Staff Reporter

Economist Ian Palmer looks at which countries actually did best at the Olympics – adjusting for size and wealth While the performance of the United States and others at the top of the Olympics medals table looks impressive, the US clearly has two major advantages: it is a big and rich country. If adjustments are […]

Simon Kuper For reasons too complex to explain, I have just spent a few weeks in Ghana. It proved an excellent place to watch two other West African countries, Cameroon and Nigeria, reach the quarterfinals of the Olympic tournament, with Cameroon going on to win the event on a penalty shoot-out against Spain. Most Ghanaians […]

A permanent exhibition at Pretoria University is giving the public access to remains of this ancient civilisation Catarina Weinek The University of Pretoria is custodian of some of South Africa’s greatest cultural objects: the collection of items excavated since 1934 from the archaeological sites, Mapungubwe and K2, on a farm named Greefswald on the border […]

been Neal Collins After the dazzling closing ceremony, Sydney’s Daily Telegraph said goodbye in 38 languages, including Zulu and Afrikaans. Which got me thinking. What if we were saying salani kahle Sydney 2000, sawubona Cape Town 2004? It makes you think what a Games like this could have done for the rainbow nation, had Cape […]

Andrew Muchineripi soccer It has not been the greatest of years for Southern Africa countries when it came to bidding for football tournaments, with South Africa, Malawi, Zambia and Zimbabwe experiencing the pain of rejection. The most bitter blow came in July when Germany pipped South Africa 12-11 in controversial circumstances for the right to […]

She’s been the queen of pop for the best part of 20 years. Without her, there would be no Britney Spears or Posh Spice. But why is Madonna, at 42, still churning out records? Julie Burchill First there’s that modish whining noise, like Eeyore having swallowed a synthesiser. Then the lumpen beat that affectionately passes […]

Thebe Mabanga In your ear One of the most interesting features of the South African community radio sector is the campus radio circuit. What began as nothing more than a cafeteria intercom as far back as the 1970s around South African tertiary institutions has now grown into an influential, dynamic force. The benefits of campus […]

RankCountryGold Gold equivGold equiv equivper millionper million people GNP adjust NoRankNoRankNo 1Bahamas1.7545.5716.37 2Bulgaria10.0171.2573.59 3Jamaica3.7321.2282.81 4Estonia1.7551.6652.25 5Cuba20.781.8832.08 6Romania18.0110.78201.92 7Latvia2.0461.00121.69 8Belarus8.6190.86171.59 9Azerbaijan2.3410.29371.47 10Hungary13.0131.3061.44 11Georgia2.0530.40311.41 12Ethiopia5.7270.09551.39 13Lithuania3.0380.75211.34 14Barbados0.3711.10101.26 15Moldova1.0590.25411.21 16Trinidad/Tobago1.0591.00121.14 17Kenya4.7290.17491.14 18Kazakstan5.7260.36330.91 19Mozambique1.0590.05640.89 20Slovakia3.3330.67220.84 21Armenia0.7680.17500.81 22Ukraine13.0140.26390.79 23Australia38.442.0220.76 24Slovenia2.0461.00120.64 25Russia60.020.41290.63 26Czech Rep5.0280.50250.50 27Quatar0.3710.55240.45 28Iceland0.3711.10100.45 29Greece9.0180.82180.45 30Norway7.0221.7540.45 Selected 60South Africa2.3410.06620.08 61United States66.610.25420.07

This year’s Smirnoff International Fashion Awards featured a return to design basics Charl Blignaut I was a touch anxious as I settled into my seat for the South African leg of the annual Smirnoff International Fashion Awards at Vodaworld in Midrand last Friday night. It wasn’t the over-abundance of ruthless Pretoria kugels or the Afrikaans […]

The first week of the Olympics has thrown up some pleasant surprises to counter the disappointments Grant Shimmin As I looked down from the media centre overlooking the Sydney International Aquatic Centre’s warm-up pool early on Wednesday evening, Graham Hill walked by, clad in his South African shirt and with a tattoo of the national […]

Thebe Mabanga in your ear I recently had the opportunity to listen to scenario planner Wolfgang Grukel give a talk on his book, Ten lessons from the future. Grukel paints an interesting picture of what life will be like in 2020. When one thinks of radio in its capacity as the country’s most accessible medium, […]

Andrew Muchineripi soccer Let us get one fact straight at the outset: the absence of stars like Zinedine Zidane will not weaken the French assault on South Africa at Ellis Park come Saturday evening. No, I have not been smoking anything stronger than the tobacco my second mother, the minister of health, is trying so […]

Harry Pearson On Saturday I met a man from Ashington who recently moved to Portobello in Edinburgh. He said the first week he was up in Scotland, he was chatting to a local woman he’d met at his running club. By way of introducing him to the area she listed the many celebrities who come […]

Exit management is the government’s latest proposal to reduce the size of the public service.

Jazz guitarist Jimmy Dludlu has come a long way since cutting his teeth with groups like Loading Zone and Mack Denite Thebe Mabanga There are many sides to Jimmy Dludlu. There is the stylish, celebrated jazz guitarist who strums his custom-made, semi-acoustic guitar to the delight of audiences on either side of the South African […]

Guilt by association chases the world’s fastest woman Duncan Mackay He is a big man and she a slender woman but somehow he always got lost in her shadow. CJ Hunter is the world shot put champion but most know him as the husband of Marion Jones. At the Olympics it was an association that […]

Broadcast rights might be changed by the new boxing Bill Deon Potgieter Section 29 of the new boxing Bill has caused a stir within the boxing fraternity. If passed, it could have major ramifications on the sport as we know it. Some say it would lead to the demise of boxing in South Africa. Others […]

Andy Capostagno rugby If there’s one thing that sportspeople hate it’s the playing of pointless matches. Which should help to explain the simmering discontent about the “new” Currie Cup system. Last week the Lions, the defending champions, put 96 points on the Northern Free State Griffons, a performance that earned them precisely nothing. The Griffons […]

The new chief executive is an ordained minister with strong struggle credentials and a passion for the game Merryman Kunene For an organisation founded on the principle of maximising the value of top soccer in South Africa, the Premier Soccer League (PSL) will be pleased with its progress judging by the kind of sponsorship value […]

Stephen Gray My sample of this year’s Aardklop festival – three shows and a literary caf’ event – was indeed modest. That I realised when, queueing outside yet another school-hall, I helped one frenzied audience member sort out his 53 Computicket printouts. And he was going to make only half the total events of the […]

BRONWEN ROBERTS, Midrand | Friday IN its latest public disagreement with government, powerful labour federation Cosatu has threatened to launch a general nationwide strike if the government goes ahead with key changes to labour laws. The 1.8-million-member federation drew up a programme of action to fight the changes, which it says would undermine workers’ gains […]

Guy Willoughby theatre It may seem unfair to begin a review of a spanking new South African play by spanking new South African players by talking about their ‘minence grise – dramatist-cum-drama school mogul Deon Opperman – but Opperman, if not his prot’g’s, may appreciate the irony. Opperman’s response to the challenges of changing audience […]

UK Deon Potgieter boxing It’s not often that a fighter receives a unanimous vote in South Africa as being pound-for-pound the best in the land, but ask anybody in the local fight game the question and you’re bound to get the answer: Lehlo Ledwaba. Ledwaba, the International Boxing Federation (IBF) junior-featherweight world champion, makes the […]

Greg Bowes When legendary DJ Little Louie Vega played here last year he altered the country’s entire clubbing complexion with a steady stream of soulful, carnival grooves. As further evidence of the scope of Vega’s influence on global music culture, Latin house instantly became the sound of South Africa’s summer and continues to be popular […]

PETER DICKSON, Port Elizabeth | Friday HIV causes Aids – but death in most cases is from depression. That’s the opinion of Eastern Cape MEC for Health Dr Bevan Goqwana, who also believes circumcision and single-sex boarding schools to be at the cutting edge of prevention. Goqwana went public on his beliefs in Umtata last […]

Kenya Bob Woolmer >From the pavilion The first mini-World Cup Knockout was attempted in Bangladesh in 1998 to raise funds for the development of cricket throughout the world, and it proved to be a tremendous success. Capacity crowds watched some very exciting cricket. There is no doubt this latest competition, in Kenya, will be as […]

Neal Collins So now it’s official. Juan Antonio Samaranch closed the Games of the 27th Olympiad by telling the watching world: “These were the best Olympic Games ever. The last 16 days have been a glorious chapter in Australian history.” You can’t help but agree. Pity he couldn’t have tacked on a quick sentence about […]

Q&A Siyabonga Twala is the latest in a not-so- long line of South African male actors who openly harbour ambitions to make a name for themselves here, and more lucratively, abroad. This Umlazi, Durban native has had a taste of life abroad with his United States tour of Duma Ka Ndlovu’s Bergville Stories (1997). Apart […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT AND REUTERS, Cape Town | Thursday DEFENCE Minister Mosiuoa Lekota is to forward Auditor-General Shauket Fakie’s special report on South Africa’s controversial R30-billion arms deal to Cabinet for further action after Fakie recommended a probe into alleged irregularities in the deal. Lekota gave no indication whether he would personally support Fakie’s recommendation that […]

TWO men in balaclavas have held up a police station in the Northern Cape, getting away with R370000, embarrassed police have reported. The robbers held up the lone policeman at the Groblershoop station, waited till his colleague returned from investigating a case, then locked them both in a strongroom. They took the money – intended […]

A UNITED States-based company which produces equipment for reducing harmful vehicle omissions like carbon monoxide is to increase its investment in the Eastern Cape by more than R700m, premier Makhenkesi Stofile has announced. The announcement was made jointly with Engelhard Corporation vice president Edmund Stanczak, who is also general manager of the Environmental Technologies Group. […]

THE Nigerian government has agreed to sell the country’s only naval training vessel, the MV Trainer, which has fallen into disrepair, Information Minister Jerry Gana said. The government decision follows the recommendation of a committee set up by ministry of transport, he said. The naval ship was originally sold off in 1979 for $785000 to […]