It was supposed to have been a universal high, but culturally the year 2000 was one of blood, guts and acrimony
Matthew Krouse
Below the belt: October 23. It was a foreskin fury when artist Peet Pienaar raised the ire of fellow exhibitor Thembinkosi Goniwe upon announcing he was to stage his own circumcision as a work of art. The group show, called Ubudoda at Cape Town’s Association for Visual Arts was intended to reflect current perspectives on masculinity. In an effort to be cross-cultural Pienaar even used a black doctor to give him the chop. “This is a symbol of me broadening my identity,” he told the Mail & Guardian about the act that did more to shorten his identity.
Swing low sweet chariot: August 21. She wasn’t your stereotypical jazz diva. Wendy Mseleku was chubby and plain but full of life. And brimming with song and soul. A month after giving birth she found herself in need of urgent medical help and drifted from hospital to hospital unable to find an empty bed. She died of renal failure, one of the 600 000 women around the world who die each year of pregnancy-related causes. The Gauteng health department launched a probe into her death but did not release its findings. The nation mourned with musical tributes for the youngster whose voice can still be heard daily singing theme songs on SABC television.
He stooped to conquer: May 11. Gambling on getting good press, the president endorsed the country’s wholesale move to casino culture when he attended the premiere of African Footprint at Gold Reef City’s Globe Theatre. Gone are the days when heads of state would see meaningful historical works at significant venues like Nelson Mandela did when he saw Athol Fugard’s The Island at the Market Theatre in 1996. One wonders whether, after congratulating the cast, President Thabo Mbeki and first lady Zanele popped a couple of coins into the venue’s fruit machines. African Footprint went on to perform a couple of numbers for Prince Charles at the Royal Variety Show on December 6.
Low on the list of priorities: The National Symphony Orchestra that, in February, packed away its instruments for good.
Hitting a low note: November 18. This year’s Kora All-Africa Music Awards were a complete disgrace. It may well have been the final straw for local stars unused to playing second fiddle to foreign African musicians on home turf. Big names like Miriam Makeba and Ringo Madlingozi had to pay their own accommodation at Sun City (you can be sure that the bigwigs from Benin didn’t) and winners Jabu Kanyile and Bongo Maffin claimed to be too bored to mount the podium to receive their awards. Chief judge Wally Badarou received no ticket for the show and local fans got no taste of the Koras that, as with previous years, were refused free airtime on SABC. An Aids awareness concert planned for the following day, to be hosted by Makeba, was cancelled when only a couple of hundred people pitched up at Johannesburg Stadium.
Kicked when he was down low? November 9. Strange bedfellows disgraced people’s poet and accused bank robber Mzwakhe Mbuli and veteran liberal politician Helen Suzman. Suzman is so taken with the jailed poet that when he and his three co-accused failed to win an appeal she came to their defence. Suzman, who befriended the poet three years ago, has said she suspects that Mbuli was actually framed, and did not rob First National Bank’s Waverly branch of R15?000 in 1998. The three are serving sentences of between 13 and 15 years.
Low down and dirty: October 28. The “mother of all shows” became the “bummer of all shows” when the Peter Stuyvesant Music Spectaculars concert, showcasing some of the world’s biggest R&B stars, was marred by violence. Over 50 000 revellers at Johannesburg Stadium were treated to gunfire, causing a stampede. So much for brotherly love: when a member of the kwaito group TKZee took to the stage, uninvited, during the set of the hip-hop out- fit Naughty by Nature a punch-up ensued. An audience member was shot and wounded in the chest when a gang tried to force its way into the stadium.
When the lights were low: It was the year of the theatre vasectomy. In an effort to become financially viable, the cultural landscape became radically altered. In July the Market Theatre severed 32 of its staff, and 39 staff members were cut from Johannesburg’s Civic Theatre in the same year. Most confusing was the situation at Pretoria’s State Theatre. Amid accusations of long-term mismanagement that are still unadressed, the theatre closed on June 30 after decades of producing the most lavish productions the country had seen. Although the venue is now running as an independent commercial entity, casualties of the closure remain the theatre’s orchestra and dance company.
How low can you go? March 24. Celebrations on the last day of the school term turned to tragedy when the Chatsworth nightclub Throb was teargassed on a Friday afternoon. Gang warfare was blamed for the act that led to a stampede leaving 13 children dead, one as young as 11 years old. Sivithasn “Bolton” Chetty, Vincent Pillay and Selvan “Dog Man” Naidoo were found guilty of 13 counts of culpable homicide, 56 counts of common assault and one count of illegal possession of teargas. Sentences ranged from 15 to 19 years.
Lower than scum: Soap operas played themselves out on the small screen and off. Only the off-screen performances were a little too well portrayed. Egoli star Deon Coetzee was taken to Hillbrow court after battering his girlfriend Estelle de Beer to a point where she had broken ribs. “What about my career?” Coetzee was reported as saying as the cops dragged him away. The saga of assaulted starlets began in March when television personality Tracy Going was granted R92 577 damages for the beatings she endured at the hands of her former boyfriend Richard Latham. Latham was sentenced to 12 months in prison, suspended for five years on condition he undergo drug rehabilitation.