Tangeni Amupadhi Nine-year-old Mita Molete came home from school crying a few weeks ago. She pleaded with her mother not to let her go on a school tour to Durban. Molete, whose scalp was hacked with a panga during the 1992 Boipatong massacre on the Vaal Triangle, has developed a fear of Zulus. “She does […]
Douglas Rushkoff Online When I started writing columns about the Internet I thought of myself as something of a midwife. We were birthing a new culture, and had experienced some complications in our labour. My purpose was to hold on to our collective hand, help us remember to breathe, and tell us how precious the […]
Mukoni T Ratshitanga A University of Zululand employee is facing 82 internal fraud charges ranging over two years. The university “charge sheet” alleges that Anna Platt, an assistant buyer in the stores department, defrauded the university of R1,5-million between February 1995 and June 1997. Platt allegedly made out false orders for curtains and mattress covers […]
Nicholas Glass made it his mission to find out more about Eyes Wide Shut, Stanley Kubrick’s top-secret new film- in-progress A Lear jet left Luton for Los Angeles on June 3, carrying the Cruise family back to Los Angeles. Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman like England, where photographers mostly leave them alone. But they must […]
Howard Barrell Over a Barrel Since this story is about the currency markets, let’s engage in a bit of speculation: you are the leader of a middle-income country of little importance to any but the people who live in it. South Africa would be a good example You are trying to transform your country. Your […]
designer Sir Norman Foster is the architect who’s come closest to establishing a universal style for the age. His latest project, Hong Kong airport, opened last week. Liz Jobey reports Sir Norman Foster rang back. “Sorry, we got cut off as I walked into the Savoy,” he said. “I was on my way to a […]
Iden Wetherell When the Democratic Republic of Congo’s President Laurent Kabila paid a flying visit to Harare last week, he told reporters he was there for routine consultations with President Robert Mugabe. But the presence of Zimbabwe’s defence chiefs suggested a more pressing purpose. Mugabe is chair of the Southern African Development Community’s (SADC) organ […]
Coenraad Visser Love and land. Love that is stolen; land that is stolen. Thirty-five years later, love that is returned; land that is returned. “A promise made, broken, and then restored.” That, according to Michael Williams, librettist and producer, is the simple theme of Roelof Temmingh’s new opera, Buchuland, which opens at the State Theatre […]
Phillip Kakaza Dramatist Percy Mtwa was one of the loudest voices in South African theatre in the Eighties. He and Mbongeni Ngema helped to usher in this rich theatrical decade with that famous two-hander, Woza Albert! But the late 1980s saw Mtwa sidelined after his success with Woza Albert! and Bopha! In fact, his principles […]
From a mud hut in Transkei to the Union Buildings in Pretoria is not that far, but it’s been a long road for President Mandela, writes David Beresford Below the village of Mvezo, on the side of a hill overlooking a bend of the Mbashe River in the former Transkei, three circular mounds of earth […]