INDABA, MY CHILDREN by Credo Mutwa (Payback Press) Payback Press, part of Scottish publisher Canongate, is devoted to new and old works by important black writers. Among the titles already published under this imprint is Chester Himes’s Harlem cycle of murder mysteries; two famous books on black music, Leroi Jones’s Blues People and Ben Sidran’s […]
Philip Nel : A SECOND LOOK I hope I am not the only Afrikaans speaker who feels uncomfortable with being made the focus of a special debate in Parliament. Although I can understand the political reasons why political parties would like to have such a debate in the run-up to the elections, I do not […]
The venue that hosted Codesa has been transformed into a gambling den. Bafana Khumalo reports The “miracle” of South Africa’s transition from apartheid to democracy was painfully hammered out at the World Trade Centre in 1993 after months of negotiation at the Congress for a Democratic South Africa (Codesa). Today, this hall of democracy has […]
THE European Union on Friday hailed an agreement by central African heads of state on the conservation and management of the region’s tropical forests. The heads of state of Cameroon, the Central African Republic, Equatorial Guinea and Chad, along with the vice-president of Gabon and Congo’s environment minister on Wednesday signed the Yaounde Declaration agreeing […]
Andrew Muchineripi laments the fact that you can’t watch soccer in a cosy stadium It is a sad reflection on the people who inhabit our beautiful land that a soccer club cannot host a Bob Save Super Bowl match because the risk of crowd disturbance is too high. SuperSport United were drawn to play Orlando […]
Be thorough when checking up on anyone who’s telling you where to invest your money, warns Donna Block When it comes to choosing someone to help you make head or tail of your investments there is one guiding principle: caveat emptor – buyer beware. No matter how smooth or sophisticated that person may be, the […]
Sixty years ago this week, Walter Hammond’s Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) side in South Africa disembarked from the Durban night train at Cape Town and made haste to the waiting ship, Athlone Castle, for the voyage home. The day before, March 14, the Timeless Test, unparalleled in cricket history, had been abandoned as a draw […]
Nicholas Lezard AN INSTANCE OF THE FINGERPOST by Iain Pears (Vintage) There is something about fat historical thrillers – in particular, those with pretensions – that can be uniquely dispiriting. They’re a kind of intellectual pornography, titillating us into an unwarranted sense of fulfilment. The more ambitious ones – like Umberto Eco’s The Name of […]
David Shapshak Hydrogen, the world’s most plentiful substance, may be the energy source of future motor cars. With natural fuel resources diminishing, the need for alternative energy sources has been growing, and scientists have been looking for as efficient an option as petroleum. While part of the concern is environmental (fuel combustion engines damage the […]
The head of the TRC hopes to hold on to his post, despite his recent appointment as rector of the University of the North, writes Ann Eveleth Truth and Reconciliation Commission CEO Biki Minyuku is bidding to keep his current post after he takes on new responsibilities – and a R1-million salary package – as […]