Ferial Haffajee They have been living together for just a year and now they’re getting married. The happy couple tying a R70-million knot are the advertising agencies Azaguys and Meintjes-Parker. It’s something of a cross-cultural affair. Meintjes-Parker is a distinguished old Afrikaans firm with a client list to match. They count Saambou, CTM, Clover, Subaru […]
Johnny Masilela BLACK PERSPECTIVE(S) ON TERTIARY INSTITUTIONAL TRANSFORMATION edited by Sipho Seepe (Vivlia/ University of Venda, R39,90) Once upon a time a young university student lamented that as the only African (except for menial workers) he was regarded at best as a curiosity, and at worst as an interloper. The institution was Wits University, the […]
Kuseni Dlamini: CROSSFIRE Is the left in South Africa and the rest of the world facing a ”mysterious decline” (Crossfire, May 8 to 14), or is it having a ”facelift” (Crossfire, May 15 to 21)? The left has never been held in lower esteem than it is today. At best, it is seen as impotent […]
Thulo Hoeane The tranquillity of a late autumn morning is suddenly broken by a deafening voice blaring out of a 3 000-watt sound system. Maseru suddenly comes to life as an off-white bakkie which has seen better days passes by, winding its way down Kingsway, the capital’s main street. At the wheel of the bakkie […]
Helderberg claims to TRC Ann Eveleth A list of 30 former and current parastatal officials and employees who allegedly played a role in the Helderberg air disaster has been handed to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. Commission representative Christelle Terreblanche says the list came from the Friends of the Victims of the Helderberg, which has […]
Guy Butler If known at all, Sister Margaret of the Community of the Resurrection of Our Lord, Grahamstown, is known as the painter of one picture, the splendid mural in the apse of St Mary and All the Angels, the Chapel of Rhodes University. It was painted between 1924 to 1928. She painted mainly for […]
Lizeka Mda: CITY LIMITS An interviewee once told me she knew her husband was the one for her when he took her out to dinner at the Three Ships in the Carlton hotel. No boyfriend had ever put himself out like that for her before. But her two sons will never know this symbol of […]
Andrew O’Hagan CRIES UNHEARD by Gitta Sereny (Macmillan, R88) There is nothing more stupid and corrupt than the collective mind of Britain’s tabloid newspapers. In a spirit of moral outrage they set out to molest the very people who often require protection, sympathy, understanding. The cry of the mob is vicious and total. In full […]
Adam Haupt On stage in Cape Town Charles J Fourie’s Jobias takes biblical symbolism into the Karoo landscape, where it has long been at home in Afrikaner minds. The play deals with the life of a farm worker, Jobias (Andre Roothman), who has been a loyal employer of Oubaas. Jobias, blessed with an abundance of […]
Suzy Bell On show in Durban Totally disarming in tweety-bird yellow, casual cotton shirt teeming with tiny fish, a Zulu beaded choker resembling a Smartie box of colours, brass bangles, and a genteel, generous-hearted demeanor – that’s our poet/playwright/artist, Breyten Breytenbach. Being the Buddhist he is, if you swing the conversation to China, Tibet and […]