Karl Vick in Lagos Behind all the talk of returning democracy to Nigeria looms the burned wreckage of the Paki Trading and Transport company. As word spread last week that Moshood Abiola, the man Nigerians five years ago thought they had elected president, had died just as he was to be released from prison, the […]
Rehana Rossouw Personal History The banging on the door came at 4.30am, as usual. As armed policemen surrounded the house, an officious security policeman marched in waving a detention order in terms of emergency legislation. It was July 8 1988 and security policemen were hunting down organisers of a campaign to celebrate Nelson Mandela’s 70th […]
Neasa MacErlean Eight tips on how to deal with grievance proceedings: n Understand that there are two main reasons to trigger the grievance system: a dispute with a colleague or dissatisfaction with a management decision. n Resist going down this formal route just because someone gets on your nerves. You will find it hard to […]
Tangeni Amupadhi reports on the Groot Marico farmwatch system Oom Leon du Plessis stops mending a fence on his Nooitgedacht farm in the Groot Marico to tell about the night he was robbed and almost killed. It is almost noon and time to stop work, have a sip of mampoer and take a rest after […]
Benjamin Pogrund HESHEL’S KINGDOM: A FAMILY, A PEOPLE, A DIVIDED FATE by Dan Jacobson. (Hamish Hamilton) By dying early, Heshel Melamed gave his children, grandchildren and great- grandchildren the most precious patrimony of all – life. Had his existence continued in the small town of Varniai in Lithuania the family tree would have been terminated […]
Stephen Gray recently attended a conference in Botswana in honour of South African writer Bessie Head, who settled there Gaborone, June 17-18 Few remember the first round of this event. In April 1976, when she was still alive and with only half her work done, Bessie Head was invited here to the University of Botswana. […]
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 […]
Sechaba ka’Nkosi A group of highly trained operatives linked to dirty tricks operations in KwaZulu-Natal in the early 1990s has been directly implicated in the recent upsurge of violence in the Midlands town of Richmond. A report by peace monitors suggests that senior politicians, right-wing farmers, police and military chiefs have regrouped and are exploiting […]
Andy Duffy Shepherd Mdladlana is duty-bound to say he will serve wherever the African National Congress deploys him. But the Ministry of Labour? Tito Mboweni, a flamboyant, popularist politician was always going to be a hard act to follow – more so for Mdladlana, who until now has preferred operating out of the limelight. Mboweni, […]
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 […]