James Ambrose Brown Just when we thought we could safely forget the findings of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC)and the perpetrators could merge into their murky backgrounds … Just when we thought that words must fail to keep it all before our consciences, comes a fresh insight. You might say that it needed an […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
Wonder Hlongwa Minister of Safety and Security Sydney Mufamadi’s new initiative for Richmond, announced on Tuesday, has already been tried and failed. Mufamadi’s two-pronged approach to halt the murders in the town includes sending an additional 240 policemen there and transferring four policemen. But the four were served with notices three months ago – in […]
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 […]
Howard Barrell and Mungo Soggot The relatively unknown African National Congress politician appointed as South Africa’s top prosecutor has shrugged off fears that he will follow the dictates of his political masters when he takes up his new job in two weeks’ time. Cape Town lawyer Bulelani Ngcuka, deputy chair of the National Council of […]
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 […]
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 […]