The fundamental premise of the modern state is that the government must retain a monopoly on violence, and that once this monopoly is ceded the disintegration of the fabric that holds society together is inevitable. The breakdown of the criminal justice system in South Africa has brought with it an increasing tendency for people to […]
If you begin at the spatial beginning of Joni Brenner’s Off the Wall (in the entrance, adjunct to the vast gallery space), you begin with two works that are small and strong. Chip off the Old Block and Recollect – Reconnect each use as their material and visual inspiration two worn postcard images of Rodin’s […]
Sharon Hammond Nature reserves in the former KwaNdebele homeland in Mpumalanga have become lawless badlands where gangs of armed youths attack visitors, poaching flourishes and conservation has collapsed. Animals are treated so badly that lions have lost their manes, crocodiles are kept in dry sandpits and cattle allowed to graze in protected areas. Gangs have […]
WEDNESDAY, 1.45PM: DICK Muir captain of the Western Stormers and Springbok centre has announced his retirement from rugby follwing a serious neck injury sustained in a match against the Auckland Blues three weeks ago. Muir’s career spanned ten years before he was advised to quit the game by Neurosurgeons on Tuesday. Muir (33) played 150 […]
Makhosini Nkosi There are fears that a bloody confrontation could arise between Inkatha Freedom Party and the African National Congress supporters in Nongoma when the ANC begins putting up election posters in the northern KwaZulu- Natal town. Local IFP leader and MP Albert Mncwango warned he could not guarantee that the people of Nongoma would […]
Richard Lee in Addis Ababa One hundred and thirty-one years after a British military force ransacked Maqdala, the mountain capital of the Ethiopian emperor Tewodros II, a campaign has been launched to convince Britain to return hundreds of artefacts stolen during the expedition. The 32 000-strong force was sent to rescue missionaries held captive by […]
American tycoon James Blanchard has died without seeing much progress being made on his dream project – a massive theme park in Mozambique. Mercedes Sayagues reports James Ulysses Blanchard III, the controversial, paraplegic American tycoon, died of a heart attack in March. He was 54. Staff at Blanchard Mozambique Enterprises (BME) say once his estate […]
THE price of a litre of petrol and other fuels rose by almost 50% in Angola on Friday from 1,9 million to three million new kwanzas. The US dollar buys around 1,8 million new kwanzas. Angola produces 300000 barrels a day (b/d) of crude oil and hopes to increase output to a million b/d by […]
SOUTH Africa’s Trade and Industry Minister Alec Erwin on Wednesday denied he was considering applying for the vacant position of director-general of the World Trade Organisation. The trade body’s 134 members are deadlocked over whether to appoint former New Zealand premier Mike Moore or Thailand deputy premier Supachai Panitchpakdi, the two remaining candidates in line […]
integrity and courage in the political debate `If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken/Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools.” – From If by Rudyard Kipling. I am reminded of these words by that archetypal Victorian, Rudyard Kipling, when confronted with the criticism centred on Tony Leon and the Democratic […]