Lizeka Mda: CITY LIMITS It’s Saturday and the Avalon cemetery in Soweto is full of life. As usual, more than 100 funerals are going to take place before the afternoon is over. Dozens more will take place at Dobsonville and Roodepoort cemeteries. Saturday belongs to the dead in Soweto. The hearses – flamboyant stretch limousines, […]
WEDNESDAY, 6.30PM: A 33-YEAR OLD man was wounded in a shooting incident between members of the “Yakkie” gang and taxi drivers in Rocklands, Mitchell’s Plain on Tuesday. Police said the bystander was taken to hospital after being shot and was later discharged. Taxis blocked the road outside Mitchell’s Plain police station earlier on Tuesday demanding […]
WEDNESDAY, 7.00PM: JOSEPH KONY and a group of his Lord’s Resistance Army forces have been surrounded by Ugandan troops at Polaro in the northern Gulu district of the country. Ugandan troops have reportedly killed more than killed 100 of Kony’s LRA rebels. The New Vision newspaper reported that Ugandan troops have freed 140 civilians abducted […]
TUESDAY, 7.30PM: ARMED bandits in Angola are forcing people to become refugees within their own country, with almost 40000 having fled to towns, largely from the south-western province of Benguela, according to the United Nations mission in the country. It is likely that most such bandits are demobilised or recalcitrant members of Unita, the long-time […]
TUESDAY, 1.30PM: THE South African Police Service is considering cutting 10000 jobs in terms of chief executive Meyer Kahn’s new strategic plan, which was slated in Parliament on Monday by the South African Police Union. But divisional commissioner Neels Steenkamp said Kahn has been misunderstood, and that the 10000 figure refers to natural attrition over […]
Stefaans Brmmer Mathole Motshekga this week denied he was close to apartheid-era military intelligence frontman Abel Rudman – but the Mail & Guardian has documentary evidence of a meeting at the Gauteng premier’s house where shareholding in a resort development was discussed. The M&G published details a fortnight ago of Motshekga’s involvement in a series […]
Phillip Kakaza It wasn’t too long ago that Zolani Mkhiva, an imbongi or praise singer, became Imbongi ye Sizwe -Ethe Poet of the Nation – when he took the podium and sang the praises of Nelson Mandela at his inauguration. Four years later, after protracted negotiations with recording companies, he has graced the nation with […]
TRANSFER by Ingrid de Kok (Snailpress R42,50) One can only celebrate this triumph of delicate bleakness: One by one the small refusals add up to a life. Or this rich characterisation of complex love: Mouthing under water wetly jewelled words we are acrobatic aquanauts in a chest of swords. The first half of the book […]
Andy Capostagno Rugby Ian McIntosh is one of the nicest men I know. He has one Achilles heel. Rugby. He is so passionate about rugby it makes him ill. At King’s Park in Durban he sits two boxes down from the commentators with his brains trust of Hugh Reece-Edwards and Craig Jamieson. Thus ensconced he […]
Wally Lambert If you’re thinking about trying your hand at the stock-market game – we’re not talking unit trusts here – you’ll be pleased to know it’s getting easier and cheaper for the man in the street to buy shares. Unlike shopping for bread in the supermarket, buying shares on the stock exchange requires the […]