Universal Men, the celebrated debut Juluka album, was released 21 years ago. Richard Pithouse reports on an album that, despite being largely ignored at the time of its release, launched an inspirational career In the mid Seventies Johnny Clegg and Sipho Mchunu started playing together as a duo under the name of Johnny and Sipho. […]

Marianne Merten Taxi warlord turned local government candidate, Victor Sam, died this week the way he had lived – by the gun. But his death has left many wondering what hat Sam was wearing when he was gunned down in Crossroads in his car. The controversial taxi boss, township businessman and community figure was brought […]

Art aside, the touring Marc Chagall extravaganza is a defining moment in South Africa’s emergence from cultural isolation Kathryn Smith When a major Marc Chagall exhibition was announced at a rather lavish reception at Standard Bank headquarters earlier this year, my first impulsive thoughts were, why Chagall? If the French wanted to showcase their cultural […]

Belinda Beresford The fight between Aids activists and the government intensified this week when an NGO that helps rape survivors in Mpumalanga issued court papers against the provincial health MEC after being banned from state hospitals. The MEC for Health, Sibongile Manana, also accused the NGO, the Greater Nelspruit Rape Intervention Project (Grip), of illegally […]

Is the expiry of the benchmark RSA encryption patent an Internet watershed? Karlin Lillington At a large security software conference held recently in Florida, United States, the most popular T-shirt among the 1 000 delegates was the one you could get for free from the exhibition stand for a company called RSA Security. On the […]

Despite an international ban, many governments still torture their political opponents Heather van Niekerk In the past three years people reportedly died as a result of torture in more than 80 countries. Torture or ill-treatment by state agents was reported in more than 150 countries and was widespread in more than 70. Palden Gyatso is […]

Nawaal Deane It’s boom time in Nelspruit. Set in the subtropical vegetation among granite rocks, the lush town – strategically placed between Mozambique and Gauteng – boasts an economic growth rate far in excess of other urban areas in the country. For the past six years the town’s economy has seen an 8% growth rate […]

Timothy Trengove-Jones crossfire In the rather tautologous words of the famous song, the times they are a-changing. It was reported last weekend that President Thabo Mbeki has told the African National Congress’s national executive committee that he is to withdrawEfrom public debate over the science of HIV/Aids. His contributions, he repeated, have “caused confusion”. In […]

David Le Page AFRICANFRONTIERS The downside is, South Africa is one of the world’s top 20 polluters. At least 93,5% of South African electricity is coal-fired. Eskom is the world’s single largest producer of carbon dioxide. Acid rain created by power stations causes fences near Bethel to disintegrate in just three years. The upside? Southern […]

Two years after taking to the stage in his first one-man show, Marc Lottering is the most popular performer on Cape Town’s burgeoning stand-up comedyscene RyanFortune It’s an unseasonably cool Thursday evening in Cape Town, but On Broadway in Green Point is packed to capacity for Marc Lottering, the lank-limbed, bushy-haired comedian who seems unstoppable […]