General

Four weeks ago, if you had asked Bok supporters what they expected from the 2010 Grand Slam Tour given: 1. A rancid Tri-Nations; 2. An under fire coaching team; 3. Thirteen top internationals missing; 4. Key players at the end of a gruelling season; and 5. The usual game-changing matter of Northern Hemisphere winter conditions. […]

The golden blue waters of the Aegean sea were not seeing this face of mine for the first time. Chania of Crete — one of the Greek Islands — is out of this world. I guess that’s why they call it an island. With the sea hedging one in at every turn, one needs little reminding […]

Moroka Swallows management have been patient enough with their German coach Rainer Zobel. The team has been on a downward spiral of late despite reaching the final of the MTN8 where they lost to arch-rivals Orlando Pirates. The Dube Birds have a rich history in South African football, they’re supposed to be challenging for top […]

When we were children the standing joke was that the kids had to set the video machine for their non-technical parents. We’d grown up with video machines, while for our parents they were still new-fangled devices. Fast forward to today and consider cell phones, the internet, Skype, instant messaging, Facebook, Twitter, MXit, PVRs, Xboxes, e-books […]

I received two birthday gifts this year. One was a fantastically constructed venison pie, which my wife had somehow gotten hold of through some mysterious housewifely process, either by swinging her magic wand, ordering it on Gumtree, or actually making it herself. Whatever the method entailed, it was surely a grand-looking pie, enormously big, and […]

South African sport has never been difficult to satirise, considering how much mischief occurs in stadiums, the backrooms of stadiums, training fields and offices around the country. Rugby, fuelled by its soon-to-be-permanent 24/7 news cycle and the greatest moustached literary character seen in a Springbok tracksuit since Andre Markgraaff, managed to push the ante even […]

If the Springboks arrived in Scotland with any notion of superiority, they don’t suffer any fools now. Murrayfield was where the grit, mongrel and resolve shown against Ireland and Wales simply wasn’t enough. Those with a long view of international rugby would’ve expected this for some time. South Africa were lucky to beat Wales and […]

Too often open source software is portrayed as an all-or-nothing option. In reality a mixed environment is the first step to a successful migration. Free and open source software is famously versatile. Think of just about any piece of software your business uses and chances are there is an open source alternative. And if there […]

“The face of the other: Human dialogue at Solms Delta and the meaning of moral imagination” was the title of Prof Pumla Gobodo-Madikizela’s inaugural lecture delivered at the University of Cape Town on November 11 2010. Gobodo-Madikizela is best known for her book A human being died that night: a story of forgiveness, in which […]

By Mara Kardas-Nelson The below is in response to the comments received in response to an opinion piece published on Thought Leader on November 11 2010. This piece has obviously created a large amount of controversy, and so I feel it my responsibility as the author to respond. Firstly, it was never my intention to […]

In a league where goals are hard to come by, it is refreshing to have a player who can consistently find the back of the net and Kaizer Chiefs are the lucky team. In their striker Knowledge Musona, Amakhosi have the best striker in the league at the moment, he is indeed the real deal. […]

While your cellphone has access to the same internet that your PC has access to, it also carries a link to your phone bill and this combination affords new billing mechanisms to content providers. This change can catch consumers unaware and could result in unexpected cellphone charges. With more and more South Africans accessing the […]