The mielie-seller The mielie-seller is perhaps the most quintessential South African image. Resident of both urban and rural worlds, she is also symbolic of a growing informal economy. Thabi Chauke wakes up at 4.30am. Her day is simple: she dispatches her 14-year-old daughter into a packed minibus. These ferry the children of the newly enfranchised […]
Recommended l Renault Espace: Huge boot space, which can be enlarged by tipping the back seats down l London taxi:Available second-hand in the UK, they are roomy and comfortable enough for any manoeuvres l White van: Flagship of the lumpen proletariat, this is the nearest you can get to a motel room on wheels Don’t […]
Jack Schofield Three of the world’s best-known companies – Microsoft, America OnLine (AOL) and Yahoo! – are locked in a billion-dollar battle to give you something for nothing: a “portal”, or gateway to the Internet, where Web wanderers can start when they go online. Portals attract millions of users, and consequently lots of advertising. With […]
The father of African film, Ousmane Sembene, who is in South Africa developing a new movie about the effects of colonialism on Africa, spoke to Bafana Khumalo Many an African liberation fighter has made the journey to the land of the Russians, to learn the art of shooting. So has Ousmane Sembene, the Senegalese novelist […]
A UNITED Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation report on the food outlook for Africa has described the situation in the Great Lakes region as “precarious”. Efforts to increase food production are hampered by “persistent insecurity, sporadic violence and bad weather,” FAO said in a news release on Wednesday. In Burundi, it said food difficulties are […]
With its production of Faust, Opera Africa has taken an elitist art form back to its origins – passionate, bawdy fun. Alex Sudheim reports `When I first saw a production of Faust it was in Durban about seven years ago – when we were still part of Europe,” says Andrew Verster drily. The famous painter, […]
Satellite technology has entered a new golden age, writes David Shapshak In the Seventies satellites -or “birds” as they are referred to in countless science fiction and spy movies – achieved a kind of cult status, linked to the glory of the space programme; then the spy satellite in the Cold War stand-off became the […]
Phillip van Niekerk:FROM THE EDITOR’S DESK I received a phone call on Tuesday night from journalist Carlos Cordosa in Maputo. “How would you like to help stop the Yugoslavian war?” he raved at me. The suggestion: join an international call for the pope to take up residence in Belgrade. At first I thought he was […]
THE United Democratic Movement won its first by-election on Wednesday. The UDM’s Frederick Konstabel beat the African National Congress’s candidate by 258 votes to 148 in a by-election in Zoar in the Western Cape, UDM spokesman Dr Johna Steenkamp said on Thursday. The by-election was the third contested by the UDM. The New National Party […]
Deon Potgieter Boxing South African boxing administration, suffering from allegations of favouritism and vested interests, is failing to transform itself as ordered by the government – which stepped in to solve the infighting. Minister of Sport Steve Tshwete set up an interim boxing commission to restructure the sport’s administration when the South African National Boxing […]