Matthew Krouse Down the tube Anyone with a television set, and an interest in the arts, knows that on Sunday night it’s time to commune with high culture. Looking back at the progression of arts programmes over the last decade, from Collage to Arts Unlimited, to Artworks, aRt and Flux, one recalls mostly long-winded, dour […]

Sechaba ka’Nkosi This is Sisi Modise (not her real name). She is four years old and lives in Mapetla, Soweto. In April last year, she became a statistic in the growing list of children sexually abused by adults in South Africa. But in Sisi’s case, the man charged with indecently assaulting her, Leqhoba Tsotetsi, was […]

Ferial Haffajee speaks to Fred Khumalo, the editor of a new weekend newspaper which is set to roll off the presses in March The editor of Sunday World, Fred Khumalo, is the epitome of his new reader: black, stylish, discerning and upwardly mobile. He struts through the empty offices of his new empire, kitted out […]

Wally Mbhele and Justin Arenstein Discredited members of the Mpumalanga African National Congress provincial executive committee – including some who have been axed from the provincial government on charges of corruption – have sought to influence Deputy President Thabo Mbeki to oust Premier Mathews Phosa. According to senior ANC sources, the people heading a campaign […]

AUTHORITIES in Botswana have signed execution warrants for two convicted killers expected to be hanged on Saturday, the country’s deputy attorney-general said on Thursday. The hangings will bring to 34 the executions carried out in Botswana since its independence from Britain in 1966. The last executions took place in 1995 when five convicted murderers were […]

Cameron Duodu Letter from the North As the guns boom around Freetown and its starving citizens cower inside those of their walls that have not yet been burnt down, who would have thought that Sierra Leone was once one of the favoured spots in West Africa? Its Fourah Bay College, founded in 1827, was once […]

Trainspotting made Irvine Welsh cool with its portrayal of drug-fuelled Scottish low-life. But don’t mistake the creator for his characters: he’s had a job in local government and even deals in property. Can he hack it as a novelist, though? Critics say his new book may be his last chance to prove himself. By Andy […]

Local tribespeople have rejected a company’s bid to mine titanium in a pristine area of the Eastern Cape, but it seems that the company can’t take no for an answer, write James Black and Arlene Cameron On the Wild Coast south of Port St Johns in the Eastern Cape there is a small estuary of […]

Theatre: Chris Roper When you take your seat under the sky for the opening scene of As You Like It, this year’s offering at Maynardville, you can’t help but be intrigued. On stage is an aerobics floor, three exercise cycles, a juice bar, and Health and Racquet Club and Reebok flags fluttering in the Cape […]

FOREIGNERS were net sellers of R799,3-million worth of South African government bonds on Wednesday after selling R226-million on Tuesday, according to the latest Bond Exchange data.