challenge If the bullion price stays at its current level for any length of time, South Africa could face even more severe unemployment, report Donna Block and Mungo Soggot One of the first major challenges for the Mbeki presidency will be the potentially massive ramifications for South Africa’s economy stemming from the collapse in the […]
According to a recent study, the rape homicide rate in Cape Town is 12 times higher than in the United States. Charlene Smith reports In the photograph is a beautiful young woman sitting with her boyfriend. It is a 21st-birthday photograph. Six years before she was raped so violently with a sharp object in her […]
In 1918, at the age of 40, my maternal grandfather was stricken by a form of viral influenza, popularly known as the Spanish flu, which was decimating much of Europe. Within a week, despite the best efforts of three physicians, he died. In 1972, at the age of 40, I was stricken by a serious […]
Marianne Merten The police officer charged with rooting out urban terrorists who have been planting bombs and assassinating opponents in the Western Cape for years is seeking protection from his wife. The head of the Western Cape’s anti-urban terrorism campaign Operation Good Hope, Assistant Commissioner Ganief Daniels, is applying to court for a restraining order […]
How can a 20-year-old bag a fortune for his first novel? Is it because it’s a stunner – or because he is? Dan Glaister investigates books and looks The four words most frequently used to describe Richard Mason are sensation, advance and Hugh Grant. Sensation because Mason is 20 years old and his debut novel, […]
Neil Manthorp reports from Birmingham on Zimbabwe’s progress in the World Cup Zimbabwe’s rousing progress towards a probable semi-final place has been explained away in these parts by everything from a faulty format to a Southern African conspiracy. The truth is, however, they have worked as hard as any other team here and with far […]
Sarah Hall It sounds like the answer to the prayers of drivers who can’t parallel park: a car so tiny it squeezes into spaces with its back or nose to the kerb. The Smart Car was launched last year in Europe, but manufacturers Daimler Benz and Swatch had no plans to introduce it in the […]
CD of the week Shaun de Waal One doesn’t quite get the band name. In any case, New Radicals (no “the”) appears to be less a band than composer/producer/singer Gregg Alexander doing his thing with a little enthusiastic help from his friends. And the title of his/their debut CD, Maybe You’ve Been Brainwashed Too (MCA), […]
THURSDAY, 12.30PM: SOUTH AFRICAN goalkeeper Andre Arendse has been ruled out of the squad for the World Cup after undergoing surgery to repair torn knee cartilage. Arendse, who plays for Fulham in England was injured during shooting practice on Monday after falling awkwardly when saving a shot, and was admitted to hospital on Tuesday for […]
war, grandad? A controversial new book claims that, far from hating war, soldiers thrive on the thrill of dispatching the enemy. Peter Kingston reports Since the end of conscription, the British army has tried a variety of tricks to lure young men and women to take the queen’s fivepence. See the world, get yourself a […]
Howard Barrell Like any politician, Thabo Mbeki has his fair share of detractors and enemies. But Zanele Mbeki, his wife, appears to have only admirers. Across the worlds she inhabits – business, development work and politics – she attracts superlatives. “An excellent person”, “of deep conviction”, “very smart”, “dignified”, “lovely” – these encomiums come from […]
The size of the ANC’s electoral victory need not be an issue of burning concern, writes Richard Calland So, it’s all over. And frankly, thank goodness for that. Elections are a necessary – though often engaging -evil. However, it was not that this campaign consumed so much energy and resources, or even that it was […]
Loose cannon Robert Kirby `The time has come for work.” The muted but somehow resonant assurance with which Mr Thabo Mbeki closed off his “victory speech” at Gallagher Estate; a speech which, uncommonly for any latter-born politician, expressed more by virtue of its restraint than its rhetoric. To even the most gloomy of sceptics, Mbeki’s […]
The winner of the Lillian Hellman/Dashiell Hammet award is not a standard academic, reports Mercedes Sayagues Judged on her writings alone, Dr Patricia McFadden appears to be an African Valkyrie in metal breast-plates, who sees the world through rigid prisms of gender and race. But when you meet her, she is a warm woman with […]
Several familiar faces are missing from the South African team to meet Italy on Saturday – and their replacements have the talent to keep them on the sidelines, writes Andy Capostagno Nine changes and four uncapped players on the bench. You could be forgiven for thinking that Nick Mallett has gone mad. But it is […]
OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Friday 6.45pm PRESIDENT Nelson Mandela on Friday repeated praises he had heaped on his successor Thabo Mbeki, saying the country was in good hands under Mbeki’s leadership. “He has self-confidence. Not only is he competent, he has vision and courage to carry on what needs to be done,” Mandela said in […]
Libby Young The two best known “facts” about the Internet are that most people are looking for sex online, and that finding what you’re looking for is very difficult. This, of course, could be true of life in general, but as with life these facts are not always as hard and fast as they seem. […]
Stephen Bierley in Paris Tennis Andre Agassi, the pigeon-toed, scrub-headed Las Vegas American they call “Mr Electricity”, among more derogatory names, staged the comeback of his life to win the French Open with a remarkable 1-6, 2-6, 6- 4, 6-3, 6-4 victory over Andrei Medvedev. By doing so he became only the fifth man in […]
Marianne Merten Voting is still a tale of two cities on the Cape Peninsula where just a busy highway makes all the difference. In the coloured area of Bonteheuwel on the Cape Flats, residents spent election day at home, visiting friends and making the best of an extra public holiday in the little gardens where […]
John Arlidge and Jamie Doward The Internet, once dubbed the Wild West of the 21st century, is getting its first taste of the law: an electronic sheriff is surfing cyberspace. Big firms, which are losing up to 3-million each a year as workers surf the Web looking for new jobs and downloading pornography, are set […]
John Matshikiza With the Lid Off Response to the saga of my looted home has been huge. Many people have recounted similar misfortunes; most have been amused and appalled at the same time (it is like being in the middle of a horror movie, where the extremity of the situation makes you burst out into […]
slowly Five years into the new radio and where is the gender equality, asks Charl Blignaut It’s the Monday morning after the elections and AMLive co-anchor Sally Burdett is having a small domestic breakdown. She still can’t quite believe she got through the biggest political broadcast of the year in one piece. “Uh … Yes,” […]
Wonder Hlongwa Against police denials that there was a political motive in the killing of two women in KwaZulu-Natal’s volatile Richmond area, the families of the deceased insist they were indeed political. The two women, Zantu Ndabezitha (40) and Babongile Dlamini (43), were gunned down in separate incidents eight hours before Wednesday’s elections. The families […]
Andrew Muchineripi Soccer They say there is no rest for the wicked, and it looks like we can add Bafana Bafana to the list, despite the fact that I have no knowledge of any misbehaviour by the national soccer squad. A tough African Nations Cup battle with Mauritius has just passed and there will be […]
Aaron Nicodemus It was a bright Sunday afternoon when Tsepo Molemohi (11) went to play his favorite game – soccer – on a field between Central Western Jabuvu and White City in his Soweto neighbourhood. Before he left, he kissed his mother goodbye. Tsepo, with his soft voice and wide smile, always told his mother […]
Friday night Matthew Simpson Wi-i-ind down. Another week in the trenches has come to an end and I’m lying on my bed, sucking a cigarette, hoping Shan won’t notice when she gets home, because smoking in the bedroom is strictly forbidden. Right now, though, I couldn’t care less. I’m making plans. In fact, the plans […]
Local hero Charl Mattheus is facing a Russian assault at this year’s Comrades Marathon, writes Michael Finch It was April 7 1996, the day after Russian Dmitry Grishine had almost shocked national marathon champion Zithulele Sinqe at the Two Oceans Marathon. Sinqe scraped home for victory by five seconds, but it wasn’t Grishine’s second place […]
Howard Barrell Perhaps, more than anything else, force of personality and raw political will explain how Tony Leon grabbed the title of official leader of the opposition. For if any one individual and his image dominated the election campaign – more so perhaps than even Thabo Mbeki’s or Nelson Mandela’s – it was that of […]
You write a novel, the proof copies get passed around, panic sets in. Will they like it? Is it well enough written? Did I do justice to the characters? You wait to hear the cut and thrust of intellectual argument spearing down your literary faults. But no, what I got instead was quiet corner confessions […]
Ivor Powell, Wally Mbhele and Wonder Hlongwa While the African National Congress is confident that there is agreement with the Inkatha Freedom Party that its leader, Mangosuthu Buthelezi, will be South Africa’s next deputy president, the IFP is still being coy. ANC sources say Buthelezi is expected to accept the position within days, with only […]
The famous rave drug on its own is not responsible for the deaths of productive young people, argues Ted Leggett The death of a young woman after her first experiment with “ecstasy” last weekend has brought the so-called “club drugs” to national attention. The incredible variety of substances associated with the rave scene have led […]
Peter Dickson A single rusted road sign at Nqadu near Willowvale indicates that these are the 20th-century lands of King Xolilizwe Sigcawu, paramount chief of all the Xhosa. But his majesty is not here on election day, preferring to escape to his farm at Kentani and vote there. By midday, at the voting station just […]