Andy Duffy The charge of patronage politics resurfaced in the Western Cape this week amid claims that the National Party has spent more than R5-million of public money in a crude attempt to buy votes. The NP-led provincial government has doled out much of the cash – extra social services grants to homes for the […]
Neil Manthorp Cricket The worst possible news for England became the best thing that could have happened to Dominic Cork during the first Test. Darren Gough’s broken finger was the result of crass thinking from the dressing room. Amazingly, Alec Stewart declared after the match that his team had “played risky and daring cricket” and […]
Alex Sudheim On show in Durban As a storyteller, Alson Ntshangase is more of a Dostoevsky than a Wordsworth. His darkly glowing paintings betray the workings of a mind far more interested in the skull beneath than the skin above. “If I start painting a rose I feel I am wasting my paint because I […]
Ann Eveleth A row broke out this week between the Department of Agriculture and other parties engaged in the campaign against land degradation. The heated fracas – on the eve of World Desertification Day next Wednesday – follows a decision by national and provincial agriculture officials to disband a broad-based steering committee set up in […]
Karlin Lillington reports on the real power behind innovation on the Web It’s late night in Johannesburg, as a computer screen glows blue with a live video feed. Somewhere in a small studio in mid-afternoon Los Angeles, a sultry blonde with waist-length hair straddles a desk and leaves little to the imagination. Wearing nothing but […]
Craig Bishop Port Elizabeth business leaders, trade unionists and politicians are uncorking the champagne in anticipation of the go- ahead for development of Africa’s first deep-water port at Coega, about 7km outside the city. But a growing band of environmentalists and social critics are determined to take the fizz out of their celebrations. They are […]
Derek Malcolm Not quite the movie of the week This year’s Venice festival kicked off with a new work by an old master. At least some would call Woody Allen that – rather more, as he keeps on saying, in Europe than in the United States. He was not in town for the premiere of […]
Bongani Siqoko Drunken men and women’s voices rise from the beer hall in Monyakeng township, Wesselbron, about 45km from Kroonstad in the Free State. Life seems normal, but the truth is the exact opposite. This community is grief-stricken and angry over the death of Lethusang Mohloane – whose only sin was to shoot birds on […]
Who is. . . Abdusalam Abubakar? Chris McGreal and The New York Times One of the few things Nigerians can confidently conclude about their new military leader is that he is no Sani Abacha. General Abdusalam Abubakar is a mild-mannered career soldier who progressed by avoiding the Machiavellian military politics – and coup plots – […]
Chris Roper The Smirnoff International Fashion Awards proved one thing: the fashion world is almost always at least five years behind whatever is culturally and ideologically current. This was brought home to me forcibly when I took my seat and found myself impaled on a glass ashtray. They’re actually encouraging people to smoke in the […]