Robert Kirby : Loose Cannon I never thought the day would arrive when I would want to see some no-nonsense killer censorship deployed. But it did arrive, quite recently, with the exhibition in Grahamstown of what a lot of people believe is little more than child pornography going as art. Alas, the head of the […]
Suzy Bell delves into the delicious world of Durban bus and taxi art A goddess, adorned with flowers, pink silk sari and a jewel-encrusted gold crown, flashes past in rush hour traffic. It is Durban and its bustling Beatrice Street. An African gentleman carrying a maroon briefcase and wearing amabeshu (traditional Zulu animal hide worn […]
John Ezard Climactic warming has destroyed part of the gigantic Larsen B ice shelf in Antarctica. Final disintegration and melting of the 19 500km2 shelf is now predicted within two years. The crack-up, disclosed by a satellite photograph taken on March 23, confirmed and sharpened nearly a decade of anxiety about trends in a region […]
OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Friday 9.00PM. THE Richmond killers have been identified as a five-man hit-squad with military backgrounds, SABC3 has reported. Their leader is known to speak Afrikaans fluently, and police have been searching for them for a year already in connection with previous massacres. Safety and Security Minister Sydney Mufamadi announced the news […]
Brenda Atkinson If you’ve been waiting to exhale ever since the grade-school camerawork of Avenues swung its way across SABC 3; if you’re still wondering why paying your TV licence seems the wrong thing to do; if you’re considering ditching your M-Net subscription, don’t panic yet. e-tv, the hot and politically sound channel that snatched […]
Marthali Brand : Spending it United States President Bill Clinton is still regretting the day he told the world he never inhaled. But if he had been speaking about cigars, he would not only have avoided embarrassment, he’d have won points for doing the right thing. Not inhaling is one of the golden rules of […]
Roger Cohen in Abuja `Look, the human rights here in Nigeria are terrible,” Theodore Luttwak says, “but the opportunities are just fantastic … where else in the world do you have so much money?” Good question. Abuja, Nigeria’s capital- under-construction, is full of the whiff of oil money, and not just at the exclusive golf […]
Alex Dodd – Milan, Marseille, New York, Rotterdam A short, hard-hitting film about xenophobia in the heart of Johannesburg by local film- maker Zola Maseko has been playing to thunderous applause around the world. This is the first time a film by a black South African director has achieved such widespread international acclaim. The Foreigner […]
Mercedes Sayagues Copycat land invasions are spreading in Zimbabwe, six weeks after villagers first moved on to four commercial farms in Marondera, near Harare. Across the country hundreds of families have peacefully and briefly occupied land on dozens of farms. The harvest is over; there is a lull in farm work. A donor land conference […]
Peter Frost : On show in Cape Town Despite all the prattle to the contrary, the ongoing debate about the evolution of theatre in South Africa still centres on the argument over which is preferable – a Eurocentric or ethnic approach. Many, like government, various NGOs and some arts bodies expect change, which means better […]