That engaging soul, Denis Beckett, is back in our living rooms. A new and very welcome season of Beckett’s Trek (SABC3, 21:30) began last week Thursday, its first programme having Denis traipsing around Tanzania in a somewhat disheartening bid to make sense of a country still crushed under the late Julius Nyerere’s socialist dreamplan. After […]

Mail & Guardian reporter The Council on Higher Education is a powerful and broadly based body advising the minister on every facet of the sector. The council was established under the provisions of the Higher Education Act of 1997, and the first council was appointed in June 1998 with Professor Wiseman Nkhulu as chair. It […]

John Matshikiza WITH THE LID OFF South Africa, the new kid on the African block, scored heavily at the Sanga Festival of African and Indian Ocean Choreography, held in Antanarivo, the capital of Madagascar, last week. Ntikelelo Boyzie Cekwana’s Floating Outfit Project walked away with first prize in a field of 10 strong contenders for […]

A new photo exhibition takes the mask as its inspiration. Wayne Robbins investigates It’s a late Saturday afternoon in 1996. Corner of Rissik and Wolmarans streets, Johannesburg. A boy finds a paper mask in a bin, puts it on. African kid in a discarded European mask. Graeme Williams takes a picture. For Williams, photography is […]

Gavin Evans Boxing Now that he holds the long-overdue honour of being undisputed heavyweight champion of the world, Lennox Claudius Lewis will be the man to beat in the premier division. The 34-year-old Jamaican-Canadian- Englishman has opted to spend the next two years cashing in on his titles and status. Of course he will have […]

ORLANDO Pirates and Kaizer Chiefs fans will be ale to flaunt their support in an unusual way when cellular company Vodacom introduces branded cellular packs specially tailored for fans of the two soccer giants. The packs will include a state-of-the-art cellphone with an interchangeable Pirates or Chiefs front panel and a prepaid cellular card and […]

Not quite movie of the week It’s that old adultery theme again. It has become as much of a clich and a formula as most of the rest of Hollywood’s stock-in- trade, predictably playing out the conflict between the demands of family and the lure of freedom (or just excitement). And, as if influenced by […]

Wally Mbhele and Paul Kirk A senior National Intelligence Agency (NIA) official was arrested on Monday in Durban for the alleged rape of a Department of Foreign Affairs official. Both were assigned duties at the high-powered Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting (CHOGM). The matter was kept under wraps as government officials believed it would “embarrass” […]

Robin Cowie, co-producer of the phenomenally successful off-beat horror movie The Blair Witch Project, is a fresh- faced 28-year-old who was born in Durban and went to the United States at age 15 when his father got a job at IBM. Along with Gregg Hale and co-directors Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sanchez, they made The […]

South African soccer desperately needs a memorable encounter between Chiefs and Pirates to rescue its tarnished reputation, writes Andrew Muchineripi A classic league encounter between Kaizer Chiefs and Orlando Pirates at FNB Stadium on Saturday is not so much a wish as a necessity. South African soccer is ailing and desperately needs a blood transfusion. […]