Roshila Pillay A battered guitar, an ethnic Dogon drum (all the way from Mali) and a beautiful silver flute compete for centre stage. The powerful beat, soulful strumming and high-pitched strains of the flute set an upbeat African tribal tone. Three students walk to the front of the classroom at the Atteridgeville Technical College to […]
Steven Friedman worm’s eye view We can let the police do what they want – or we can try to make them do what we want. Sometimes, an experience helps us understand issues better than abstract debate. The recent arrest of my colleague Xolela Mangcu is an example: it helped crystallise what is wrong with […]
Neil Thomas taking stock The problem with anything popular or fashionable is the ineluctable allure of the unobtainable. As soon as you can’t have it, you want it even more. Offshore unit trust funds, at least those of the rand- denominated variety, have recently attained this Joycean status. The initial impulse, soon after South Africa’s […]
When Lucas Nthani left his Mamelodi home in response to an “urgent” phone call little did his family know that call was a death trap. They believed their son was safe, only to be informed later by a community member that Nthani had been shot and killed by faceless assassins shortly after he left his […]
Paul Kirk Members of the KwaZulu-Natal Gambling Board have been moonlighting as casino bosses, working for the same casino bid companies to which they have awarded lucrative gaming licences. One member is a full director of a winning casino bid. The other is a director of a company closely linked to the largest casino operation […]
by a thread Gregory Mthembu-Salter Southern African Development Community (SADC) heads of state say they will meet in Lusaka next Monday with other signatories of the Lusaka peace accords to discuss the war in the Democratic Republic of Congo following Congolese leader Laurent Desir Kabila’s failure to attend the recent SADC summit in Windhoek. The […]
Ebrahim Harvey left field When Minister of Defence Mosiuoa Lekota played down press reports about a defence intelligence agent, Carien Pieterse, attempting to recruit an editor and other journalists to spy for them, and went on to say that he had no problem if this was done in the “national interest”, I recalled the controversy […]
Peter Robinson cricket All things considered, South Africa could not have asked a great deal more of Shaun Pollock and his overhauled team than has been forthcoming in Sri Lanka over the past five to six weeks. The first post-Hansiegate tour has to be regarded as a success – not an entirely unqualified one perhaps, […]
Howard Barrell, Belinda Beresford and Barry Streek The government failed to satisfy market hopes that it would provide fresh details on its privatisation plans when it unveiled its policy framework for restructing state enterprises in Pretoria on Thursday. But Minister of Public Enterprises Jeff Radebe said there were good reasons for the government’s reticence. “No […]
Ilda Jacobs A South African microbiologist jetted off to Siberia this week to capture microbes so that he can shoot them into space to help discover the history of life on Earth. Frank T Robb plans to capture as many “extremophile” microbes as he can from Siberia’s volcanic geysers and sulphur pits before firing them […]