supply lines Unita’s smuggling Chris Gordon The United Nations, having faced up to the failure of its peacekeeping operation in Angola, has launched a new bid to shorten the war by targeting the sanctions-busting arms, oil and diamond trade that is keeping Unita in business. After 16 intensive days in Southern Africa, Robert Fowler, Canadian […]
irregularities Ivor Powell Election observers and monitors have reported more than 30 electoral irregularities in KwaZulu-Natal, ranging from likely political murder to multiple voting in some areas. The incidents occurred despite the presence of intimidating contingents of security forces personnel to guarantee stability at nearly every voting station in the province. While the disruptions recorded […]
The government may not like it, but land invasion is a reality in South Africa, writes Louis Freedberg Isaac Williams, a land invasion officer for the Tygerberg municipality, has an uncanny ability to spot an unauthorised shack amid the hodge-podge squatter settlements in Khayelitsha and surrounding townships. To help him do the job, the city […]
Alex Dodd Imagine spending 25 846 hours in a prison cell anticipating a noose tightening quickly and irrevocably around your neck – punishment for a crime you did not commit. This is the nightmare that came true for Duma Khumalo, who spent seven years in prison – three of those on death row for the […]
CD of the week Shaun de Waal One doesn’t quite get the band name. In any case, New Radicals (no “the”) appears to be less a band than composer/producer/singer Gregg Alexander doing his thing with a little enthusiastic help from his friends. And the title of his/their debut CD, Maybe You’ve Been Brainwashed Too (MCA), […]
Andrew Muchineripi Soccer They say there is no rest for the wicked, and it looks like we can add Bafana Bafana to the list, despite the fact that I have no knowledge of any misbehaviour by the national soccer squad. A tough African Nations Cup battle with Mauritius has just passed and there will be […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]