How clued up are you on the highs and lows of 1997? Exercise your memory with this brain-teaser
1 South African arms were found in at least three African hot-spots this year. Which countries were they?
2 Which South African city is leading the pack of candidates as the future site of Parliament?
3 A former security policeman admitted killing academic and anti-apartheid activist David Webster. What’s his name?
4 Which profession was legalised in Gauteng this year?
5 Name the poorest school in the country.
6 To which BBC announcer fell the task of telling the world that Princess Diana had died?
7 The lover of which former African dictator owns a Johannesburg hotel?
8 Who will be Gauteng’s premier in 1999?
9 Which provinces changed premier this year?
10 How many Barbie dolls have been sold since the ultimate poppie was first made 50 years ago?
11 What’s the newest political party in the country, launched by former MPs Bantu Holomisa (formerly African National Congress) and Roelf Meyer (formerly National Party)?
12 What major tournament did Ernie Els win this year?
13 Name three of the six new commercial radio stations which have started broadcasting this year.
14 What’s Cosatu’s investment arm called?
15 Which Middle Eastern country, a potential buyer of South African arms, was at the centre of a censorship battle when Denel tried to stop The Sunday Independent and the Mail &Guardian from revealing its name?
16 Name the South African leader being crucified by Hendrik Verwoerd and John Vorster in Ronald Harrison’s painting The Black Christ.
17 Which ANC politician was caught with a bogus driver’s licence?
18 What Gauteng hospital will close at the end of the year?
19 Name Cape Town’s two jazz radio stations.
20 A South African academic, who died of cancer in the United States. had been offered a post as Wits University vice-chancellor. Who was he?
21 Who will now take that job?
22 Which is Durban’s most famous club for bhangra, the fusion of western and eastern music?
23 What type of music does Boom Shaka sing?
24 Which photographer won a mammoth copyright battle for the famous Drum photographs of the Fifties?
25 Which high-ranking Inkatha Freedom Party politician crossed the floor to the ANC?
26 Who is the National Party’s new leader?
27 Name the newspaper group which refused to testify before the truth commission.
28 The chief land-claims commissioner has implored the ANC to tell the truth about his brother’s death in exile. Who is he?
29 Which leading banker and businessman has been charged with rape?
30 How many men attended the men’s march against family violence in November this year?
31 Name the three men who have coached the Springboks this year.
32 An allegedly shady businessman, Kenyan Ketan Somaia, was stopped from turning an Mpumalanga tourist site into a Disneyesque playground. Which site had he targeted?
33 Which British royal visited landmine victims in Angola in January this year?
34 Name the local rap group whose video was banned by the SABC, then rapidly unbanned after winning a coveted award overseas.
35 Who replaced Stix Morewa as head of the South African Football Association?
36 What’s the Aids drug which has caused all the trouble?
37 And the name of the scientist leading the team which concocted the Aids drug?
38 In which small KwaZulu-Natal town was a consignment of eggs, meat and milk delivered to the local mortuary?
39 Who is Bafana Bafana’s leading scorer?
40 Who’s the woman who alleged that military intelligence had known of a plot to kill Chris Hani?
41 Who’s the woman who alleged that Ferdi Barnard had thrown the gun he used to kill David Webster into the Nylstroom Dam?
42 What should we call the electronic pet that’s taken the world by storm?
43 The country’s first official deportation centre is threatened with closure. What’s it called?
44 It’s been a year of changing editors.
a Who resigned as editor of the Mail & Guardian?
And who took up editorship posts at
b The Cape Times;
c The Argus;
d The Saturday Star and
e The Sunday Times?
45 Which Democratic Party MP revealed to the parliamentary register of assets that she has shares in 19 listed companies?
46 Which ANC MP owns a string of hair salons, according to the same register?
47 What is dimethylformamide?
48 Which is the Simunye TV channel?
49 Who is the oldest active South African Test cricketer?
50 What country was baby Timothy Funnell — the tot at the heart of the paternity-rights fight by his dad Lawrie Fraser — kidnapped from?
51 Who’s the mercenary who retired from Executive Outcomes, his multi-million-rand guns-for-hire company?
52 Which upmarket shebeen in the leafy northern suburbs of Johannesburg did the Sandton council try to close, though many (black) councillors go there?
53 How many Test tries did the Springboks score in five internationls in Europe?
54 Prozac is happiness in a tablet; Disprin relieves a headache fast … What else did scientists discover could soon be available in tablet form?
55 “I’ll tell all” — How much did Winnie Madikizela-Mandela want from ITN and BBC for her story? — R1-million; R3-million; R15-million; nothing?
56 Bushbuckridge residents are divided on which province they want to fall under. Which two provinces are involved?
57 How much is owed to municipalities around the country?
58 South Africa has a new world champion in Gilbert Magabotse. What game does he play?
59 Which newly black-controlled company offered shares to ordinary people in a buy-now, pay-later scheme?
60 Which Indian film-maker has settled on the slopes of Table Mountain?
61 Name her blockbuster which was released this year.
62 What did wine co-op KWV try to pass off fraudulently as the real thing in Europe and the United States?
63 Which old newcomer has turned around television news?
64 Which animals were canned this year for wealthy overseas hunters?
65 Which black presenter lost his job at Radio 702?
66 Which popular “happy” drug is now available in generic form at less than half the price?
67 Which thinly disguised group of paedophiles tried to form a local chapter here this year?
68 Acronyms galore. What do the following stand for?
a Gear
b UDM
c SMME
d CCMA
69 Which shady Liberian is getting a R3-million South African salary for a position with the Central Energy Fund
70 Which player put Gazza — Paul Gascoigne — out of commission in the Bafana Bafana-England match?
71 Which Gauteng radio station announced its launch with a petrolbomb invitation?
72 Which skeletal ancestor celebrated a 50th anniversary this year?
73 What’s the name of the controversial high-security prison Minister of Correctional Services Sipo Mzimela built in semi-secret?
74 Where did Makhaya Ntini take his first wicket for South Africa?
75 Which leading South African offered to testify as a character witness for Allan Boesak in his corruption case?
76 Which organisation did Piet Retief, George Washington and King Charles II all belong to?
77 What is blue, the size and shape of an apple box, and contains two experiments by South African schoolkids?
78 Name the four teams that have scored four goals against Bafana Bafana.
Who said?
1 “Diana is dead like any other person dies, but that does not mean we should listen to her story the whole week.”
2 “Why did I do this?”
3 “The old goat was not worth it.”
4 “I really thank the president for the trust and confidence he has shown in me.”
5 “I don’t get a cent from rugby, I do it because of my love for the game, but I have to clear my name and that of my family.”
6 “This is the food of the elders.”
7 “[Your letters] are as varied as little stars that seem to shine with a different radiance every day =8A Lovers never tire of kissing and you write sentences like kisses.”
8 “This is in stark contrast to former apartheid regimes that budgeted for the death and destruction of innocent South Africans and the peoples of Southern Africa.”
9 “I would have sentenced Mr Sithole to death, but the politicians have done away with it.”
10 “I’ll be absolutely honest. I no longer love you, you’re no good as a wife.”