Ted Leggett When the Prevention of Organised Crime Act went into full effect at the end of last month, South Africa quietly entered into a whole new era in law enforcement, for better or worse. The Act gives criminal justice officials some very powerful weapons with which to wage their war on crime, but like […]

ZIMBABWEAN writer Yvonne Vera, author of Under the Tongue, which won the Commonwealth prize in 1997 (Africa Region), has been awarded Sweden’s The Voice of Africa literary award for 1999. Vera (34) will be presented with the award at a function at the Gothenburg Book Fair. 11

Ramotena Mabote and Keith Henderson run the rule over the local bands who will be appearing at Womad Amersham: Four-piece Johannesburg pop outfit that has cornered a large number of rebellious youths of the harmless garden gnome variety. Boo!: The Munki Punkers deluxe. With gender bending, whacky accents, wild personae and tons of cheek this […]

Adam Levin chats to some of the greats coming to Benoni this weekend about the politics and possibilities of world music The first time I heard Yungchen Lhamo’s heavenly, snow-pure, bone-rattling voice was in 1995 at Womadelaide, the Australian version of the unmissable event coming to Benoni this weekend … Only Miss Lhamo was rather […]

Peter Conrad Iris Murdoch, the novelist and philosopher, who has died aged 79, was one of the best and most influential writers of the 20th century. Above all, she kept the traditional novel alive, and in so doing changed what it is capable of. She was not the heir – as she early and wrongly […]

Suzanne Glass Body Language They sang arias together. They shared their mutual passion for the theatrical at the Centenary Operatic and Dramatic Society and became the best of friends. But the dramatics carried on off-stage when Jenny Cupit began an affair with Kathryn Linaker’s husband, then bought a Kitchen Devil knife and bludgeoned her “best […]

THE Moroccan football federation said on Thursday it is prepared to host next year’s African Nations Cup in place of Zimbabwe. Zimbabwe lost the tournament on Monday after the Confederation of African Football found the country has not made sufficient progress in building stadiums or developing an infrastructure to televise the games. South Africa, host […]

KENYANS living in marginal areas are struggling with a drought currently ravaging some parts of the country, according to a USaid monthly publication. “If the long rains are poor this year, there will be substantial impoverishment of households in the marginal agricultural districts of the country,” it says. Kenya Vulnerability Update also predicts that even […]

David le Page Product: HYPERHEALTH: CD-ROM database on health and aliments supplied by Hyperhealth/ Protech Systems Requirements: Windows 3.1/95/98, 4Mb RAM, CD-ROM drive Surfing the Internet can give insight into what poor quality badly packaged information looks like, and what poor quality over- packaged information looks like. The Hyperhealth CD-ROM database is high-quality information that […]

Matthew Krouse Down the tube You’ve probably caught the new SABC2 commercial – but if you haven’t, try not to mistake it for a Sun International campaign. It’s not about any reality in particular, rather it’s a pretty tidbit about four different types of over- dressed Africans, representing the four elements. After short, but dramatic […]