General

In Beijing, Usain Bolt set the 100m world record with a time of 9.69s. Richard Thompson of Trinidad and Tobago finished second in a time of 9.89sec (a personal best) and third, in a time of 9.91sec, was Walter Dix of the US, again a personal best. In the 200m, Bolt set a world record […]

Wow, what a game that was! Full house, goals galore and a frenetic finish. English Premiership? Think again. Chiefs vs Ajax was the best on the box this weekend, despite Arsenal’s fab four or Manchester United’s five goals at Wigan. Hell, even Chelsea’s supposed West London derby at Fulham had nothing on that. Sadly, this […]

I attended the Kaizer Chiefs-Ajax Cape Town match at Orlando Stadium yesterday — from the comfort of my living room — and what a match it turned out to be. For the first time in a long time it looked like Kaizer Chiefs had solved their goal-scoring problems but it still wasn’t enough to get […]

Many years ago, when I lived in Cape Town, I dabbled in comedy. Don’t laugh, I’m not trying to be funny here. I’m profoundly serious. To cut a rather long narrative short, comedian Desmond Dube had his own show on SABC2 many years ago. If I’m not mistaken it was called Dube on 2. It […]

By Cynthia Ayeza Mutabaazi I have been following the now controversial tales and rumours surrounding Caster Semenya. She holds a one minute, 56,72 seconds, 800m record, but not without question. The latest in track and field history, the Semenya controversy may very well leave a bitter taste in the mouths of many. According to her […]

South Africa’s newspapers and websites are filled with the success of young 800m gold medallist Caster Semenya. After years of fairly apathetic athletic achievements, South Africans should be basking in the extraordinary win from this young, relatively unknown runner. But we’re not. A gender test has been called by the International Association of Athletics Federations, […]

Since winning the women’s 800m final at the Athletics World Championships, Caster Semenya has been asked to or has (the IAAF doesn’t seem to have a clue) taken a gender test. Does something smell not quite kosher? Being only 18, Semenya has a bright future ahead of her if the IAAF’s bungling of the situation […]

So deep seated was the unpopularity of the last war against Saddam Hussein’s Iraq that it was strongly in evidence even within the US and UK, the two main countries that waged it. Interesting, one finds parallels between this contemporary anti-war sentiment and what took place in South Africa a century previously when the British […]

The appointment of a new chief justice, the ongoing Western Cape Judge President John Hlophe saga and a number of high-profile court cases may have dominated the legal headlines in recent weeks, but a dispute over a key-ring has served notice of things to come in the build-up to the 2010 World Cup. Fifa is […]

This has got to be the next best thing. Not so much because of what it can do to a computer, although many will welcome an occasional reprieve from mouse-clutching. It is the anticipation of the things to come that makes the gesture recognition so exciting. Just remember how many minutes — nay, even hours […]

In blatant defiance of Siener van Rensburg, I have made the trek from the balmy sunshine of Durban to the nippy chill of Johannesburg and don’t I wonder why. Having discovered that my comrades in the taxi industry are about to get shafted by the Rea Vaya (Rapid Bus thingamajig), and that it takes 1 […]

Samuel Johnson argued that “he who voluntarily continues ignorant is guilty of all the crimes which ignorance produces”. As someone who hungers for as much information about as many things possible, I have a particular disgust for ignorance, particularly wilful ignorance. Like Vittorio, I too fear ignorance more than I fear death. However, even more […]