RUDOLF Straeuli, a member of South Africa’s 1995 World Cup winning squad, was named on Wednesday as the new coach of the Natal Sharks. Straeuli replaces Hugh Reece-Edwards who was sacked after the Sharks finished bottom of the Super 12 standings this year. The Sharks reached the semifinals of the competition in three of its […]
NAWAAL DEANE, Johannesburg | Friday 12.30pm. SOCCER City will set the stage for a thrill-a-minute showdown between arch-rivals Sundowns and Chiefs in the BobSave Super Bowl final on Saturday. The berths for the final were decided following Chiefs’ 3-1 drubbing of Bush Bucks, while Sundowns went through with a 1-0 clincher against AmaZulu. Tradional pre-match […]
Cameron Duodu LETTER FROM THE NORTH I was just telling myself that I was fed up to the teeth about whether “Africa” (one country) was a “lost continent” a “hopeless continent” or what have you, when the BBC asked me to appear on the TV programme, Newsnight, to discuss “the state of Africa”. As it […]
Moving beyond play readings, the Kultcha Klub takes on Gladiators, sex and life after death Robert Colman Anyone who’s looking for an intelligent, stimulating and safe one-night stand should try the Wits Downstairs Theatre in Braamfontein – you’ll find a tireless group of artists, who are launching a festival of 10 original South African plays […]
Tara Turkington An elderly Free State couple are fighting to return to their home of 65 years, after they were evicted two weeks ago by a farmer who sold all their possessions to pay for outstanding “rent”. David Maarman says he was born on the farm Mostertshoek in the Boshof District in the Free State […]
MARIANNE MERTEN, Cape Town | Friday 11.45am. SOUTH African cricketers Pieter Strydom and Henry Williams on Friday cast further doubt over Hansie Cronje’s statement that he never approached any other players to affect the outcome of matches for money. Strydom told the King Commssion of inquiry that Cronje approached him before the first Test against […]
David Beresford ANOTHER COUNTRY In a country like South Africa where there seems at times to be an unhealthy subscription to fundamentalist belief it comes as something of a relief to hear laughter directed at Hansie Cronje for his evocation of Satan as the real culprit in the match-fixing scandal. At the same time one […]
Rupert Neethling A new United States phenomenon called “account aggregation” may well become the web’s next big thing. According to a recent report, account aggregation enables users to monitor their insurance balances, credit cards, bank or brokerage statements and even e-mail accounts at the same time and in the same place. However, before such services […]
GregBowes CD OFTHEWEEK ‘When I step on to that floor I’m gonna be all business,” proclaims the voice on the intro to Aim’s Cold Water Music (Grand Central), and from the first notes you can sense that something beyond the usual is surely happening here. This coolly packaged debut on breakbeat’s new major force, the […]
A SECOND phone operator will be up and running in May 2002, the Business Day reports. The government announced on Thursday that Telkom’s monopoly is to end in less than two years. The paper says the news has been welcomed by several industry players amid expectation that lower prices and better service will result from […]
The Springboks ease into the 2000 rugby season with a Test against Canada and some not-so-new faces in the team Andy Capostagno If we are to believe the coaching staff the Springboks intend to run the Maple Leaf ragged in the opening international of the season at the newly named Waverley Park in East London […]
Parks Mankahlana CROSSFIRE On Friday June 2, the Mail & Guardian published what was perhaps intended to be a review of the presidency of Thabo Mbeki. The article had nothing to do with Mbeki’s presidency but was rather a graphic display of the deep personal hatred that Howard Barrell has for Thabo Mbeki, the man. […]
A new book lifts the lid on a slug-fest involving some of the country’s most distinguished scientists Ellen Bartlett Palaeoanthropology researchers at Wits University – renowned the world over for their scientific work – have become such a fractious bunch internally that the university’s management has had to separate the opposing factions, placing them at […]
THE fate of 11 senior Mpumalanga officials accused of lying about their qualifications will be announced on Friday when the Public Service Commission hands its investigation report on the issue to Premier Ndaweni Mahlangu. The 11 unnamed officials reportedly over-stated or invented their qualifications to secure high-paying government jobs. PSC chairman Stanley Sangweni will personally […]
The government’s attempts to airbrush President Thabo Mbeki’s recent blunders in HIV/Aids policy leave a nasty stain on the political and social canvas. The fact that the president flirted with, or even bought into, the dissident position on HIV/Aids, is his business and his business alone. The fact that he left the marks of his […]
Paul Kirk and Jaspreet Kindra The mayor of KwaNongoma, who was slain this week, had been running a protection racket in which he and his associates allegedly beat residents of the KwaZulu- Natal town if they did not pay him R50 a month. The assassination of mayor Bhekuyise Sikhonde, an Inkatha Freedom Party strongman, instantly […]
show ‘reform’ Nawaal Deane Sex, gangsters and robberies are the main focus of articles in the Boksburg Progressive Press, with drawings of dismal prison cells reflecting the gloomy life of a prisoner. The newspaper, introduced as a rehabilitation programme in the Department of Correctional Services’s Boksburg prison, may not interest Rupert Murdoch or Tony O’Reilly, […]
OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Friday 4.30pm. THE rand moved weaker on Friday, touching a low of R7,06 to the dollar, but retraced some of its losses later in the day. By late afternoon it was trading at R7,01 to the US currency. Traders said weak bonds and continued concerns about the situation in Zimbabwe weighed […]
Bryan Rostron recounts a close encounter with the pole-sliding publisher of Valley of the Dolls ‘South Africa – whaddya think when ya think, South Africa?” mused the exquisitely tailored New York publisher who had summoned me to his plush Manhattan office. “You think hot, right?” Suddenly he was struck by a bolt of literary inspiration. […]
Howard Barrell OVER A BARREL If you want to risk feeling profoundly depressed – and some people do enjoy a state of hopelessness – then I have a suggestion for you. Go the African National Congress’s website (www.anc.org.za) and read the discussion documents for a meeting of its national general council due to be held […]
The government is planning to transfer one-third of all farming land to black people Barry Streek A revolutionary plan to transfer a third of all farm land to black people in coming years is being drawn up within the government. About 3,5-million hectares of South Africa’s agricultural land will be involved in the first five […]
THE strike in Nigeria over recent fuel price increases entered its second day on on Friday, paralysing business activities, as well as international and domestic flights. “Our offices in Lagos are closed and we are not likely to operate on Saturday the Lagos-Nairobi flight. On Tuesday we did not fly into Lagos as scheduled because […]
Is teen pin-up Anna Kournikova bad for women’s tennis? Jon Henderson looks at the triumph of style over substance When word reached the photographers in the Wimbledon press restaurant that Billie Jean King’s opponent was in trouble on an outside court, they barely looked up from their games of cards. After all the year was […]
Sipho Seepe CROSSFIRE We need a more realistic assessment of President Thabo Mbeki to preempt exaggerated expectations and the inevitability of his failing to meet these. It is time to liberate ourselves of the misconceptions we have of the president, and in so doing liberate the president of the misconceptions he may have of himself. […]
Matthew Krouse Mail & Guardian editor Phillip van Niekerk has won the National Television and Video Association (NTVA) Avanti award for best script in the drama category for his contribution to the series Saints, Sinners & Settlers. This was one of the few surprises at the award ceremony, held at Kyalami on June 3, that […]
M-WEB announced major growth exceeding expectations on Thursday, in both its revenue and subscriber base. Year-end saw the subscriber base nearing the landmark quarter-million figure and revenues increased by 96% to R227,3-million. In addition, unique monthly visitors to M-Web owned portals now exceeds 700000 – nearly three times the subscriber base. In line with expectations, […]
The ANC has angered the Zimbabwean opposition by backing Zanu-PF Jaspreet Kindra Zimbabwe’s main opposition party, the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), has slammed the African National Congress’s endorsement of the ruling Zanu-PF, accusing South Africa’s ruling party of aligning itself “with despots”. The MDC has also accused the ANC of misrepresenting what transpired at […]
divisions’ Jubie Matlou and Sechaba ka Nkosi The long-awaited probe into the restructuring of the SABC has raised the possibility of privatising the corporation’s news divisions. The report by consultants Gemini, which was presented to the SABC board this week, recommends that an “ideal SABC news service would fully exploit business opportunities (that is, privatisation)”. […]
Neal Collins CRICKET Jimmy Adams was 22 yards away when Brian Lara began the innings of 375 which would change both of their lives. Lara’s Test record innings against England at Antigua six years ago started with the hard-working Adams looking on from the non-striker’s end. Their lives have been very, very different since. Jamaican […]
Khadija Magardie A newborn South African baby can expect an average of 40 healthy years. That’s the grim news from researchers, as the HIV/Aids pandemic slashes up to seven years of healthy life expectancy off the average South African life. Next to Sierra Leone, Malawi and Namibia, South Africa ranks as one of the lowest […]
THABO Mngomeni has retained the Bafana Bafana captaincy for the June 18 Cosafa Cup quarter-final match against Switzerland despite the team’s 4-0 thrashing by the United States in the Nike Cup at the weekend. The 20-man squad, which will be without the likes of Shaun Bartlett and Quinton Fortune because of club commitments, contains eight […]
John Travolta’s vanity project Battlefield Earth has taken 10 years to make and is set to be the turkey of the year Mark Morris There’s nothing like a real Hollywood flop. Not an average bad movie doing averagely badly, but a complete wreck of a film that makes you wonder what the hell anyone was […]