Staff Reporter

Marianne Merten A black Anglican priest has been moved from his Mitchells Plain parish following a dispute with local church wardens that escalated into racial slurs and divided the congregation. The decision to ask Reverend Thokozile Gubangxa to leave as rector of Christ the King church in Rocklands was announced to the congregation last Sunday. […]

Ntuthuko Maphumulo The academic staff and employees at Mangosuthu Technikon went on strike this week after the new technikon council reinstated suspended principal and vice-chancellor Professor Aaron Ndlovu. As the strike continued, a dramatic plea by the student representative council to the National Union of Technikon Employees (Nutesa) to suspend the action until the completion […]

Paul Kirk The South African Police Service and the Scorpions are investigating allegations of serious fraud committed by African Defence Systems (ADS), one of the companies at the centre of South Africa’s R43-billion arms deal. The allegations come from a former engineer at ADS, who has opened a criminal case against his employer, alleging it […]

Guy Willoughby theatre Georges Bizet may have died of a broken heart due to the jeering reception his masterpiece, Carmen, received in 1875, but opera-lovers ever since can’t seem to get enough of this torrid tale of a gypsy’s fickle but tempestuous love. The new Spier company, in their second production, are finding their feet […]

The head of a defence force union is seeking legal advice after he was ousted following a bizarre disciplinary hearing Sechaba ka’Nkosi A senior executive member of the South African Security Forces Union (Sasfu) has been suspended from the union by officials of another union. Sasfu head Sergeant Major Sidney Kunene was allegedly axed in […]

Valentine Cascarino food Rare, cheap, quantitative and qualitative traditional African dishes not found in up-market restaurants are now offered in street restaurants, drawing many diners to the pavement. But few restaurateurs bother about the surrounding filth and lurking dangers. On our foray into the world of street food we’re led to an establishment along Wanderers […]

Shaun Smillie A new study of residue left in age-old “tobacco” pipes could soon dispel the myth that it was only black tribesmen who used dagga in the early years of South African history. Palaeontologist Dr Francis Thackeray of the Transvaal Museum will be examining the blackened residues found in the bowls and stems of […]

Phillip Nkosi and Justin Arenstein Mozambican authorities are investigating whether thousands of villagers in Gaza province are being poisoned by their drinking water because inefficient provincial officials in South Africa have failed to protect rivers. A farmer in South Africa’s Northern Province has already taken fertiliser company Sedmis and chemical manufacturer Foskor to the Pretoria […]

Eleanor Preston tennis Things move quickly in tennis. No sooner had we got used to the idea of world domination by the Williams sisters, the rejuvenation of Jennifer Capriati and the ever-present threat of Martina Hingis than a whole new crop of players emerges into the women’s game. While the story of Capriati a veteran […]

If the price of your favourite spirit seems too good to be true, it probably is Paul Kirk Counterfeit alcohol, made to look like genuine Scotch whisky, brandy and gin, is trickling into bottle stores across the country, threatening the lives of anyone stupid or desperate enough to buy a really, really cheap bottle of […]

While their mothers entertain clients by night and sleep by day, children of the sex industry are forced to fend for themselves Thuli Nhlapo Mothers are expected to be selfless, caring and constant. Celeste Nqaki* has never experienced such love. When she celebrated her first birthday on December 21 last year, there was no candle […]

James Hall Health authorities may try to curtail or even outlaw the annual Swazi bacchanal that commences with the arrival of buganu, the traditional brew fermented from the fruit of the maganu tree. But even in light of a cholera outbreak that may be worsened by a brew made from tainted water, the summertime overindulgence […]

Deon Potgieter boxing It’ll be his third attempt to become the first South African boxer to win four world titles and Baby Jake Matlala is sure it’ll be third time lucky. Matlala faces Australian flyweight champion Todd Makelin for the vacant World Boxing Union (WBU) junior flyweight title on February 17 at Carnival City. The […]

Robert Kirby CHANNELVISION In advance of another season of the rather pitiful Mr Bean, SABC3 last week ran a “special”, which was more a documentary on Rowan Atkinson than anything else. As a promo for Bean the exercise was oddly counterproductive in that, by offering a retrospective of Atkinson’s remarkable comic abilities, it left you […]

whipping boy Who would have bet that cricket would supplant horse racing as the sleaze-pit of sport? But there it is. Come Saturday, though, fans of the sport of kings could wistfully remember one of the kings of sport if 40-1 shot Bunter Barlow rises to the occasion like his legendary cricketing namesake did so […]

Peter Robinson cricket Many of those who bewail the lack of interest in South African provincial cricket conveniently overlook the obvious fact that the domestic game had its heyday during the days of isolation. And who’d want to go back there? At the same time, though, there are legitimate questions that need to be asked […]

Every year countless numbers of South African children end up in hospitals with serious burn injuries. Whatever the cause of their burns, they face a life of emotional trauma that comes from severe physical disfigurement. But the reality, as Khadija Magardie found, is that they can be helped if the injuries are attended to in […]

Potential buyers and sellers of homes are turning to spiritual consultants to help them make the right choices Natalie Sutton Estate agents say the property market is about “location, location, location”. Business people may be concerned with the commuting distance between work and home. Young families consider schools. But for some people, ethereal influences and […]

Party officials have rushed to take control of parliamentary committees investigating the arms procurement scandal Mungo Soggot Andrew Feinstein, the African National Congress MP who has been sidelined after adopting an independent stance over the arms saga, said this week he will not resign and will instead continue to push for a thorough probe of […]

Bronwen Jones ‘Shit” is a mild expletive, inoffensive to many. But human excrement is taboo. This most distasteful of subjects has been on my mind and in the air for several weeks now. I am acting in loco parentis for a little girl who lost most of her legs, and her parents, in a fire […]

Rehana Rossouw CROSSFIRE In a radio interview last week the African National Congress’s Smuts Ngonyama spoke gravely on SAfm about a “threat to the stability of the country”. He was not discussing allegations of impropriety in the government’s arms deal, but a CD of racist songs with limited distribution. How the music threatens the stability […]

Barry Streek South African MPs are not a particularly interesting bunch of people, judging from the latest register of interests released in Parliament. They are, however, extremely well lubricated by liquor companies. Unfortunately for the investigators probing the arms deal, none of them have declared gifts from arms contractors. The MPs are obliged to declare […]

Hours before its printing works was destroyed in a bomb blast, top Zim officials vowed to silence the Daily News. Mercedes Sayagues reports State terrorism has escalated in Zimbabwe with Sunday’s bomb attack on the independent newspaper, the Daily News. Experts estimate that five TM46 anti-tank landmines fitted with limpet-type detonators destroyed the 60cm thick […]

Uneven putting surfaces and a back- to-front layout add a bit of spice to the Pilanesberg courses Andy Capostagno If you put half a dozen professional golfers in a room together they will come out in agreement on only one issue. If a golf course is too hard it destroys the game as a spectacle […]

Riaan Wolmarans CD OFTHEWEEK The Bomfunk MC’s know how to have fun. This is evident on the Finnish outfit’s debut album, In Stereo (Sony), from which the first single, Freestyler, shot them into the charts. This was followed by a string of hits like Uprocking Beats, B-Boys &Flygirls and Other Emcee’s. In Stereo is a […]

Jaspreet Kindra Several African National Congress members have approached Minister of Defence Mosiuoa Lekota with claims that some members of Parliament received bribes to influence the R43-billion arms procurement package. Lekota said after a media briefing in Johannesburg last week that he had directed the members to pass on any relevant information to the auditor […]

South Africa has been criticised for not taking a stronger stand against executions Roshila Pillay The South African government will not intervene to save South African Mariette Sonjaleen Bosch from the gallows. However, the Cape High Court is considering an application by Tanzanian national Khalfan Khamis Mohamed, the man allegedly responsible for the bomb that […]

Henk Rossouw With the Lid Off: South African Insights from Home and Abroad 1959-2000 by Todd Matshikiza and John Matshikiza (M&GBooks) In With the Lid Off, his column in the legendary Drum magazine, composer and razor-blade salesman Todd Matshikiza struts the unique language of late-1950s Sophiatown, one that blurs the distinction between jazz and writing. […]

After a howler against West Ham last week Fabien Barthez might rue his switch David Barnes No one quite remembers when Fabien Barthez broke with family tradition in his home village of La Roque d’Olmes at the foot of the Pyrenees and started playing with a round ball. But what they do know is that […]

Dingaan Thobela’s chances of another shot at the WBC title rest on the outcome of a Canadian trial Deon Potgieter There has been increasing interest in the trial of Dave Hilton, which started last Tuesday in Quebec. Hilton, who was awarded a controversial points decision over Dingaan Thobela for the World Boxing Council super-middleweight world […]

A DESPERATE, jobless woman who strangled her third baby and threw him down a pit toilet has appeared in the Nelspruit Regional Court. Marriet Myeni, 33, of Masibekela tribal trust near Malelane, told the court she was desperate when she killed her little boy on April 23 last year, because she had two other children […]

An asylum-seeker has 30 days to appeal against home affairs’s rejection of his application on the basis that he was using the procedure as a cover for espionage Piers Pigou The arrest and attempted deportation earlier last month of an asylum-seeker from Cameroon by the Department of Home Affairs has again raised concerns about the […]