A school that fought apartheid is threatened with closure. John Pilger believes it should be saved Those of us banned from South Africa during the apartheid years have returning snapshots that swell the heart, offering a glimpse of what the future might be. One of mine is from a recent visit to Woodmead High School, […]

Andrew Worsdale Movie of the week `A chinese box doesn’t really exist,” said director Wayne Wang in an interview with Hollywood Online. “I tried to find one … I looked everywhere, but it doesn’t exist. It’s a metaphor for a box which, when you open it, leads to another box, then you open that box […]

Maureen Barnes Down the tube The Emmy Awards – the Hollywood TV industry’s mutual back-scratching night out – took three-and- a-half hours to screen, and this was the edited version. In that amount of time, I imagine, the Almighty created a sizeable chunk of the earth and the creatures thereon. Having been caught before, I […]

Ferial Haffajee Brussels and Paarl are worlds apart. One is cold and rich. The other poor and hot. Brussels is also the site of trade negotiations between South Africa and the European Union which has 400-million consumers in 15 countries. An agreement could have a huge impact, bringing Paarl and South African industry more firmly […]

Wonder Hlongwa The Yeoville Community Development Forum has a dream: it wants to see the streets of greater Yeoville cleared of crime and grime. It wants to create an environment that encourages economic, social and cultural development in the cosmopolitan community in eastern Johannesburg. The forum unveiled its dream at a brain- storming workshop this […]

Sechaba ka’Nkosi Mutinous Lesotho Defence Force (LDF) soldiers sympathetic to opposition parties are removing arms from military bases in preparation for a prolonged war against the allied forces of the Southern African Development Community (SADC). The soldiers have retreated strategically to the mountains where they have been able to delay the fall of their Makonyane […]

Swapna Prabhakaran The managing director of Crawford Preparatory School in Benmore, Graham Crawford, has apologised for offending parents when he called the multiracial institution “the last bastion of European culture”. The remark was made at a parent/ teacher meeting at the elite private school, which caters specifically to “academically advanced” children. Crawford said this week […]

Barbara Ludman POINT OF ORIGIN by Patricia Cornwell (Little, Brown) Patricia Cornwell’s life generally spills over into her books. In this one, it threatens to take the book over. She’s made a background theme of the FBI’s prurient interest in its agents’ affairs ever since she was named as co-respondent in a divorce suit lodged […]

Simon Caulkin It’s as regular as the changing of the seasons. Every few months, a new survey triggers the familiar debate about soaring executive pay. But managers take no notice of the haranguings of unions and ministers, and the frustrated disapproval of everyone else; they just keep pocketing the cash. It is disingenuous to blame […]

There’s a growing sense that in an unstable world, Libya’s `Brother Leader of the Revolution’ has some attractions, writes Ian Black Moammar Gadaffi was busy this month, embracing African leaders as they flew in for the lavish celebrations, held each year, of the coup that brought him to power in 1969. Without his customary comic-opera, […]