Phillip Kakaza Jabu Khanyile is a composed and impassive man whose self-image is clearly important to himself and his audiences. He is a self-taught, spiritual singer who has been influenced by religion and African tradition. He was an active member of the Apostolic Zionist church at an early age and reckons he was caught by […]

Steve Smith The thing about a public sculpture is that it’s a lot like a tattoo. If you’re going to have one, best think long and hard about what you want. Once it’s there, it’s there. This was the responsibility placed on the judges in the recent Public Sculpture Competition organised by the Cape Town […]

Justin Arenstein President Nelson Mandela has ordered the country’s top investigator, Judge Willem Heath, to probe a land deal involving South Africa’s outspoken ambassador to Mozambique and former homeland strongman, Mangisi Zitha. The controversial deal allowed Zitha to buy a 5,7ha farm with two houses in the former KaNgwane homeland in 1991 for just R5 […]

Andrew Worsdale Movie of the week Shushin-koyou-sei – “to be employed until you die” – is a Japanese expression for what is the life of the “salaryman”. For decades Japanese graduates joined companies and never left. Instead of firing employees who did not make the grade, businesses transferred them to subsidiaries or changed their job […]

the ocean y Durban is currently enjoying the fruits of a cultural exchange with Stuttgart. Suzy Bell samples the fare on offer With five high-impact international/local collaborative exhibitions taking place in Durban this month, there’s a whole lot more than surfing going down in tranquil Tegweni. Durban Meets Stuttgart is a cultural exchange programme between […]

Matthew Krouse On the air in Johannesburg In the 1920s, when radio transmitters were switched on for the first time all over the world, live music was the main attraction. The immediacy of the medium made people feel so modern, so in-with-the-times. Suddenly, you didn’t actually have to be there, to be part of what […]

Howard Barrell More National Party MPs are expected to follow the party’s Gauteng leader, Sam de Beer, who defected to the United Democratic Movement on Thursday. De Beer’s defection is further evidence of the disintegration of the once powerful NP and is a hammer blow to the fragile leadership of Marthinus van Schalkwyk. De Beer […]

Brenda Atkinson The programme preview of South Africa’s first free-to-air commercial television station was a Bondian event, slick with dress suits, French champagne, impeccably understated yet omnipresent waiters, oysters, and a subtle conspiratorial air. e.tv, the Warner Brothers-partnered broadcast competitor that has SABC and M-Net by the balls, last week invited media buyers to a […]

machine Andy Capostagno Golf It might be unkind to a fine tournament, but this week’s United States PGA Championship is likely to suffer by comparison. The PGA is older than the Masters and both Jack Nicklaus and Walter Hagen won it five times, so it comes highly recommended. But because the wise men of the […]

Many of our readers will find the pictures of famine in southern Sudan which we have published deeply distressing. Some may feel that this is a visual invasion of privacy which should not be allowed. Others may wonder whether such appeals to our consciences are not just a short-term palliative: is there not a better […]