Shaun de Waal Johannesburg has plenty of room for second- hand bookshops, if the recent expansion of two groups is anything to go by. Eric Nofal and Irene Koch of Books Galore are about to open a new shop – their seventh – in the Hyperama Centre in Constantia Kloof, Weltevreden Park, and Doron Locketz, […]

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 […]

A ZAMBIAN magistrate on Friday charged with espoinage the 12 Postjournalists arrested last month. The journalists from the Post newspaper, who include the managing director and editor, Fred M’membe, were separately arrested and charged with espionage, which carries a minimum jail term of twenty years, after their paper carried a story comparing Zambia’s military capabilities […]

Westerners, whiteys, honkies, call them what you will, are often accused by Africans of a lack of understanding of their culture. While black South Africans have a measure of access to “white culture”, albeit as servants in houses, or in a corporate or industrial environment, white South Africans have little access to African lifestyles. Dancer […]

THE United Nations will facilitate upcoming talks in Togo between Sierra Leone rebel leader Foday Sankoh, facing execution for treason, and his field commanders, for peace in Sierra Leone, its envoy announced. UN Special Representative to Sierra Leone Francis Okello met President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah late Thursday and said that the United Nations will also […]

Ian Clayton Minister of Provincial Affairs and Constitutional Development Valli Moosa announced this week that the government’s allocation to local authorities would be R2,3-billion during the current financial year, an increase from the R2,1-billion allocated in the last financial year. Moosa added that local authorities with greater need would “gradually” receive more direct government aid […]

RESPECTED journalist Max du Preez, the producer of the popular Special Assignment investigative programme, was fired by the SABC on Thursday. Du Preez was given his marching orders by editor-in-chief Phil Molefe on Thursday afternoon. “They said I am arrogant and don’t show respect,” Du Preez told Beeld . Last Saturday the programme, which will […]

Matthew Krouse Down the tube Television viewers will get a glimpse of last Saturday’s Avanti Awards when they air on SABC2 on Tuesday April 20 at 9.30pm. The Avantis, held under the auspices of the National Television and Video Association, are now the only television awards in the country. This year, the ceremony was very […]

Ivor Powell Some time last year those in the inner circles of the African National Congress and the party’s official spin doctors took to referring to Deputy President Thabo Mbeki, in a seemingly hubristic way, as “the president”. It was only when you challenged them, insisting that the president’s name was Nelson Mandela and that […]