 | Schalk Burger is a South African rugby icon, and widely tipped to become the next Springbok captain. Mahala’s Andy Davis had a long chat with the blonde wrecking ball. Mahala: So what I heard on my way here, in the car they were talking about David Pocock. His autobiography just came out and he’s admitted to being bulimic. And that just made me think about David Pocock, and I was suddenly all angry again about that game. Are you over ...read more |
Blonde Wrecking Ball
Friday, January 27th, 2012 by Andy Davis
Best of 2011 | Mountains are not Stadiums
Friday, December 30th, 2011 by Andy Davis
 | Monde Sitole is one of those guys that makes you feel like an under-achiever. The 21 year Khayelitsha resident is a professional adventurer with an impressive list of achievements under his belt already. At the age of 17 he got a taste for adventure sailing a tall ship across the Atlantic. Since then he’s set his sights on climbing 7 of the world’s scariest mountains. He summited Kilimanjaro in November last year and Mount Elbrus in Russia, just last month. ...read more |
Judge Dread
Tuesday, October 25th, 2011 by Andy Davis
 | While you were poking your eyes out in impotent rage at Bryce Lawrence and the South African rugby team’s ability to win everything but the ballgame, in the small neglected corner of the sports world known as professional surfing another South African athlete was being maligned by the administrators of the code. ...read more |
Room 107
Friday, October 7th, 2011 by Rick De La Ray, images by Lani Spice
 | There are a lot of things that went through my head when I found out that I would be making the long-winded journey to Kimberley for the weekend of the Maloof Money Cup. I had been to one of these events before, back in 1997 in a small town in Germany called Münster. Had the people of Kimberley and the Northern Cape government any idea of what they were letting themselves in for? The flashbacks of a 12 foot burning ...read more |
Mozambique: A Sporting Chance
Wednesday, September 28th, 2011 by Dave Durbach
 | Part 3 Few believed that Mozambique could pull off hosting the continent’s biggest sporting showpiece in the short space of just two years. The country was awarded the All Africa Games in April 2009 after original host Zambia withdrew, citing the international recession. Without any prompting, the Mozambicans stepped up. In less than a year, construction was well underway on an athletes’ village to house more than 6000 participants and officials, an Olympic-sized swimming pool, a 45 000 seater stadium, ...read more |
Bored Again
Wednesday, September 21st, 2011 by Nolan Stevens
 | We’ve all heard it before; from gogos, toppies, and even old G’s who say things like “the kids of today…” and then sigh. It’s always the same negative context when old cats start a sentence like that. And the reaction invariably turns out to be another rendition of the old chestnut “my parents just don’t understand”. This snafu is exactly what the current exhibition at Braamfontein’s Grayscale Gallery is attempting to challenge. Bored showcases works by a range of young, ...read more |
Return of the Mac
Friday, August 26th, 2011 by Molemo Ramphalile
 | Much like the rest of Mzansi, the majority of Pirates fans were not really disappointed when Benni McCarthy was left out of the Bafana squad for the 2010 World Cup. He had been pretty reluctant in previous years to represent the national team, he got fat, he had attitude, so in many people’s eyes it was a deserved exclusion. But a year later, Pirates fans reacted with elation at the news that Benni had signed for the Happy People. ...read more |
Maluti Mayhem
Monday, August 8th, 2011 by Dorin Bambus
 | I love snowboarding. All of its aspects. Gliding over snow feels like flying. Not like bungee jumping, bridge swinging, BASE jumping or skydiving. That’s not flying, it’s falling. I’ve done seasons overseas, I’ve experienced the real deal. I’ve also been on domestic snowboard missions almost every year in the last decade. It’s difficult, and limited, and novel. A non-sequitur. It’s awesome even though it shouldn’t be. The SA snowboard scene’s a mashup of improbabilities. It happens, even though it shouldn’t. ...read more |
Skater Haters
Wednesday, June 29th, 2011 by Dorin Bambus, images by Sam Clark and Tyrone Bradley
 | A month of qualifiers across South Africa percolated down to 13 hopefuls on Sunday morning. It’s difficult at the best of times to think of skateboarders as athletes, but watching them prepare for the Red Bull Manny Mania finals there is no denying their athletic ability. They defy physics. Balancing on two wheels while executing movement that requires a foreign body to rotate on two axes while moving on a third. It’s mind-boggling. ...read more |
Snark Free Zone
Saturday, June 25th, 2011
 | Red Bull team rider Jean Marc Johannes (we daren’t call him a pro) has been on the road for the past month, skating with the locals at each of the Red Bull Manny Mania qualifiers. He’s been hanging out with whoever is fortunate enough to be able to spend a weekday pushing around a board instead of sitting in a classroom, a lecture or at their desk while they surf the net looking for SFW sfumato to forward to a ...read more |
