FORMER two-time junior lightweight world champion Brian Mitchell has moved up in weight and will be taking on former heavyweight world title contender Pierre Coetzer on Friday. Most pundits give Mitchell the edge of pulling off a win over the bigger and heavier Coetzer. The two popular ex-boxers will however not be donning gloves for […]
Henry Gee looks at the surprising secrets of one of nature’s stickiest surfaces – the gecko’s atom-powered feet Robert Full’s laboratory is more than usually full of gizmos, even for a modern biologist. Full is a biological engineer. Like an industrial espionage outfit, he and colleagues at the University of California, Berkeley, look at nature […]
Soundtracks are an integral part of movies and their promotion. Scott Hughes traces their track record They’d never done it before. But, with a screening of some rough footage, and, no doubt, a big white grin, Tom Cruise managed to persuade United States rock giants Metallica – for the first time in their two-decade career […]
Nigel Fairhead spoke out this week for the first time about the dastardly murder of his wife and young daughter Lin Sampson The early part of this year was marked by a spate of unusual fires that crackled ominously across the Constantia Valley and left a deposit of ash on everything like a veil of […]
The world’s largest modern art museum is now open Adrian Searle The opening of Tate Modern is a watershed in the cultural life of Britain. It signals the importance of the art of our times, and its centrality in British culture. Unlike most of the big cities and capitals of the Western world, London has […]
OWN CORRESPONDENT, Cape Town | Wednesday 5.00pm. THE Springboks will be without the services of prop Cobus Visagie when they take on England in the first of two Tests at Loftus in Pretoria on Saturday. Visagie is carrying a rib cartilage injury and has been sidelined to avoid aggravating the injury. Sarfu media liason Alex […]
Stephen Gray I, TITUBA by Maryse Cond (Faber &Faber) THE ABYSSINIAN by Jean-Christophe Rufin (Picador) As one of their first books dated 2000, Faber have reissued one of Maryse Cond’s novels in their Caribbean Series, chosen by Caryl Phillips. The short title is I, Tituba, although this had previously been followed by the subtitle Black […]
Barry Streek The government is pressing ahead with its plans to establish an independent Media Development and Diversity Agency (MDDA), which it hopes will start operating in the middle of next year. It also says considerable consensus about the basic principles of the new agency has already been achieved, ahead of the publication of a […]
C Robert Kirby LOOSE CANNON You knew the way it was going to go that moment, a few weeks back, when a morose Hansie Cronje stepped into the press room flanked by two politicians and his greaseball Christian mentor. It was like finding that soft tomato at the bottom of the bag. You don’t have […]
Peter Robinson If Bob Woolmer could be persuaded to take one position on Hansie Cronje and stick to it, then it might be possible to establish, if not guilt, then at least some kind of responsibility for the former captain’s fall from grace. All around the world this week, cricket tried to come to terms […]
WORLD Cup qualifiers being played in Africa this weekend. Group A At Luanda: Angola v Zambia At Tripoli: Libya v Cameroon Bye: Togo Group B At Lagos: Nigeria v Sierra Leone At Omdurman: Sudan v Liberia Bye: Ghana Group C At Annaba: Algeria v Senegal At Windhoek: Namibia v Morocco Bye: Egypt Group D At […]
South Africa Paul Kirk A new survey of the muti industry shows that trade in traditional medicines tops R500-million a year and concerns 27-million South Africans. The study, by the Institute of Natural Resources, found that in KwaZulu-Natal alone more than 4E000 tons of indigenous plants are traded a year, while the value of the […]
Ups: Cheery Cape clone that’s Jo’burg’s current favourite. Colourful, clean, safe to walk around at night. Great restaurants, cafes, bars, clubs and some interesting shopping. Downs: The people. Rich hippies, media kids and ever-so-slightly-smug residents. More cool than culture ensures an empty- headed experience. What the Estate Agents say: “Melville’s looking good. High demand and […]
The Simpsons finally has a rival for sharp, subversive, animated satire, but Zombie College can only be watched on the internet Michael Collins There’s something about the DIY aspect of a webpage that is in keeping with the punk ethic of another age, and from which sprang a million three-minute songs and equally as many […]
A performance audit has given ANC councillors the jitters in the wake of local government elections Sechaba ka’Nkosi Ashake-up within African National Congress branches is expected to take place in the build-up to local government elections amid serious tensions and jostling for power among councillors uncertain of their future role in the party. The uncertainty […]
Siki. Dutch director Niek Koppen, who will be a guest of the festival presents his hour-long work of 1992 about Louis M’Barick Fall, who in 1922 became the first African to win a world boxing title. The documentary recounts the life of Battling Siki, the intelligent “savage”, activist, dandy, husband and womeniser. Using unique film […]
Cameron Duodu LETTER FROM THE NORTH The term “senseless war” should be a contradiction in terms. Because humanity was given the power of reasoning by Mother Nature, war should not be in our vocabulary at all. But Mother Nature also gave us the power not to use our reason! And more often than not, we […]
Peter Robinson One by one they have taken the stand, damned Hansie Cronje with their evidence and then sought to soften the blow by declaring their respect for the fallen former captain. “The finest captain South Africa has ever had,” is typical of the sentiment. It has occurred to none of Cronje’s erstwhile team-mates that […]
WHAT’S NEW It’s called Sealand, it’s currently 10m by 25m and it’s about to become an international “data haven” run by an American company, HavenCo. Sealand is an abandoned fortress built by the British during World War II and “colonised” by a British eccentric and former army major, Roy Bates, in 1966. A 1968 British […]
David Beresford ANOTHER COUNTRY Many years ago I interviewed the former British prime minister, James Callaghan. He was foreign secretary at the time. The event was unremarkable, except that it was conducted in a nursery school classroom. We could not find anywhere to sit and he ended up wedging his considerable frame into one of […]
Barry Streek LETTERS FROM ROBBEN ISLAND: A SELECTION OF AHMED KATHRADA’S PRISON CORRESPONDENCE, 1964-1989 edited by Robert D Vassen (Zebra) From prison, Ahmed Kathrada wrote thoughtful letters, initially twice a year and then once a month, to the outside world, knowing that they would first be censored by prison officials, then examined in detail by […]
The description of the game of cricket as a metaphor for life has never been as apt as now, in the midst of the so- called “Hansiegate” match-fixing scandal. As allegations and disclosures pour forth testifying to the self-serving greed which inspired these heroes of times so recently gone by, the impulse of the holy […]
Jason Venter SQUASH This week’s South African squash open national championship, staged first at Johannesburg suburban courts and later on a portable glass court in the middle of Sandton Square, is no doubt one of the premier events on the South African sport calendar – as if anyone cared in this era of Hansiegate and […]
A REPORT released by the Southern African Rivers Association has found that it was a contravention of its code not to ensure that 13 tourists who died in a rafting disaster in March were wearing life jackets. The disaster victims, who were all connected to a Port Elizabeth law firm, died when a tributary of […]
IN developments outside the King Commission, papers have been served to challenge Judge Edwin King’s decision last week not to allow television cameras to record evidence given to the Commission. Last week e-tv and Live Africa Network News had asked Judge King to allow cameras into the hearings in an effort to make proceedings more […]
TELEPHONES began ringing in Northern Province premier Ngoako Ramatlhodi’s office on Wednesday. This was the first time in 12 days that the phones rang after Telkom suspended the service on June 2 to force the province to pay an allegedly outstanding bill of R39 million. Government spokesman Jack Mokobi confirmed that most phones in the […]
Former President Nelson Mandela is due to visit one of Burundi’s controversial "regroupment camps" as he continues his mission to try to bring peace to the troubled country.
OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Wednesday 2.30pm. DISGRACED former South African cricket captain Hansie Cronje has won the sympathy of someone catching as much flak as he is – Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe. The Star on Wednesday quoted Mugabe as saying: “I’m heartbroken by what the chap is going through. I never thought he would be […]
THE national government has allocated R91 million to Mpumalanga to rebuild roads, schools and other public infrastructure damaged during heavy flooding in the province earlier this year. Premier Ndaweni Mahlangu said the funds would complement existing reconstruction programmes already underway by the national departments of water affairs and agriculture. Provincial departments were, he said, still […]
THE Springbok line-up which beat Canada 51-18 last week has been kept intact by coach Nick Mallett for Saturday’s first of two Tests against England in Pretoria. The only changes in the side are on the bench, with Ollie le Roux replacing Willie Meyer and Albert van den Berg replacing inside-centre Japie Mulder. Mallett said […]
ENGLAND winger Dan Luger has been recalled to the side for the first Test against the Springboks at Loftus Stadium in Pretoria on Saturday. Luger will make his first appearance for England after missing the entire Six Nations tournament with a groin injury. Luger last played for England in the World Cup. Julian White, the […]
THE Johannesburg stock exchange said on Tuesday that it is recalculating all the trading carried out late on Monday to correct “anomalies” in its backup system after technical problems halted the session. “Subsequent to this, the JSE was made aware of certain anomalies in the JET hot backup system and has had to declare all […]