Sechaba ka’Nkosi Remember Musa Myeni? He was the Inkatha Freedom Party firebrand who once threatened to unleash 150 000 Zulu impis on Gauteng to deal with township residents. That was during the violence in the early 1990s between IFP-aligned hostel dwellers and youths on the Reef. Seven years later, he has substituted his political ideology […]
Zwelithini-ka Mvelase Frankly, if South Africans respected and preserved what’s theirs, with as much jealousy as Americans do, there would be enough greats to fill volumes. Whether those names were crooks or saints, wouldn’t matter a dime. This flits past my mind as I sit sipping gin with die ouens and – boom! – we […]
Phillip Kakaza CD of the week In the past four years the Blood and Fire label has established itself as the cutting edge label in reggae reissues. It introduced a whole generation of producers and DJs who took advantage of the new musical venture. Jamaican vocal singles were released with instrumentals – sometimes just rhythm […]
Andy Capostagno Rugby August 1 1998 was a big day for South African rugby, but will it be bigger or more important than August 7? On August 1 the contractual agreement between the South African Rugby Football Union (Sarfu) and the squad which won the World Cup in 1995 came to an end. On Friday, […]
The mussel, a shellfish long known as a gourmet treat for the rich, has gained new significance for a community living in poverty on the KwaZulu-Natal North Coast. For the people of Sokhulu, mussels are not a luxury, but a necessity – a valuable regular source of protein which keeps starvation at bay. Before 1996, […]
Ann Eveleth Recruited into the United Democratic Front in 1989 and booted out of the African National Congress eight years later, United Democratic Movement general secretary Sifiso Nkabinde is a classic case study of the theory that it’s better to have someone inside your tent pissing out than outside pissing in. It took a virtual […]
Mail & Guardian reporter Conflict is once again engulfing Central Africa, killing the dream of regeneration and renaissance that came with the euphoria that accompanied the fall of the Zairean despot Mobutu Sese Seko more than a year ago. Then, it was believed that the series of interlocking wars, from Sudan in the north-east to […]
Paul Theroux often makes enemies of those he writes about. Now he has written about VSNaipaul, once his close friend. Tim Adams reports Paul Theroux has had more than one existence. “You have as many lives as you want,” he says. “But you have to take them. You have to be up to it. The […]
Ferial Haffajee The wife of the SABC editor who commissioned the soapie Avenues stars in the programme and had a leading role in its casting and scripting. Penny Rodel also rents office space from A&P Productions, which makes the weekly soap. She used the name Penny Smith for this programme alone. Pieter de Vos, the […]
Wonder Hlongwa Estranged Inkatha Freedom Party leader Sipho Mzimela may rejoin the African National Congress, according to political colleagues who say he has been seeking advice about where his political future lies. Mzimela would not comment this week, except to confirm that he is still an IFP MP and a member of the party. He […]