Ron Sakolsky is an academic, journalist and activist whose main interest is the cultural politics of music. He’s not a serious musician although he “dabbles” in several instruments. Sakolsky is visiting South Africa until the end of the year. While he is here he plans to interview Mzwakhe Mbuli in jail to talk about his […]
The Democratic Republic of Congo’s President, Laurent Kabila, is pondering a future as obscure as his past not because of his evident lack of administrative talent, his taste for the good life or the minimal support of his fellow citizens. Instead, consider a broadcast on Congolese state radio last week: “People must bring a machete, […]
No child has ever fallen in love with reading from being given a textbook, argues Jay Heale It is well known that there is a crisis in education in this country. But there is one aspect of this agonising situation which seems to have been overlooked. We are so anxious to teach children how to […]
Digby Ricci THE SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION by Gore Vidal (Knopf) One hates to bow to conventional wisdom, but Gore Vidal really is a far better essayist than he is a novelist. In his essays, the erudition is elegantly startling, but never obtrusive, and the much-vaunted “mordant wit” is a rapier, not a bludgeon. Thus, Susan Sontag’s […]
Robert Kirby: Loose cannon I have it on the best authority that Monica Lewinsky is actually what is known in the espionage business as a “high-grade deep mole”. In truth Monica works for Saddam Hussein who personally coached her in the finer points of presidential seduction. The entire oval office sexual farrago is a brilliantly […]
wife on Women’s Day’ Tangeni Amupadhi A well-known Johannesburg psychiatrist is to appear in court next week on charges of battering his wife on National Women’s Day. According to Yeoville police, where the woman laid charges of common assault, the psychiatrist – who cannot be named for professional reasons – attacked his wife twice on […]
Mail & Guardian reporters The Natal High Court handed down a landmark judgment in favour of press freedom last week when it denied an application by the Inkatha Freedom Party to gag the Mail & Guardian. The IFP launched a two-pronged attack on the newspaper last week, applying to the court to stop the M&G […]
Mail & Guardian correspondents A last-ditch attempt by a coalition of states to rescue the ailing regime of Congolese President Laurent Kabila may have come too late as anti-government rebels continued their inexorable march to the capital Kinshasa this week. Despite reports of a ceasefire offer from the rebels and desperate attempts by South Africa […]
Ferial Haffajee Consumer organisations this week labelled the government’s proposal to increase the lending limits of loan sharks eightfold as “unconscionable”. Draft amendments to the usury Act recommend that all loans under R50 000 be excluded from its ambit. The existing limit is R6 000. Consumer organisations and economists have warned that this could lead […]
Gill Moodie A giant iceberg that has been lurking in the southern ocean for 12 years is making its way north from Antarctica, firing scientists’ dreams of mining icebergs for freshwater. Bigger than the Cape Peninsula, the iceberg known as Atlantic 22B, was formed in September 1986 when a massive piece of ice broke off […]