readership Johnny Masilela DIPHORORO TSA BOPHELO edited by MV Shai (Heinemann Mamela Afrika Series) In his foreword, the editor and compiler of this Sepedi language collection of short stories, MV Shai, goes to great pains to explain what protest literature is all about. Were contributing authors asked to come up with political stories? The first […]

Loose cannon: Robert Kirby This looming Christmas is, of course, the second last of both the present century and millennium. There also remains little over a year until the founder of the Christian religion hits that big ol’ double whammy and becomes the religion’s first 2 000-year-old Saviour. As He starts His penultimate Y2K lap, […]

SA Wally Mbhele An anti-apartheid hero who in 1979 pulled off a daring escape from the Pretoria Central Prison is fighting a new struggle – against bureaucrats in the democratic government. Alex Mombaris, a Greek national, visited South Africa last week to attempt to persuade the Department of Home Affairs to grant him permanent residence. […]

Maureen Barnes In 1996 Paarl tour guide Cathy Raymond picked up a small group of American tourists for a trip round the winelands. The visitors asked if she would take them to visit a shebeen in Mbekwene township. “I didn’t know how to find a shebeen,” said Raymond, “so I phoned Jongi Frans.” Frans, who […]

Five pairs of tickets can be won in the Mail & Guardian’s Bee Gees competition. All you have to do is answer this question: What are the Bee Gees first names? To respond call (011) 726-8098 between 6pm and 7pm on Friday November 27 for your tickets that will be valid for November 28.

Angella Johnson VIEW FROM A BROAD There was something Monty Pythonesque about lunching with three clean-cut white men in their late 20s, watching them pour cups of strong coffee down their throats as if it were a drug, while regaling me with “war stories” of their narcotics abuse. I had wanted to spend time inside […]

Anew Viking anthology commemorates Nadine Gordimer’s 75th birthday. She spoke to Peter Godwin With the tentative tread of the dancer she once wanted to be, Nadine Gordimer steps noiselessly down the stairs from her afternoon nap. Dressed in black, she sits, taut as a sparrow, elbows on knees, chin on fists. She is quick to […]

SOCCER: Rothman’s cup final, Sundowns vs Chiefs Andrew Muchineripi The safest bet before the Rothmans Cup final between holders Kaizer Chiefs and Sundowns at FNB Stadium on Saturday is that Amakhosi coach Paul Dolezar will take longer to choose his team than counterpart Ted Dumitru. Suspensions rule defender Jacob Tshisevhe and wingback Lifa Gqosha out […]

Stewart Dalby Spending It Antique clocks belong to an area of collecting, like Impressionist paintings, coins and vintage cars, which crashed in the early Nineties. This was because they were bought for investment. Why grandfather and other clocks should have been sought for speculative purposes is curious. Antique clocks are quintessentially English. It was not […]

I was recently asked whether REM had made any other albums like 1992’s beauty, Automatic for the People. That moody, ballady hit album had a carefully worked quasi-acoustic surface that made it sound almost mainstream. Trouble is, REM tend not to repeat themselves very often. Out of Time, the album before Automatic for the People, […]