Barry Streek An extraordinary claim that Western intelligence agencies, in particular the CIA and MI6, were behind the earliest phases of the armed struggle against apartheid in South Africa, was published this week. The claim, printed in the latest edition of the investigative magazine Noseweek, suggests that the Western intelligence agencies funded the National Committee […]

cut off James Hall A Swazi man who instructed a traditional healer to cut off his wife’s clitoris has been fined R120 by a traditional court – a fine his wife, who almost bled to death, ended up paying. The case has sparked debate about the judgement of conservative elders who hear cases involving abused […]

Kathryn Smith WAYNE BARKER: ARTIST’S MONOGRAPH by Charl Blignaut (Chalkham Hill Press) Those familiar with “cutting edge” contemporary art, or the suburb of Troyeville, need no introduction to Wayne Barker. But for those who do, or who know him simply as a louche, conscientious objector-artist and one-time gallery owner who bears more than a passing […]

Adam Mars-Jones THE HUMAN STAIN by Philip Roth (Jonathan Cape) Indian summers don’t come much more blazing than the surge in Philip Roth’s literary production that stretches from Sabbath’s Theater in 1995 at least as far as the last pages of this new novel. Yet while the intensity of this run of four books has […]

Anita Chaudhuri Body Language Feeling betrayed is like feeling happy: most of us think we know what would make us feel that way. But in reality, the most unexpected events can end up provoking those emotions. And just as winning the lottery might make you happy, but not in the way you imagined, the discovery […]

Paul Kirk A Durban high court judge, Phillip Levisohn, has summonsed the deputy director of Prince Gideon Zulu’s Department of Social Welfare and Population Development to court. The summons will see top civil servant Eric Mhlongo appear before Judge Levisohn next month to explain why his department is being taken to court and sued with […]

innovations An altogether new kind of Internet service has been created by Hypersend, for those occasions when you need to get a top priority document – of large proportions – from A to B without the delays and security risks involved in sending it via e-mail. The service simply requires you and the receiver to […]

Barry Streek The Office of the Auditor General eventually had to foot a bill of R6,5-million to clear its name in the inquiry by the public protector into a claim by former minister of minerals and energy Penuell Maduna that the accounts watchdog covered up the theft of R170-million of oil. The current Auditor General, […]

Cameron Duodu Letter from the North Chuba Okadigbo, who has just been impeached as president of the Nigerian Senate, has an impish sense of mischief. Once, when the late Nnamdi Azikiwe, first president of Nigeria, complained that an election had been rigged by the party to which Okadibgo then belonged, the National Party of Nigeria […]

Neil Williams HATE NO MORE by Arthur Maimane (Kwela) This novel reflects a reality that creates ripples of destruction – ripples of destruction that occur both in the characters in the novel and the reader, who reacts with horror to some of its events. It examines the madness created by ideology. In present-day post-apartheid South […]