General

The Confed Cup, Lions Tour, Tri-Nations, Wimbledon, Roland Garros (nothing like a fine mist of clay on that buxom Serena Williams to make one appreciate His handiwork eh?) a competitive F1 sans the familiar faces and Peter de Villiers press interviews — the sporting gods have surely looked upon us with great favour this year. […]

The truth is the most overrated thing in the world when it comes to relationships. This fact permeates all the stages of a relationship, from the courtship and honeymoon period, to the stage of “showing one’s behind” and even to the unfortunate, though mostly inevitable end to these necessarily doomed engagements. Throughout all these stages, […]

Last week Thursday, Sanzar (South African, New Zealand and Australian Rugby Unions) met in a watershed meeting in Dublin to discuss the expansion of Super Rugby from 2011 to 2015 in the Southern Hemisphere and especially the broadcast agreement that needs to be tabled to the broadcasters (Newscorp and SuperSport) on or before June 30. […]

Noam Chomsky, an eminent scholar and activist, in his celebrated Profit over People reflects that: “The first great experiment was a bad idea for the subjects, but not for the designers and local elites associated with them. This pattern continues until present: placing profit over people. The consistency of the record is no less impressive […]

A report which was commissioned by former provincial and local government minister Sydney Mufamadi and which seeks to advise on the way in which provincial and local government function will be published later in the year. In an interview with the Saturday Star Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs Minister Sicelo Shiceka confirmed that South Africans […]

The Southern & Eastern Cape were awarded a Super 14 rugby franchise on June 8 2005 with a unanimous SA Rugby Union Presidents Council resolution, which allowed the South Eastern Cape franchise to prepare for the Super 14 by playing Currie Cup rugby in 2006 and be in the Super 14 in 2007 and 2008. […]

Mother Nature and Father Greed have both reached crisis at the same time, environmentalist Monica Graaff told an Institute of Directors breakfast in Cape Town last week. One businessperson at the breakfast challenged: “Why should business change when what is going to happen is going to happen regardless?” Two days later the Cape of Good […]

The ANC’s plans to destabilise and distract Helen Zille from fulfilling her duties as premier shows the contempt that our ruling party has for democracy. After several years of the ANC’s chaotic mismanagement and paltry delivery, the Western Cape’s voters decisively elected the DA to run the province. In moves startlingly reminiscent to its repeated […]

This week’s Talkback question on the Mail & Guardian Online: Does S’bu Ndebele’s decision to return the “thank you” Mercedes bode well for the conduct of South Africa’s new government?

So with the Super 14 pretty much done and nearly dusted, South African attention now turns to the — impending/looming/choose own hyperbolic adjective here — incoming tour by the British and Irish Lions. Now as is the nature of such, every man, dog and his braai stand have been playing selector and choosing their teams/squads […]

I spend some of my time coaching executives in South Africa and across Europe. I got thinking the other day what South Africa could need from a coach. I mean the whole country. Not the president — not any individual — all of us who live on this southern slab of Africa. All together — […]

Remember the good old stadiums from the bad old days? If any venue symbolised apartheid-era soccer in South Africa, it was the Rand Stadium tucked away between the mine dumps on the south side of Johannesburg. Construction of the 15 000-seat facility was completed in 1951 and, for the next 25 years or so, some of […]