Staff Reporter

Deion Sanders is a great footballer, a mean baseball slugger, a reformed womaniser, a born-again Christian (surprise) and a top shoe salesman. Hes nursing a bad divorce |and a worse injury. George Kimball reports on a hectic start to the NFL season On a recent Sunday morning the parishioners of an Atlanta church were the […]

FRIDAY, 3.30PM TRUTH and Reconciliation Commission chairman Archbishop Desmond Tutu and new National Party leader Marthinus van Schalkwyk met for an hour on Friday morning to discuss relations between the NP and the TRC, although there was no immediate out of court settlement. However, both men described the meeting as constructive and said discussions will […]

Italian fashion giant Benetton has relaunched in South Africa. The clothes are fine, but it?s the ad campaign that should really be welcomed back, writes Charl Blignaut A picture of the pope picking his nose with the headline ?I flick my snot at you?. A gold toilet seat: ?The rich have to marry someone ? […]

Holidays in hell: Profits count more than life and limb for some tour operators Ellen Bartlett World Leisure Holidays, the package tour division of Sun International, describes Les Comores as ?magical, mystical … the last of the unspoilt islands?. No doubt they are, or would be, were it not for the minor matter of simmering […]

FRIDAY, 3.00PM ONE of the country’s most wanted men was arrested on Friday morning in connection with a series of murders and other acts of violence in the Richmond area of KwaZulu-Natal, police said. Spokesman Director Reg Crewe confirmed that Skumbuza Patrick Ndlovu, 30, known in the Richmond area as “Comrade Bob”, was arrested at […]

FRIDAY, 12.00NOON: FORMER Zimbabwean national goalkeeper Bruce Grobbelaar and Hans Segers could face life bans after being charged by the UK Football Association on Thursday with breaking football’s betting rules following the evidence they both gave at their trial on match-fixing charges. Grobbelaar, Segers and Aston Villa striker John Fashanu were last month cleared of […]

Glenn Adler Cosatus fifth national congress is its most important deliberation since the federation was founded in 1985. It is undertaking a comprehensive, quite critical review of its affairs while debating innovative strategies for achieving its long-standing goals in a new democracy facing the pressures of a global economy. At the centre of the discussion […]

Controversy surrounds the future of governing Johannesburg. Muff Andersson presents the options open to the city and its sub-structures This weekend there will be a private referendum in the white suburbs to determine whether residents of Johannesburg believe the city should remain governed by four separate sub-structures or be merged into one giant megacity. Regardless […]

Amway has arrived in South Africa. Its products may work but the marketing is a minefield for the uninitiated, warns Andrew Worsdale On June 20, at 3.13pm, my household (or at least my PC) received unsolicited e-mail from Australia. Id never heard of the correspondent, nor sent unbidden cyber-mail to him. It said: I am […]

Martin McGuinness speaks to Dean Nelson about what he has learnt from the South African peace process Variously described as Sinn Feins chief negotiator, the Irish Republican Armys godfather of godfathers and the personification of its armed struggle, Martin McGuinness appears far too sober to have revelations. But he has had one and its shocking: […]

Suzy Bell The only independent radio station that was a breath of fresh air in KwaZulu-Natal with lively, off-the-wall DJs, controversial talk shows and excellent news coverage, was the old Capital Radio station in Durban, which closed last year on November 29. It looks like old Capital will be back if all goes well for […]

Alex Haley may have fabricated much of Roots, writes Pascoe Sawyers, but the novel told a larger truth Like many first generation black Britons, I didnt even know I had African heritage until the mid-1970s. Before then, apart from the superficialities of skin colour and hair texture, it had never occurred to me that I […]

Brenda Atkinson : Style Faith Popcorn may have a silly name, but this is the woman who coined the term cocooning way back in the 1980s to describe a lifestyle trend that would hit the upwardly mobile in the beleaguered 1990s. Popcorn predicted that in an increasingly confusing and often hostile urban environment, people would […]

jackpot David Davies : Golf Mark OMeara, who at 40 has never won a major championship and yet is riotously rich, thinks players should be paid for playing in the Ryder Cup. The American, who in eight games in three Ryder Cup matches has won twice, said in Paris this week: I think the whole […]

The people who should answer for the medias apartheid past were absent from the commission hearings, writes Ferial Haffajee Ironically, those who represented the media at this weeks Truth and Reconciliation Commission probe into their past were its brightest symbols of the future. Times Media Limiteds (TML) Cyril Ramaphosa, the Independent Groups Moegsien Williams and […]

An international research group, including South African astronomer Dr John Menzies, has discovered what may be two Jupiter-like planets circling suns thousands of light years away. The Planet team, which involves observatories all over the world, measures the variations in brightness of selected stars near the centre of our galaxy. Certain kinds of variations, called […]

Carmen Morris : Cape Town cafs Continental drift is a geographical term that is being redefined by Cape Towns latest influx of imported restaurants. Forget South African cuisine and decor. International and foreign flavours are the way to satisfy Cape Towns more sophisticated palates. The Atlantic Grill at the Table Bay Hotel, Joes Caf and […]

Ann Eveleth Dotted around South Africas exclusive suburbs a string of modern cubic compounds luxurious villas set in flowering gardens house the elite of Mobutu Sese Sekos Zairean kleptocracy. Tucked away with their extended families and domestic entourages behind high walls and electric gates in Sandton, Pretoria and Cape Town, at least 20 of the […]

Promising oil discoveries offer hope for Africas poorest economies but raise the political stakes, writes Richard Cornwell Excitement is growing about the prospects for Africas hydrocarbons industry. Even with the present relatively modest oil price, the growth in African production has been remarkable.What has really caused a stir, however, are the discoveries in the Gulf […]

Andrew Muchineripi Soccer Kaizer Chiefs and success were once synonymous. No South African season passed without the Amakhosi winning the national championship or at least one of the major knockout competitions. They were a great club, filling grounds throughout the country with a heady brew of attacking football. Ace Ntsoelengoe, Teenage Dladla, Fani Madida, Shane […]

Christopher Zinn An odd sign adorns the entrance to the small national park on Norfolk Island, a tiny island in the middle of the South Pacific. It reads: ?Yorlye Cum Look Orn,? which, in the rich Norfolk language of 18th-century English and Tahitian, means: ?Do come and have a look.? And well you might, for […]

Gustav Thiel A special task team investigating murder, corruption and cover-ups by police in the Northern Cape say their efforts will come to naught because they implicate the commissioner of police, Johan Deyzel, in their report. The most serious allegation probed by the team involves 1994 claims by policemen that a disused Kimberley mine-shaft which […]

Raincoats are the only protection schoolchildren in Meadowlands have from the clouds of dust that blow off a disused slimes dam, writes Ferial Haffajee The children wear raincoats. Not to keep out the rain, but to ward off the dust. It blows and then settles everywhere. In the ceilings, on the rose-bushes and in the […]

Herbert W Vilakazi There is a most serious economic crisis facing this country, even though, like an earthquake or a tornado, it affects different communities differently, depending on how close they are to the epicentre of the destructive force. In recent years, our economy has barely been growing faster than the population; the level of […]

Andy Duffy The controversial private deportation camp linked to prominent African National Congress women faces closure. The Ministry of Home Affairs fears it can no longer afford to pay the women?s group, Dyambu Holdings, to continue using its camp, and is expected to end the contract by year- end. Lindela camp, in Randfontein on the […]

FRIDAY, 1.00PM MALAYSIAN and Indian steel producers who avoid paying import duties by bringing in low-value welded pipe under the guise of specialised seamless pipe are threatening the health of South Africa’s steel industry, officials say. “This is direct customs fraud that could wipe out sectors of the industry,” said Tony Heher, chief director of […]

In 1982 The Star newspaper published a story exposing the Reverend Allan Boesaks affair with an official of the South African Council of Churches. The story was based upon information fed to it by security police. To justify its decision, the newspaper claimed that it was an expos of the security branchs dirty tricks. Yet […]

Robert Kirby : Loose cannon The last time I risked entering a South African airport lavatory without wearing protective clothing was at Port Elizabeth and it was the business class one. Not too bad. Before that was about seven months ago and was at Johannesburg International Airport. Remember that famous foul bogger in Trainspotting? Well, […]

Harry Joyce in Oslo and Ian Black in London The United States has spurned intense pressure to back a worldwide ban on anti- personnel landmines, saying its security would be compromised if it signed a treaty hailed as a victory for humanity and a tribute to Diana, Princess of Wales. The treaty, negotiated in the […]

Sarafina II Minister of Housing Sankie Mthembi- Mahanyele blithely claimed this week that the auditor generals report on the Motheo housing project scam cleared both her and her department of any wrongdoing. Her interpretation suggests that either she didnt actually read the report or she chose to overlook its salient features. The auditor general found […]

Maria McCloy : In your ear There are signs that Gautengs second Muslim radio station, The Voice, is very different from South Africas other Muslim stations. Two stations in Cape Town have proved extremely popular, while Durban has a couple in the pipeline and Gauteng boasts Radio Islam. Shamima Shaikh, chair of The Muslim Community […]

Maria McCloy Okay, okay. we all know The Shell Road to Fame or The Hell Road To Shame, as some call it is a clever marketing thing from Shell, but the crowd who got in for free to the Sun City Superbowl last saturday had a damn good time. It was packed, and there was […]