OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Friday 7.45pm. A SPOKESMAN for Angolan separatists said on Friday that government troops supported by attack helicopters are advancing on an unknown number of Front for the Liberation Of Cabinda (FLEC) separatists in the country’s oil-rich enclave of Cabinda. Carlos Puna said that a battalion of 400 Angolan soldiers began an […]

Angella Johnson: VIEW FROM A BROAD I had always considered exercise to be way overrated. Not for me the panting ache of pushing my body to the maximum, or the orgasmic high of an endorphin rush. At least that was before I bought into South Africans’ fitness obsession and started working out like a lunatic. […]

Phillip Kakaza Diva shouts, harmonic sounds and thunderous rhythms swept through the remote village of Taung during the North West Cultural Calabash Festival last week. The high-pitched voices of the undisputed queen of gospel Rebecca Malope and her backing group Pure Magic resonated from the Mmabana (mother of the children ) Cultural Centre where the […]

Peter Makurube There is no better way to suss out where a country is at than through its music. There has never been any doubt about the quality of music this country can produce, the problem has been a chronic case of arrested development. Now that the old is out and the new is in […]

Cheryl Carolus looked set for a high post in the ANC government; instead she opted to be South Africa’s first female high commissioner in London, writes Liz McGregor Cheryl Carolus is not your average diplomat. She travels by tube, wears mini-skirts and parties into the small hours. She has strong opinions about her host country […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Friday 7.15pm. POLICE commissioner Suiker Brits confirmed on Friday that Colin Chauke, one of South Africa’s most wanted criminals who allegedly masterminded several multi-million rand cash-in-transit heists, is not among the nine suspects arrested in connection with a heist in Namibia this week. Reports on Thursday claimed that Chauke was among […]

British trip-hop band Massive Attack arrive in South Africa on Sunday. Charles Leonard did a telephonic interview with Robert `3-D’ Del Naja from his hotel room in Detroit `We’re on a 17-date tour of North America. We’ve been here a couple of times before. They must like us because they’ve invited us back, but we […]

Anton Karstel’s Pol- aesthetic is an ambitious exploration of formal, aesthetic, spatial and temporal contingencies. The exhibition’s title puns tenuously on the aesthetic dimensions of socially and politically loaded iconography: the markings on police vehicles. These vehicles are represented through the “initial” spatio-temporal zone of this exhibition: the gallery space of Johannesburg’s Civic Theatre. Relinquishing […]

handouts Jacqui Boulle Since 1994 there has been much talk about developmental social welfare and the need to move away from grants and handouts to more sustainable programmes. While this approach – which underpins the Department of Welfare’s campaign during welfare month – has had some success, its impact is limited: nearly half the poor […]

Serious questions are being asked about the state of South Africa’s defence forces following the Lesotho intervention, writes Howard Barrell The public, defence and security analysts and African National Congress and opposition politicians have expressed concern over the past 10 days about the coherence of the young South African National Defence Force (SANDF) after it […]