Shaun de Waal CD of the week I aint down here for your money, I aint down here for your love, sings Nick Cave on the first song of the new Best of Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds (DGR). Im down here for your soul. Whether playing the hellfire preacher or the devils advocate, […]
fossils Ellen Barlett James Kitching is really retired now, he says his days in the field are over. As he says it, he looks across the room, toward his wife. They exchange glances in the accommodating way of the long- married, then she sighs. One gets the feeling neither believes it. Moments later – talking […]
clues The Karoo is the richest repository of therapsid fossils, the group that gave rise to early mammals, writes Ellen Bartlett To the average motorist passing through it, generally at an unconscionably high rate of speed, the Karoo is that barren bit of infinity that must be crossed to get to Cape Town or Johannesburg: […]
Mukoni T Ratshitanga A senior Gauteng transport department official is facing 10 charges of misconduct after an internal probe found he held a taxi permit despite his position as the province’s chief negotiator with taxi associations. In April, the former MEC for transport ordered that Lennox Magwaza be suspended pending the outcome of the investigation, […]
Brenda Atkinson Anybody who believes the local art world is without interest or innovation should immediately let the snap and crackle of their modems take them to two local websites worthy of some dedicated surfing. First let your art beat and do other surprising things at Artthrob.co.za. This one-woman online arts mag is the work […]
David Shapshak Bill Gates meets Hugh Grant at a party and gets Divine Brown’s phone number from him, goes the joke doing the e-mail rounds this week. After a night-long romp with Brown, Gates says to her: ”Now I understand why you use the name Divine.” ”Having spent the night with you,” comes the response, […]
Steven Robins: CROSSFIRE Claudia Braude recently criticised Antjie Krog’s much acclaimed book Country of My Skull, for endorsing a postmodern sensibility that celebrates the slippery and subjective character of truth claims (Friday, June 12 to 18). The book, based on Krog’s personal experiences as an Afrikaans radio journalist covering the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, raises […]
THURSDAY, 1.30PM: ENVIRONMENTALISTS are worried that 17 lions being sold by Mpumalanga game owner Roy Plath may be destined for the “canned lion” industry in Mozambique. “Canned” hunting refers to the practice of confining or drugging lions to make shooting them easier for hunters who do not have the skill, strength or time to track […]
THURSDAY, 11.00AM: THE Ngobeni commission into corruption in the Mpumalanga government on Wednesday produced documentary evidence showing that suspended deputy speaker Cynthia Maropeng deposited legislature cheques worth over half a million rand into her own bank account, after requisitioning the funds for a consultancy. Maropeng was left dumbstruck when commission chairman David Ngobeni produced documents […]
TUESDAY, 6.00PM: AFTER a two-week lull in fighting, Ethiopian troops are mobilising on the common border with Eritrea, possibly preparing for a resumption of the conflict that has marred the area since May 6. The Tigray Peoples’ Liberation Front, the key faction of the ruling Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front, on Monday called on citizens […]