whipping boy The scintillating triumphs of three-year-olds Hoeberg and Badger’s Drift last weekend has consolidated their positions at the top of the betting boards for the Durban July, but another of their generation could stake a claim in the R500 000 Grade 1 Gold Challenge over a mile at Clairwood Park on Saturday. Victory for […]
A FORMER project consultant of the controversial Mpumalanga Development Corporation (MDC) appeared for the second time in the Nelspruit District Court on Monday on fraud charges amounting to R1-million. The case against Mafa Obed Maseko, 44, of Kamagugu near Nelspruit was postponed and he is out on R5_000 bail. He has not yet been asked […]
The men in white were under scrutiny as Pakistan squared the series against England Peter Robinson If Pakistan are around, can a row be far behind? Not likely. Within hours of Pakistan’s 108-run victory in a remarkable Old Trafford Test on Monday, British television viewers were being treated to pictures of Waqar Younis allegedly scratching […]
David Shapshak Someone with a sense of irony must have chosen “experience” as the buzzword for Microsoft’s new range of software. The world’s largest software maker may have a monopoly in computer operating systems and Internet browsers but it has had a chequered history in launching the new versions of these. The “experience” of new […]
Barry Streek Far-ranging and costly steps have been taken by the government to improve South Africa’s crimi-nal justice system. They include the introduction of a computerised system to link police stations, prisons and courts; the construction and upgrading of magistrates’ courts; and reforms of the courts to make them user-friendly. “The reason is to bring […]
A cash settlement worth more than R60-million puts paid to the public’s right to know if the third cellular licence was awarded fairly Stefaans Brmmer The out-of-court settlement between Cell C and Nextcom has resolved a tug-of-war that wreaked havoc on investor confidence but the deal has likely also deprived the public of the right […]
A WHITE farmer whose land came close to being expropriated in March for the resettlement of a black community formally accepted an improved offer for it on Tuesday, government officials said. Chief land claims commissioner Wallace Mgoqi said that cattle farmer Willem Pretorius had agreed to sell his farm in Mpumalanga for R1 285_000 ($160_625). […]
Michael Vlismas golf In the same week that Tulsa’s new Miss Firecracker will be crowned, Tiger Woods will light the fuse that is expected to blaze a path through 72 holes of major golf on its way to another explosive impact on sporting history. The 101st United States Open at the Southern Hills Country Club […]
Angela Neustatter Body Language Brian Argrave was in his mid-30s when he found a swelling on his right testicle. It grew to the point where it was painful to walk, but even then he only went to the doctor when his wife, Jill, insisted. Cancer was diagnosed and he was admitted to hospital for an […]
Tango at the festival They’re doing the tango in Isidingo, Al Pacino did it in Scent of a Woman, director Sally Potter found her feet with The Tango Lesson, and great Spanish film-maker Carlos Sauro gave up political protest for the consuming fires of tango and flamenco. At the festival, Tango del Fuego, directed by […]
Microsoft’s operating system won the battle for the desktop. Now the software giant wants to remould the Internet to keep its dominant position. Jack Schofield reports Even if Microsoft’s Xbox games console flops, it should do at least one useful thing: it should stop people thinking of the company as merely a PC software firm. […]
EVIDENCE WA KA NGOBENI, Johannesburg| Friday THE disgraced former chair of the Central Energy Fund (CEF) awarded the head of the state oil company an annual salary of R1,2-million without following proper civil service procedures. Keith Kunene gave Renosi Mokate, CEO of the CEF, the R100_000 a month salary without consulting the parastatal’s board or […]
Disabled people are starving while officials shuffle paper in an attempt to decide whether to help them. Roshila Pillay reports Disabled people in the North West province have been queuing at clinics from 4am to have doctors examine them and confirm whether they can receive their R540 a month disability grant, since grants were suspended […]
Jaspreet Kindra KwaZulu-Natal Minister of Transport S’bu Ndebele may be facing criminal charges after he procured faxes and e-mails sent to provincial officials and politicians questioning his role in the taxi industry. Ndebele used the documents to attack the media, including the Mail & Guardian, claiming the news- paper was involved in a political conspiracy […]
Marianne Merten An intricate web of gangsters, anti-drug vigilantes, a schoolboy drug dealer and a suspected corrupt policeman operating in the Cape Flats underworld has emerged in Cape Town courts. Two leading members of the Americans gang are applying for bail on Friday June 8 after being arrested in connection with almost 2 000 Mandrax […]
Chiken Bizniz: The Whole Story is an award-winning film about a man who leaves his job at the Johannesburg Stock Exchange to become a chicken mogul in Soweto. By all accounts it’s a regular crowd-pleaser. The Great Dance: A Hunter’s Story is a visually beautiful documentary about three San hunters tracking their prey while explaining […]
GLENDA DANIELS, Johannesburg | Friday THE Johannesburg High Court this week found in favour of a handyman who worked at the brothel The Ranch, in a civil case brought against the Ministry of Safety and Security. Matthew Palmer claimed R800_000 in damages for brutal assault and unlawful arrest and detention when the police raided The […]
You have to be hard when you know your heart is going to be broken by the death of a child. Gail Johnson does not deserve the treatment she is getting, argues Charlene Smith The problem with Gail Johnson is that she has long red nails and wild red hair, she wears tight-fitting slacks over […]
Anthony Holiday Plato held that what people love makes them what they are. Politicians, with rare exceptions, love power and are often driven by the fear of losing it and of the form that loss may take. Thus what a politician fears most provides a crucial clue to what he is and why he acts […]
Niel Sonnekus This year’s Standard Bank National Arts Film Festival ranges from the darkly confrontational to the classic, with plenty of space for the experimental, the local and the sadomasochistic in between. Heading the festival is the work of Durban-bred film-maker Ian Kerkhof, who lived in Amsterdam from 1983 to 1999 because he didn’t “feel […]
Tim Wood american notes When fauna and flora take precedence over humans, there is a serious problem that has nothing to do with the ugly face of capitalism. The United States is frothing about its energy vulnerability. California is suffering rolling blackouts that threaten its neighbours and petrol prices are higher than they have been […]
Jaspreet Kindra Eskom should be providing electricity on a free lifeline basis where it has jurisdiction, says Wits University political economist Patrick Bond. He cites the Irene Grootboom case last year, which gave force to the constitutional guarantee of dignity in shelter and services as the basis for an argument for a lifeline electricity supply. […]
Mboniso Sigonyela Passenger vehicle sales for May are down in line with other indicators of consumer demand, but vehicle manufacturers should not lose hope as exports and commercial vehicles sales are increasing. The gains in commercial sales show that fixed investment is recovering while weakness of the rand, particularly against the pound, makes vehicle exports […]
Valentine Cascarino food Although Mozambican cuisine is one of the most delicious in Africa, it nevertheless requires patience from patrons as most meals take about two to three hours to prepare. But it’s worth the wait if you want first-hand experience of a cuisine that goes beyond prawns peri-peri, entering a realm caught up between […]
Kathryn Smith Fauna seems to be the order of the day at this year’s Standard Bank National Arts Festival in Grahamstown. Two of the featured exhibitions on this year’s main programme revolve around the semantics of the animal world, whether it’s Walter Oltmann’s monumental insects fashioned from woven wire and tubing, or Willie Bester’s take […]
Ntuthuko Maphumulo soccer Four of Africa’s greatest soccer teams were hit by tragedy earlier this year when fans were killed in two crowd stampedes barely a month apart. At this year’s Vodacom Challenge the ancestors and spirits of those who died at the Ellis Park stampede and in Accra will finally be laid to rest. […]
Alec Hogg boardroom talk After years of being shielded by a complicated ownership structure and an M-Cell investment that dwarfed its operational earnings, media and entertainment business Johnnic Communications (Johncom) is about to be exposed to the full glare of shareholder attention. It is not a flattering picture. In virtually every area of its operations, […]
Nicholas Neveling Playwright Reza de Wet isn’t too bothered about the numerous literary prizes she has won or the big city fame she could achieve if she wanted to. “It’s the experience itself. It’s the felt life that’s all important. Some of my best experiences have been in very small productions that no one really […]
Lauren Shantall FINEART The village of Zuney hasn’t felt the shudder of a locomotive in more than a decade. The abandoned metal tracks have gone to rusty seed, overgrown with weeds, the wooden sleepers lie dormant, rotting. Once a day, many years ago, the linked carriages en route from Port Elizabeth to Port Alfred would […]
Classical and contemporary music is hoisting the flag high at this year’s impressive New Music Indaba. Music critic Paul Boekkooi looks at the sounds on offer Festivals are there to allow experimentation, or as Charles Ives would have it, “some serious stretching of the ears”. They are showcases for new and unusual talent, and a […]
Thebe Mabanga The legacy of South Africa’s literary icon Zanemvula Kizito Gatyeni Mda, known internationally as Zakes, is about to be further entrenched when his first adult novel Ways of Dying takes to the stage as a musical called Love and Green Onions. The novel has already been successfully dramatised by Lara Foot Newton in […]
Rock icon Daniel Johnston’s visit to South Africa is a coup for art and grunge Kathryn Smith Where singer-songwriter Daniel Johnston of Texas is concerned, people fall into two categories. Those who know (of) him are always armed with anecdotes ever more extreme, chaotic and hilarious than the last about this figure that has infiltrated […]