FRIDAY, 6.30PM: A NATIONAL Party MP, Donald Lee, has defected to the Democratic Party, adding to the blows dealt this week and last week by by-election defeats in which the NP lost long-standing strongholds to the DP. Douglas Gibson of the DP said that Lee’s move reflects a dramatic shift of feeling in South African […]
South African art triumphed at a huge French show. Brenda Atkinson was there So there I was in Paris, filled with strawberries and red wine, mingling with a 2 000-odd crowd of the young, hip, gorgeous and powerful. If these people sweat, I thought, then they sweat pure CK-One. Let no one tell you that […]
Say what you like, Jessie Duarte has further refined and developed the undervalued political art of giving the finger to the world. When it doesn’t suit her, Jessie tells entire commissions of inquiry to go stuff themselves. Just one of many swerves and skids she practised in a fast-lane career launched during the years of […]
The World Economic Forum’s Southern African economic summit in Windhoek this week provided an object lesson in what lies behind the woes of the continent. Like the arrival of Zambian President Frederick Chiluba – who has been appealing for debt relief from foreign donors – with retinue in a state-of-the-art Falcon 500 executive jet. Delegates […]
Andrew Worsdale Movie of the week I didn’t have any hopes that Barry Levinson would ever make a good movie – or at least one I’d like. Everyone raved about Diner. I thought it was self-indulgent, adolescent crap. Rain Man won Oscars. I thought it sentimental, badly styled rubbish (why did everything, but everything, have […]
Janet Smith A trample of running girls, sandals unbuttoned and skirts pleated around them, grin and point at the silver and blue machine. They’re caught in its shimmering breeze as they stop at the fence, put their hands to their brows and start chattering like birds. The firemen laugh lazily together at the corner of […]
WHO IS . . . TONY LEON? David Beresford An obituary on the English philosopher, Bertrand Russell, memorialised him as “a gadfly on the rump of civilisation”. The same might be said of Democratic Party leader Tony Leon as he buzzes noisily around the rump of South African society. The question facing the DP is […]
Sechaba ka’Nkosi National electricity supplier Eskom and local authorities are fighting an uphill battle against the booming illegal business of “alternative” electricity supply. It’s alternative, say its practitioners, because most residents whose power has been cut by town councils for non-payment prefer to use their services rather than paying the R650 reconnection fee. The practice […]
Jack Schofield tries his hand at palm reading to assess the likely winners and losers in a cut-throat hand-held computer market After a shaky start, pen-based computing is booming, led by the success of 3Com’s PalmPilot – an electronic organiser that fits into a shirt pocket or handbag – and competition is hotting up. Psion […]
Caroline Sullivan Even after their four million-selling debut, Garbage’s second album was never going to rouse panting anticipation. The reason is neatly encapsulated in the understated title, Version 2.0. Derived from computer software, it mumbles “very dull”. In spite of the presence of Nirvana producer Butch Vig (drums, effects) and the pin-sharp Shirley Manson (vocals), […]