I am aware that the term “Harare’s nightlife” could be said to be a contradictio in adjectio, like hot snow or cold fire. Two years ago, I’d fully agree. Not now. Sleepy Harare is coming out of its torpor, and not only with food riots. Hot tip: nightlife begins and ends early because Harare is […]
Malachy McCourt 44: A DUBLIN MEMOIR by Peter Sheridan (Macmillan) Will the Irish ever stop the churning out of novels, poetry, epics, histories, stories (short or long, individual or collected) and now a flood of memoirs? Not bloody likely, sez the man, not with the world standing with eagerness and wallets agape to pay for […]
I was extremely disturbed to read in the Daily Mail & Guardian the other day that the South African government had refused political asylum to Catherine Kaunda, daughter of former president Kenneth Kaunda. I do not know the full particulars of the case. Whatever the reason, it is the right of a sovereign government to […]
Ann Eveleth A Pretoria father is suing the government for failing to protect his three-year-old daughter who was raped by a state mental patient who wandered into their neighbourhood. The Pretoria High Court will be asked next month to decide whether the state has a constitutional duty to protect the security of its citizens. Westfort […]
John Matshikiza:WITH THE LID OFF I ran into my old friend, Tiger, in Yeoville the other day. Tiger is looking pretty good, wearing a suit and tie with all the trimmings nowadays, and Ray-Bans that never leave the bridge of his nose. But he still has that foxy, township tic of never looking you in […]
If peace talks are unsuccessful, Sierra Leone’s capital could suffer new rebel assaults, reports Peter Moszynski from Freetown The beleaguered capital of Sierra Leone is waiting in trepidation for the outcome of peace talks in Togo next week with the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) rebels whose offensive devastated Freetown in January. Unless the talks succeed, […]
There are several ways to commit suicide. One is just to do it, another is to threaten it repeatedly, while a third is to mount half-hearted attempts at it. If you do the latter two often enough, people soon discount you in anticipation of your final departure. Zimbabwe seems to be alternating between the latter […]
Larry Neumeister Bloomberg, the global financial news service, has filed a lawsuit against the unidentified people who posted and promoted a bogus report last week on the Internet that boosted the value of a California company’s stock 31% before the hoax was exposed. The lawsuit will help Bloomberg learn the real identities behind the screen […]
Bafana Khumalo:BODY LANGUAGE I got laid last weekend. Why, you ask? What woman would lack so much self-respect that she would allow a man of my considerably unattractive looks and who is truly devoid of any charm to impose my brand of unspeakable depravity on her (hey, having sex with me is by definition unspeakably […]
KING Mswati III of Swaziland said on Thursday he will not be abolishing the death penalty, as capital punishment remains an effective deterrent to crime. Speaking in Mbabane, Mswati said serious offences such as ritual killings would soar should the death penalty be scrapped. In the meantime, he added, the harshness of the penalty will […]