Howard Barrell Like any politician, Thabo Mbeki has his fair share of detractors and enemies. But Zanele Mbeki, his wife, appears to have only admirers. Across the worlds she inhabits – business, development work and politics – she attracts superlatives. “An excellent person”, “of deep conviction”, “very smart”, “dignified”, “lovely” – these encomiums come from […]

Aaron Nicodemus It was a bright Sunday afternoon when Tsepo Molemohi (11) went to play his favorite game – soccer – on a field between Central Western Jabuvu and White City in his Soweto neighbourhood. Before he left, he kissed his mother goodbye. Tsepo, with his soft voice and wide smile, always told his mother […]

Matthew Krouse Evita Bezuidenhout and Nowell Fine, Pieter-Dirk Uys’s ostentatious, outspoken alter-egos, have been alive as long as South Africans of voting age. If Adapt or Dye – his solo piece that gave birth to them – was first performed in 1982, then today’s youth have had their political consciousness spiked by these two from […]

Local hero Charl Mattheus is facing a Russian assault at this year’s Comrades Marathon, writes Michael Finch It was April 7 1996, the day after Russian Dmitry Grishine had almost shocked national marathon champion Zithulele Sinqe at the Two Oceans Marathon. Sinqe scraped home for victory by five seconds, but it wasn’t Grishine’s second place […]

IN BRIEF FRESH UGANDAN ATTACK A REBEL group which killed 80 students and abducted 50 more in western Uganda this week has struck again, killing five more people. The Allied Democratic Forces fighters killed a man, his two children and two Ugandan soldiers in Kabarole district on Wednesday. Earlier this week the ADF attacked a […]

With South Africa’s second democratic elections concluded, it is clear that the country has reached the end of an era.

Peter Makurube The best jazz in ages, with a variety and quality that is mind boggling -this is what the 10th anniversary of jazz at the national arts festival promises. It is a programme paying homage to the growing relationship between European jazz musicians and their South African counterparts, a relationship that began more than […]

John Grobler A brave attempt to pass progressive anti-rape legislation in the Namibian Parliament ran into heavy weather as even members of the South West African Peoples Organisation (Swapo) found themselves at odds with each other – the women against the men. At stake is the passage of the Combatting of Rape Bill, which breaks […]

Ian Harris and Struan Douglas Moments before the launch of Dantai’s debut album, Operation Lahlela, lead singer Pam Lungu was standing outside, alone on the chilled pavement, smoking. All tense and apprehensive. ”Looks like you’re expecting,” we joked, intuiting in her excitement the arrival of something unique. Not the album – we knew that was […]

The election has rescued three apartheid dinosaurs from political extinction, write Mungo Soggot and Evidence wa ka Ngobeni South Africa’s answer to Ross Perot, Louis Luyt, is heading for Parliament as the sole voice of his fledgling Federal Alliance party. On Thursday night it appeared Luyt would be the only representative from his party who […]