sharks coach is unaccustomed to smiling indeed in person and away from the limelight he can be jolly and self-deprecating it is just that he takes […]
The world is agreed. From Beijing to Berlin, London to Tokyo, Moscow to Washington, and Singapore to Buenos Aires, one condition above all others is seen as necessary for African prosperity. It is the success of South Africa. That is to say, the success of the current African National Congress government. The reasons for this […]
Barry Streek The Democratic Alliance unveiled its plans recently to “corporatise” Cape Town’s water and sanitation, electricity and solid waste disposal services in three separate units but stopped short of involving the private sector, as African National Congress-controlled Johannesburg has done with its water services. At a press conference DA councillor David Erleigh refused to […]
Neal Collins soccer Glenn Hoddle officially left Southampton on Wednesday, bound for Tottenham Hotspur, his alleged spiritual home. Great timing. On Saturday, they’ve got Arsenal at Highbury in the Premiership’s traditionally murderous north London derby. Eight days later, they’ll all trek up the M1 motorway to Manchester, for an FA Cup semi-final at Old Trafford […]
Grant Shimmin athletics It hasn’t been a good year for the organisers of the Engen Grand Prix Summer Series, generally speaking, but things could definitely get better tonight at Coetzenburg in Stellenbosch when the Grand Prix final takes place. Last year Michael Johnson, described by commentator Paul Dickenson as “the greatest athlete ever to walk […]
Parliament’s gender watchdog spends money on a jazz concert while rural women get no help Marianne Merten For more than a year gender activist Joanie Fredericks has knocked on Parliament’s doors trying to raise funds for sexually abused women in the rural Western Cape. “We’ve been trying for more than a year to establish some […]
Tim Wood American notes At the risk of a swelling ego causing my head to explode, I must tell you that in August 1998 I precisely forecast the details of the recently released “market structure” for the telecom industry. I can’t take all the credit of course since former communications minister Jay Naidoo found it […]
Alexis Petridis CD OFTHEWEEK If, as twinkle-eyed 1970s comic Mike Harding once sang, it’s hard being a cowboy from Rochdale, then being a hip-hop production duo from Manchester is a job Sisyphus would consider a bit of a schlep. The problem faced by Rae and Christian, just such a Mancunian duo, is the same for […]
Drama of the week The Contender is about power and scandal. Political intrigues thicken when Democratic President Jackson Evans (Jeff Bridges) chooses Laine Hanson (Joan Allen) as vice president over the popular Jack Hathaway (William Petersen) he wants to go down in history as the first president to appoint a woman to the job. However, […]
Thirty-two of the best superbike riders in the world. Six makes of machine. Two hard-fought races at Kyalami. Gavin Foster wonders who’s going to take home the bacon Will it be Italian flair paired with Australian balls? Japanese technology flavoured with Texan cojones? Two cylinders or four? Newcomer Regis Laconi or veteran Pierfrancesco Chili? One […]
David Woods RIGHT TO REPLY Try to make sense of this scenario. An employee defames his colleagues, apologises unreservedly, and accepts a warning that, should he do so again, he will face disciplinary action That same employee subsequently repeats the allegations for which he has apologised, defames a senior executive and his employer, and is […]
David Le Page and Mungo Soggot Minister of Mineral and Energy Affairs Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka has opened the way to major changes to the controversial Mineral Development Bill, announcing the preparation of a new draft and the appointment of an international advisory panel. Mlambo-Ngcuka’s announcement at a gathering of leading mining investors in London appears to […]
John Young cricket It’s a good thing a cricketer who played for Border isn’t on this trip for the Proteas. Team manager Goolam Rajah would have had some explaining to do to customs officials if the team had included “Dagga” Snyman. Then again, last week’s home team has Daren Ganga. Barbados, venue of the third […]
Paul Kirk One of Durban’s top municipal officials, the acting director of community and health services for the Unicity, is hanging tough, despite being exposed as having a fraudulent university degree. Now Arnold Shange may be dismissed from his job as Durban Unicity investigators add the final touches to their probe. He may also have […]
Along with a new curator, the Owl House is also getting some long-lost items, reports Gillian Rennie Three years ago Stephen Parsons and Allen Kidson bought a star-shaped mirror on a Graaff-Reinet auction. “We thought it was a nice piece of 1950s kitschabilia to add to our collection,” they say. It was, however, far more […]
whipping boy Just getting an eyeful of Celtic Grove could be worth a run out to Gosforth Park after lunch on Saturday. The smashing Fort Wood gelding succeeds the recently retired Jet Master as the best looker in training. He took my breath the first time I saw him. Celtic Grove runs in the R1-million […]
Katie Roiphe Body Language One can’t help noticing the exquisite irony that Ellen Fein, co-author of The Rules: Time-tested Secrets for Capturing the Heart of Mr Right, The Rules II and the forthcoming Rules III: Time-tested Secrets for Making your Marriage Work, is getting divorced. And one can’t help feeling a certain satisfaction that someone […]
David Beresford another country Reputation is notoriously fickle and, however high one’s standing in public esteem, one can be sure that time will come to challenge it. Winston Churchill’s is an outstanding example. Widely considered to have beeen one of the greatest men of the 20th century for the lead he gave against totalitarianism, some […]
Glenda Daniels Crossfire I received a phone call last week from a government official asking me why my writing was “getting more and more vicious”. I was dumbfounded and felt exasperated at the insecurity and laager mentality. Why are our leaders so unsure of themselves? Why are they so afraid of criticism? Why can’t they […]
Gavin O’Connor is MD of Mettle Ltd. He spoke to us about our bad questions, becoming a revolutionary and lording it in the kitchen Katy Chance Describe your management style. What a kak question. Well, I just deal with the issues and I’m very operational; I like to be on the ground and in the […]
Older players are Tiger Woods’s biggest threat in next week’s Masters Andy Capostagno When Tiger Woods won the 1997 United States Masters with a record- breaking score of 270 everyone else was told to pack up and go home. Jack Nicklaus, the man who Woods measures himself against, said Tiger would win more Masters tournaments […]
Alec Hogg boardroom talk With well over two million shares traded in Ixchange stock this week, it’s clear some rather hefty bets are being laid ahead of what promises to be one of the most important few days in the wannabe world-leading software group’s history. After the past year’s share price collapse from R28 to […]
Barry Streek Eugene Saldanah, director of the Non-Profit Partnership, opened the international conference on tax and the non-profit sector this week by dressing organisations down with a warning that they have to administer their finances efficiently if they are to be sustainable. “We must dispel the myth and nonsense that the sector is lazy, incoherent […]
academic mall Globalisation affects tertiary education worldwide, but the southern hemisphere has unique problems Marianne Merten Harvard law professor Arthur Miller sold his teaching material to an online education provider, but the Ivy League university blocked the transaction and the matter is now before the courts. Pharmaceutical companies have stepped into the funding gap at […]
Justin Arenstein A key player in South Africa’s controversial arms deal, Shabir Shaik, helped sort out a financial crisis experienced by Deputy President Jacob Zuma in 1998. Shaik was Zuma’s financial adviser while he was finance MEC in KwaZulu-Natal. Bank records indicate that Shaik tried to help Zuma convince the troubled New Republic Bank (NRB) […]