Suzy Bell Alfred Hitchcock fans will drool, and politically-sussed bhangra-babes will ditch their men for the night to watch award-winning Indian director Mani Ratnam’s film Irwar (The Duo). Yep, it’s the 19th Durban International Film Festival and there’s something for everyone among the 20 feature films and four documentaries. The films are mainly from Britain, […]
Dan Atkinson and Mail & Guardian reporter The World Cup hysteria which has obsessed South Africa confirmed the popularity of football, not to mention the power of marketing to induce frenzied emotion. This bodes well for the owners of any football teams which are planning to follow their overseas counterparts and list on the Johannesburg […]
Helen Stevenson HULLABALOO IN THE GUAVA ORCHARD by Kiran Desai (Faber &Faber) In a small town in India, a post office official yells at his slovenly staff: “You will kindly pull up your socks and begin!” There has always been a certain buffoonish comic potential in the linguistic legacy of the British in India, a […]
Arizona North America is home to literally dozens of active stock exchanges, from the continent’s oldest in Philadelphia to Canada’s premier market place in Toronto. If you prefer something offbeat, there are the frozen floors of the Alberta Stock Exchange in Canada’s great white north or the arid airs of the little-known Arizona Stock Exchange. […]
Bram Posthumus: FIRST PERSON In the full moonlight, a dozen young men were standing around our car, its front wheels jammed solid in the mud. One shouted the now familiar command: “Leggo! Leggo!”, Liberian English for “Heave!” The men grunted, the engine roared and the car finally sped away, leaving the small group covered in […]
Robert Kirby: Loose Cannon Since this week’s column is devoted to a passionate defence of Ms Felicia Mabuza-Suttle, I think I’m going to have to settle for using her initials: FMS. This might make her sound a bit like a financial house – which she has recently hinted she is – but it’s necessary. When […]
Chris McGreal Unwelcome uitlanders (foreigners) in the rainbow nation can now get more bang for their buck, or quid. But first they have to lay their hands on their own cash, and South African banks are practised at preventing that from happening. It’s hardly a situation to invoke much sympathy hereabouts, but the rand’s periodic […]
Swapna Prabhakaran Whether you are a working Mozambican mamma or a leisured Amex-wielding tourist, there’s only one way to get between KwaZulu-Natal and Maputo in style – take the brand new trans- Lubombo train. The new service was recently launched by Spoornet from Durban station, to make its way over the Lubombo mountains, through Swaziland […]
`justice’ Tangeni Amupadhi Police officers are apparently turning to vigilantism because of growing disillusionment with the criminal justice system, says a research commissioned by the Independent Complaints Directorate (ICD). In an incident earlier this year, Eastern Cape policemen shot dead four “fleeing robbers” in Umtata after they allegedly held up a Pep Stores branch and […]
offs Mukoni T Ratshitanga More than 200 Northern Province pensioners have taken court action against the provincial government’s decision to freeze pension and disability grants to 92 000 people. Court papers served this week on the province’s MEC for Health and Welfare, Hunadi Mateme, say the freeze should be invalidated on the grounds that it […]