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, […]
Friday night :Brenda Atkinson Friday nights, as all Johannesburg’s near- jaded know, are no simple affair. Outbursts of spontaneous venue-crawling are likely to go unrewarded. Planning is everything. In the spirit of urban social conspiracy – theorists everywhere, my partner and I prepared well in advance. Playing 007 to my 003, on Tuesday he sent […]
The great bar-coded ID saga has finally ended. Kortbroek and Tony got a klap. And we can all (if we have our bar-coded ID) go and vote on June 2. The lawyers made a fortune and political parties have been taught that disputes of a political nature are best dealt with politically and not legally. […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
Wally Mbhele and Makhosini Nkosi There was stunned silence at an African National Congress national working committee meeting this week when Deputy President Thabo Mbeki announced his decision to axe both the Gauteng and Mpumalanga premiers. Gauteng Premier Mathole Motshekga was summoned to Mbeki’s Johannesburg office this week where he was told of his fate. […]
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 […]
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 […]