The IBA’s intentions are noble, argues GOVIN REDDY, but the body has not stopped to think of the disastrous impact its actions could have on the public broadcaster MUCH of recent media coverage of the Independent Broadcasting Authority (IBA) has focused on its financial mismanagement, but there has been little reflection on its actual regulatory […]
Hazel Friedman MUSIC might be the food of love, but it can also provide essential nutrients for economic growth. This is the message from the general manager of Ausmusic, Sue Gillard, a speaker at an international conference on the economic benefits of arts and culture in South Africa, to be held in Grahamstown, from June […]
Dan Wylie TESTING THE EDGE by Mark Swift (Snailpress, R35) MANY of the poems in Mark Swift’s muscular fourth collection “home in on exile”. Divided between the landscapes of the Eastern Cape and the British Isles, Swift struggles to find a “home where the heart is”, within himself, within the process of travelling itself: “We […]
Alexander Sudheim EVEN though the city council won’t let them put their posters on the walls anymore and the record companies don’t sign them, Durban bands continue to thrive in numbers and in quality. For a city with pitifully few live music venues and audiences that would fill a small rowing boat, the alternative music […]
CINEMA: Charl Blignaut MOST people are going to hate the new David Lynch movie. And I’m not just talking about Mr and Mrs Greater Suburbia either – they realised this sicko soap opera was going nowhere and gave up on Lynch somewhere in the middle of the second series of Twin Peaks. Point is, even […]
brigade A tactical error in taking on Thabo Mbeki lies behind the Gauteng premier’s decision to quit politics, write Mail & Guardian Reporters TOKYO SEXWALE decided to quit politics when avenues to advancement within the ruling African National Congress had been blocked after he was on the losing end of a power contest with Deputy […]
Jim Day THE Eastern Cape provincial government may often take flak for slow delivery, but the zeal of its clinic-builders has now produced another headache: in deep rural areas of the former Ciskei and Transkei, 20 brand-new and fully equipped clinics stand empty as the province frantically searches for nurses to operate them. A shortage […]
Sierra Leone is another tragic example of how democracy has been abused, write Khareen Pech and Yusuf Hassan Khareen Pech LAST week the former president of Sierra Leone, Ahmed Tejan Kabbah, had still not replied to a deal, proposed by Executive Outcomes, offering special protection to the government. By Sunday it was too late. After […]
conditions THE Human Rights Commission plans to hold public hearings into conditions in South African prisons and will decide next week when the hearings are to begin. A commission representative, John Mojapelo, said this week that hundreds of complaints have been received from prisoners. The commission has selected more than 40 prisons in all nine […]
Hazel Friedman A RECORD price has been paid for a Pierneef painting overseas, suggesting that boom times are ahead for South African art. Entitled Transvaal Landscape (1929) the painting was sold last week by Christies in London for the whopping sum of 58 000 (R430 000). The price more than doubles the previous amount of […]