SOUTH African cricket took a significant step forward on Tuesday with the appointment of the first black groundsman at a Test venue. Wilson Ngobese succeeds Phil Russell as groundsman at Kingsmead in Durban, the KwaZulu-Natal Cricket Union said. Russell becomes Natal’s new director of cricket. Ngobese joined the Kingsmead ground staff as a 15-year-old in […]
MONTHLY African rankings from football’s world governing body Fifa were released on Wednesday, showing South Africa second on the continent. Meanwhile Fifa rankings of all international football teams give Bafana Bafana a boost from 27th to 24th. At the new level, Trott’s boys are level with Slovakia and the US. The African rankings: 1 Morocco, […]
FRIDAY, 4.00PM: PUBLIC Services International, a global federation of trade unions that represents 20 million public service workers, including those belonging to the South Africans Municipal Workers’ Union, has condemned the multinational water company Biwater for trying to silence debate about water privatisation in South Africa. Biwater is bidding for contracts for water services in […]
OWN CORRESPONDENT, London | Saturday 7.15pm. *7.15pm Shaun Pollock put the game away by making Angus Fraser pop up to Gary Kirsten. The last wicket gave SA the match by 122 runs, although the game looked shaky after the Proteas’ innings. Disciplined bowling and excellent fielding kept England from capitalising on a low 226 target, […]
ENGLAND survived a bout with the weather to beat Kenya by nine wickets, with only captain Alec Stewart falling to the weak Kenyan bowling attack. After an interruption for rain, the Kenyans might have had some salvation in the Duckworth-Lewis rule, but the match was seen through, and England hit and bowled superbly, finishing at […]
GRAEME Hick, 134 not out, will face his sternest World Cup test to date when facing South Africa at the Oval on Saturday. England’s number three, desperate to establish himself as an automatic selection after a see-saw career, has yet to be dismissed in the tournament after making 73 against Sri Lanka and 61 against […]
South Africa overcame some dubious umpiring decisions to crush the Sri Lankans on Wednesday, but an in-form England could be a different proposition. Neil Manthorpe reports Neil Manthorp Cricket For the first time in three weeks, South Africa discovered what it means to be favourites. It means you have to be a lot better, and […]
There’s room for improvement at the South African Music Awards. Peter Makurube has some suggestions On May 13 the South African music industry took time off at the Sun City Superbowl to pat itself on the back. Unlike the cultural boycott busting days, the audience was at least representative of the country’s population. The who’s […]
DEON POTGIETER, Johannesburg | Thursday 6.40pm. THREE world boxing titles involving South African boxers will be up for grabs at the Carousel next Saturday. Lindi Memani will be making the first defence of his World Boxing Union’s Mini Flyweight world title against lanky Fillipino, Dennis Sabsal. “He’s much taller than me,” said Memani. “But I’ll […]
Anthony Minnaar >From 1994 to 1998, an average of 240 police members were murdered every year – almost one a day, a total of nearly 1 200 in four years. This is one of the highest figures in the world. Only China, and to a lesser extent Russia, approach this annual figure. The United States […]
British newspapers have been `leaked’ damaging documents in what appears to be an elaborate plot to smear President Nelson Mandela, write Martin Welz and Mungo Soggot Several British newspapers have been probing a story that President Nelson Mandela accepted a kickback as part of a Nigerian oil deal. The allegations appear to be part of […]
Nicole Turner There were a lot of firsts when Interdesign ’99 Water kicked off simultaneously in Mexico, Australia and South Africa in April this year. Industrial design experts from around the world had gathered to brainstorm about water, which all those participating agreed was life itself. Although this was the 32nd Interdesign conference since 1972, […]
THE task team which was appointed to investigate axing of employees at the South Africa Broadcasting Corporation, including that of journalist Max du Preez, has defined its terms of reference, the SABC board announced on Wednesday. The investigation will include the failure to renew Du Preez’s contract. Du Preez presented the award winning programme Special […]
Vic Marks Even those of us who groan about the proliferation of so-called one-day specialists in England’s World Cup squad do not quibble about the selection of Neil Fairbrother. He may be 35 years old, stuck with a Test average of 15 and and the owner of two disobedient hamstrings that often seem to twang […]
Cameron Duodu:LETTER FROM THE NORTH You’ve got to be either a very brave man or a foolish one to make predictions about Nigeria. I shall prove to you in a minute that this statement is a paradox – the point is not that Nigeria cannot be predictable, but that you, the predictor, will predict it […]
Loose cannon Robert Kirby Background music, Muzak, piped music, whatever might you call it, has become one of the most toxic of urban excreta. It doesn’t matter where you go, you can never escape it. In restaurant and supermarket, in the street, on the telephone, at the filling station, even in your barber’s chair you […]
was last week Andy Capostagno Rugby The sound of Newlands last Sunday was the sound of crumbs of comfort being swept up. Yes, the Stormers had lost to the Cats, but no one got badly injured, the bonus point for a close loss ensured a home semi-final and other results meant that the Crusaders were […]
recovery Marianne Merten Garry has been clean for 18 months. He survived crack addiction. “It brings people to their knees quicker than anything else. You lose weight. You can’t sleep. I often sat in my room high on crack, highly emotional, wanting to cry. I couldn’t. It leaves you hollow.” Garry came to Cape Town […]
Don’t let the nickname deceive you. Jacques Kallis might just be the world’s best all- rounder, writes Kevin Mitchell Some say he is the finest all-rounder in the world. His team-mates call him Dozy. Meanwhile, Jacques Kallis gets on with a career that has gone through good and bad times in four short seasons and […]
Neil Manthorp Cricket A “Carnival of Cricket” indeed. The organisers’ slogan for this tournament might even have worked if the competition had not turned so quickly into a circus, and a badly organised one at that. The opening ceremony produced more laughs than a red-nosed clown and World Cup simply hasn’t looked back, err, forward […]
Alex Sudheim The Durban Designer Collection celebrates its 20th anniversary this year by boldly taking one of the country’s most established and largest fashion shows to where it has never been before. According to Suzy Bell, the event’s creative director and arts editor of the Independent on Saturday (one of the event’s sponsors), the philosophy […]
THE Nigerian-led intervention force responsible for security in Sierra Leone, ECOMOG, has arrested a newspaper editor in the capital, accusing him of colloborating with the country’s rebels. Jonathan Leigh of the Independent Observer was arrested Tuesday, according to his colleagues. ECOMOG spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel Chris Okulade said the force had enough information to conclude that Leigh […]
Andrew Marr SCANNING THE CENTURY: THE PENGUIN BOOK OF THE 20th CENTURY IN POETRY edited by Peter Forbes (Viking) It is, of course, a completely bonkers idea, which is why it is so attractive. The story of the century in first-person prose; film; economics – yes. But in poetry? After all, few art forms have […]
Wally Mbhele A wide rift has developed between the African National Congress’s candidate for Free State premier, Winkie Direko, and the province’s ANC provincial executive committee, which could lead to another political fiasco in the province. Within a week of her name being placed at the top of the ANC’s provincial list, Direko stunned Free […]
UGANDA’S central bank on Thursday froze the operations of the Co-operative Bank Limited and placed it under statutory management after it ran into severe cash flow problems. The bank is insolvent to the tune of $2,1-million central bank governor Nyonyintono Kikonyogo said. The bank’s closure follows last month country’s collapse of the giant Greenland Bank […]
The Cannes Film Festival got off to an uneasy start last week with Nikita Mikhalkov’s saccharine three-hour melodrama The Barber Of Siberia, a movie with the epic qualities of a Russian winter. By the end of it, no peasant imagined the first shy blooms of springtime more fervently than we awaited the closing credits. Moreover, […]
TWO teachers, including a school principal, opened fire on a group of their pupils in KwaZulu-Natal on Thursday, killing one and seriously wounding three. The incident happened when pupils from a high school in the Cele district, south of Durban, stoned their teachers to protest the bus fare required for a school outing, The Starreports. […]
feet’ Sharon Hammond A senior manager in the Kruger National Park was accused this week of being a foul- mouthed tyrant who terrified his staff members and tortured animals. The Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA) heard in Nelspruit that the trails and information manager, Bruce Bryden, allegedly cut off the feet of elephants […]
Adrienne Viljoen’s favourite saying is, “‘n Boer maak ‘n plan,” which she translates as “a man makes a plan”. As manager of the South African Bureau of Standards Design Institute, she believes that Africans have the innate ability to design solutions to day-to-day problems. “People are ingenious at solving problems, but they don’t think in […]
Cathy Jenkins:A SECOND LOOK `Let me ask you, Reverend [Musa] Zondi, who should be prosecuted for stockpiling weapons and who should not? If we want the country to be governable, as the Inkatha Freedom Party says it wants to do, who do you think should be prosecuted whenever they transgress the law?” Tim Modise, interviewing […]
Evidence wa ka Ngobeni Three student leaders at the University of Venda (Univen) may face criminal charges after it emerged they stole tens of thousands of rands from student coffers. The three student representative council (SRC) officials have been suspended from the organisation pending investigations into abuse of office and fraud. Univen’s SRC representative confirmed […]
He could have gone flat after France, but Old Trafford’s master crosser has gone from strength to strength, writes Paul Wilson David Beckham drives a Ferrari Maranello, a Porsche Turbo and a Jaguar XK8, and says there is no limit to how much he will pay if he really likes a pair of trousers. Gary […]