Cameron Duodu Letter from the North I wonder whether Congolese politicians realise the impatience and irritation with which the rest of us in Africa look on as they squabble over the terms of the peace agreement that could give their country a chance to recover from the ravages of Mobutu Sese Seko’s kleptocratic rule? Don’t […]
Paul Trueman Online gaming is the fastest-growing industry on the Internet, where players spend hours online sharing information … and killing each other. Some friends and I blew up the Death Star last night, freeing the galaxy from the emperor’s evil tyranny. Not bad for a night’s work. I used to be someone who got […]
Xolela Mangcu Guest Column `Where are the black intellectuals?” President Thabo Mbeki has often asked. I would urge him to consider an even larger and prior question: where is the intellectual environment required for the emergence of those intellectuals? Black people have been excluded from what I have previously called the “knowledge-ideas- complex”. It consists […]
Architects and theorists gathered in Paris to discuss the current state of architecture. Globalisation in the form of cyber-culture was the main topic of conversation, writes Michael Nurok If a bomb had gone off in the Palais de Chaillot last week, architecture’s past, present and future would have ceased to exist. Rarely have the doyens […]
Mercedes Sayagues For tourists, The Kingdom, a posh new hotel in Victoria Falls, is a delight. For locals, it is a sore point. Sore enough that angry residents planned a protest in March. It was cancelled under threat of police repression, but the issue is not dead. In question are the hiring policies of The […]
John Matshikiza With The Lid Off Far be it from me to be critical of the way other newspapers operate, but, speaking as a simple citizen for a moment, I have to say I get frustrated at the lack of proper background and follow-up in many of the stories we are fed. If you don’t […]
Robert McCrum There’s nothing like a new poet laureate to confirm the choleric longevity of British philistinism. Tony Blair’s “traditionalist” appointment of Andrew Motion has provoked a reaction which shows that, if John Bull is no longer eating beef on the bone, he hasn’t forgotten how to sneer at a poet. The stampede by press, […]
Andy Capostagno Rugby In case anyone is still depressed about the showing of the young guns in Cardiff, there is further bad news: the golden oldies ain’t what they used to be, either. Naas Botha took a team of former greats to the fourth Tusker Safari Sevens in Nairobi last week. Included were such luminaries […]
OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Thursday 5.20pm. POLICE are awaiting a report from the National Director of Public Prosecutions, Bulelani Ncguka, before deciding whether to take action against former narcotics bureau head, Piet Meyer, for alleged fraud and racketeering. KwaZulu-Natal police spokesperson Director Bala Naidoo said on Thursday: “We are considering acting against him (Meyer) but […]
Because the Congo peace talks failed to deliver the much-promised ceasefire agreement last weekend does not mean they have failed or that Thabo Mbeki is mistakenly staking his reputation on a lost cause. The president is to be commended for his evident hard work in attempting to settle a dispute which lurks menacingly on the […]