Andrew Worsdale : Movies of the week `Tis the season for film festivals, and the latest celluloid treat is the Japanese Film Festival. This year’s festival is a tribute to auteur Akira Kurosawa, with five of his films included in the line-up. There are also many contemporary films on show, including the enchanting Village of […]

John Stremlau : A Second Look Democratic gains in this month’s congressional elections should enhance South Africa’s leverage in dealing with the United States on issues of importance to Africa. The unexpected defeat of Republican conservatives has given moderates in both political parties a stronger hand in foreign policy. And this new majority is likely […]

Angella Johnson : VIEW FROM A BROAD Sophia Jardim was trawling the aisles of her local supermarket, one of her “children” precariously balanced on her hip, when a woman approached and lobbed a gob of spit at her. It was just another in a string of unpleasant attacks this 43-year-old divorcee has had to endure […]

David Shapshak The first time I heard daiko (Japanese drums) was at a performance by a group of Kobe elementary school children performing their school’s songs. It sounded like a full-blown adult symphony, not a bunch of 12-year-olds taking turns at the drums because there weren’t enough to go around. Such is the power of […]

Donna Block : Share World For the past few weeks, my four-year-old son, an addict of British satellite television stations, has been driving me crazy, jumping off the sofa and the walls singing a jingle from a United Kingdom toy advert. In a loud, off-key voice he proclaims over and over how, “It’s a great […]

Mungo Soggot and Sechaba ka ‘Nkosi The public protector tried to shield the disgraced rector of Vaal Technikon, who was fired after a commission of inquiry found him guilty of financial impropriety and abusing his position. The technikon’s council ousted Professor Aubrey Mokadi and attached several of his assets this week despite a threat from […]

Charlene Smith General Andrew Masondo, an African National Congress political commissar in Angola in the 1980s, this week apologised to the brother of the man whose execution he ordered in 1981. Masondo and Mzwai Piliso, the ANC head of security at that time, have widely been held responsible for letting conditions in Angolan camps get […]

Denise Rack Louw `Seeing how the violence around us has affected the lives of the youth I work with is what motivated me to write this show,” says dramatist and director Jerry Pooe of his musical, Peace in the Valley, currently enjoying a run at Durban’s Bat Centre. Singer, guitarist and actress Tu Nokwe composed […]

Friday night : Charl Blignaut It’s Friday night and you’re driving through Pretoria – the new, improved Pretoria. If it weren’t for the lingering scent of Jacaranda blossoms, you’d hardly recognise the place. There are trendy cafs and happy, shiny people where once were butch Tukkies engineering students with bad hairstyles. (Once I witnessed a […]

Lauren Shantall A B-grade Barbie-rella babe in a yellow polka dot rubber bikini steps s on to the stage. Armed with a hairdryer-cum-ray gun she begins to blow up a flaccid yellow blob while the soundtrack blares a kooky, surreal mix of Plan Nine From Outer Space meets Mars Attack on an operating table. As […]