knowledgeable you really are
How clued up are you on the highs and lows, ins and outs of 1998? Test your skills with this brain-teaser
1 President Nelson Mandela made a special concession to pay the lawyers of an infamous politician more than double the going rate to prepare for a Truth and Reconciliation Commission hearing? Who was it?
2 The football coach who didn’t last even a year in his job?
3 The name of the premier implicated in defrauding Irish funders?
4 He was close to Andr Thomashausen, and advisor to which counter-revolutionary movement in Africa?
5 And the name of the premier who denied his involvement in a diamond deal while in office?
6 This former truth commissioner could become the government’s new diamond valuer? Who is she?
7 This year, local singer D’Low, who sings in Xhosa, English, Afrikaans and Chinese, made a splash. Where does he hail from?
8 The grim reaper called for several gang leaders this year. Name two.
9 Not many mourned the death of this Cambodian dictator. Who was he?
10 Who is the first elected United States president to be impeached?
11 Who is the big-haired young woman who proved his nemesis?
12 And the woman who tripped her up in a wired bosom?
13 In Zimbabwe, a US doctor had his licence to practice revoked. He is wanted in the US for the mysterious death of 12 people. Who is the doctor who was reported on in the Mail & Guardian?
14 In the Western Cape, the African National Congress elected a leader who must try and wrest the province from New National Party control. Who is he?
15 In Texas, Karla Faye Tucker Brown became a bitter statistic. How?
16 Also in Texas, leading ranchers locked horns with someone famous who said during a programme on mad cow disease: “It has stopped me cold from eating another hamburger. Stopped me cold!” Who was the famous defendant?
17 In Ohio, an animal with human-like organs is being bred for potential use in human organs. Which animal is it?
18 Many DJs got the chop this year. One of the more well known retired gracefully from talk radio. Who is it?
19 Musica had an in-store advertising campaign banned by popular demand this year. Why?
20 The shady Liberian businessman, Emanuel Shaw II, made news this year. How much was his monthly contract with the Central Energy Fund worth?
21 Who was the South African business partner benefiting from his largesse?
22 Shaw sued the M&G for R7-million. What happened to the case?
23 Still in Liberia, South African shareholders, including the Free State Rugby Union, lost a fortune in a business venture. What was the venture?
24 A local songbird won a role in director Steven Spielberg’s film, Deep Impact, this year. Who is she?
25 In France, a veteran actor was named in a judicial investigation into a famous brothel. Who is the actor?
26 Three has-been acts made it to South African shores this year What are they?
27 Who won the FNB Vita Award this year?
28 An apartheid death-farm was inhabited by civilians this year. They plan to turn its “darkness into light” by making it a refuge. Which farm stands to be so cleansed come 1999?
29 Another dirty cop with a ducktail hairstyle and swagger was nailed this year. What is his name and the crime for which he was finally jailed?
30 Who was appointed the new head of the Medicines Control Council (MCC) in a coup by Minister of Health Nkosazana Zuma?
31 Another 007 film was released this year. What is it called?
32 The land claims commissioner, Joe Seremane, was fired from his post in November and promptly defected to another political party. Which one?
33 In Botswana, the president stepped down ahead of next year’s elections. What is his name?
34 He walked away with a golden handshake. What is it worth?
35 The leader of a neighbouring country is fighting for a third term in office by trying to force a constitutional change. What is the country and who is its president?
36 In Zimbabwe, a trade union leader is shaping up as a potential successor to President Robert Mugabe. Many civilians who are not trade union members have joined his protests. Who is this leader of the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions?
37 In the meantime, a Zimbabwean woman in December launched a new political party to oppose Mugabe’s Zanu-PF. Who is she?
38 A singer’s career has been catapulted after a public indecency charge for action in a Los Angeles public toilet. Who is he?
39 The documentary Apartheid Did Not Die skewered many a South African luminary. It looked at post-apartheid change. Who produced it?
40 And which luminary local television boss aired it on SABC with a disclaimer?
41 Who is the heart-throb new station manager of MetroFM?
42 The big Bill Gates launch of the year?
43 This former ANC warlord joined a new political party shortly after being acquitted of 18 murder charges?
44 The elephant man, Riccardo Ghiazza, sold two baby jumbos to a very famous star. Who?
45 Who is likely to take over the reins from the man who used to be called Sam and is now Mbhazima Shilowa when he heads toward Parliament next year?
46 Which US speaker of the House of Representatives lost his job this year?
47 His would-be successor will not take office. Why not?
48 Is the Reserve Bank publicly or privately owned?
49 A popular South African poet arrested in connection with an armed robbery last year will spend another Christmas in jail. Who is this?
50 A group of movers and shakers party to celebrate major black appointments like that of Tito Mboweni as Reserve Bank governor? What is the name of this group and who are five people associated with it?
51 Which political party took the truth commission to court in a last-minute bid to stop the release of its final report?
52 That party also expressed concerns about the truth commission’s findings on another party. Which party did it rush to defend?
53 A South African official was detained in a Mozambican prison for six months this year in connection with gun-running allegations. Who is he?
54 What was the South African government’s response to the allegations?
55 Who was the key witness against this official?
56 Who is the grey-shoed policeman who suggested that the official was guilty while conducting the investigation?
57 KwaZulu-Natal businessman Sateesh Isseri implicated senior Inkatha Freedom Party officials in a scheme. How did the scheme work?
58 Who removed that businessman from witness protection without reading the evidence of a related civil case?
59 A South-East Asian activist was held captive in her car for six days without food or water when the army surrounded her en route to a political meeting. Who is the activist?
60 Amid all the fuss about the pharmaceutical industry, one drug inspired would-be addicts to smuggle in supplies before the MCC had a chance to vet it. What is the name of the drug and what does it do?
61 What Southern African country’s traditional healers claim to produce a natural alternative to this drug and what is it called?
62 A famous 1950s bootlegger, gangster and philanthropist passed away this year. What was his name, and where was his stomping ground?
63 One veteran South African politician supported a rethink of global policies on recreation drugs, especially dagga this year. What is the politician’s name?
64 Which South African judge put Mandela in the witness box this year?
65 South Africa got its first free-to- air television channel this year. What is its name?
66 One major South African retail bookstore chain bought its rival this year. Who bought who?
67 Which Southern African country rejected a plea by women for their fair share of land redistribution, and why?
68 What is the acronym for the computer bug expected to strike on January 1 2000?
69 Where is the biggest war on African soil taking place?
70 Which six countries first sent troops into the conflict?
71 Which global financial speculator called for a devaluation of the rouble and sent the Russian market into a tailspin?
72 Which senior policeman was investigated for the death of Josiah “Fingers” Rabotabe and three earlier murders?
73 Which national minister’s sibling allegedly punched her husband and put him in hospital the night before the couple was arrested for misappropriation of funds this year?
74 Which two attorneys general ran into problems this year?
75 What happened to them?
76 What dead colonialist’s bones became the subject of a Zimbabwean campaign to remove foreigners this year?
77 What new newspaper is poised to open in South Africa next year?
78 What loathsome local television series was the SABC forced to move to a later time slot after viewers revolted amid news that the commissioning editor’s wife stars in the programme?
79 Who was the first Rwandan to be convicted of genocide by the international war crimes tribunal?
80 What French artist wanted horns inplanted above her eyebrows, and what does she call her dalliance with cosmetic surgery ?
81 Three trials against a local mafia boss were postponed until next year due to court backlogs. Who is he? Cape Town’s Vito Palazzolo or Curry mafia king Suresh Maharaj?
82 What new office game is sweeping US workplaces?
83 What group of people are the subject of growing hatred in South Africa, in spite of the fact, reported in the M&G, that they are creating jobs?
84 What is this hatred called and what gruesome results has it produced this year?
85 Who said, “If Einstein had been born Hector Petersen, would the theory of relativity ever have been discovered”?
86 Nationwide protests in one Asian country forced a dictator out of office this year. Which country?
87 Who replaced him?
88 At which African university did Congolese rebel leader Ernest Wamba dia Wamba teach for decades before he emerged as a rebel leader this August?
89 Which Italian film director had an “orgy” of his films screened in South Africa this year?
90 Which technikon suspended a journalism student this year for “bringing the technikon into disrepute” after he reported on the campus sex trade in the M&G?
91 Delays in setting up a national funding agency had NGOs on tenterhooks this year. What is the name of the agency?
92 Which Constitutional Court judge authored a report on a neighbouring country that was allegedly doctored before its release?
93 Which neo-feminist castigated President Bill Clinton for defiling the “sacred space of the Oval Office” with his Monica Lewinsky antics?
94 Which campus had two buildings burnt down by students demanding 30 cans of beer for each student at the annual freshers ball? The University of Durban-Westville or the University of Venda?
95 Which two countries joined the world’s list of nuclear powers this year by conducting underground tests in competition with each other?
96 Which mountain village chain claims to be the world capital of rooibos tea?
97 What is the name of the government representative who kept the country’s biggest wedding a secret until after the fact?
98 Which two successive heart attacks – now deemed coincidence – were too much for a large African nation to believe?
99 Name the two most publicised scalpel sessions this year.
100 From which Shakespearean play did Thabo Mbeki quote at Mandela’s wedding?