Robert Kirby: LOOSE CANNON It is hard to hush one’s scepticism when, within hours of the mindless shootings on the Benoni smallholding, up pop grave-browed politicians in various displays of rue and distress. Her face set in scrupulous wrath, Winnie Madikizela-Mandela was in court when the gunman appeared. Her ex-husband was at the shoulder of […]
The discovery of vast stretches of water between the stars has raised new questions about the origins of life on Earth, writes Tim Radford European scientists, using an ultra-cold orbiting telescope, have discovered unimaginable volumes of water in the space between the stars. The discovery raises new questions about life elsewhere in the universe -and […]
Mail & Guardian reporter The crusading journalist John Pilger set a cat among the pigeons of South African complacency this week with his hour-long documentary Apartheid Did Not Die, on what he represented as a betrayal of the liberation cause by the African National Congress. The documentary was broadcast in prime-time by the SABC, but […]
Swapna Prabhakaran If tigers could speak, they’d sound just like Tim Modise and Ofeibea Quist-Arcton. Their laidback voices resonate around the studio in a half-purr, half-growl hinting at claws and teeth, and the very sharp intelligence of jungle cats. Modise – an old familiar on SAfm – has teamed up with the BBC’s Quist-Arcton to […]
Once a vibrant part of the Soweto arts scene, the Funda Centre has had to adapt. Swapna Prabhakaran finds out how It is a sad fact that Soweto’s Funda Centre is better known internationally than it is in Johannesburg. The once-famous centre for literacy and the arts has transformed in the Nineties to become a […]
Lynda Gledhill Sitting in a luxury hotel dressed in brightly coloured clothes, Ester Mujawayo does not exude the air of a woman whose life has been destroyed. But this Tutsi from Rwanda is one of the few survivors in her family of the genocide that gripped her country in 1994. For a month, Mujawayo, her […]
Mukoni T Ratshitanga Northern Province Department of Education staffers welcomed the suspension last week of their Director General, Zachari Chuenyane. Staffers say Chuenyane, suspended by MEC for Education Joe Phaahla, was “incompetent, inefficient and severely lacking in management skills”. Cracks in Chuenyane’s hold on one of the province’s most senior posts began to show four […]
Angella Johnson Five-year-old Magriet is practising her ballet steps, twirling around the cane furniture in her living room, watched by loving parent Gertruida Greyling, and Hermien Oosthuizen. The Brakpan lesbian couple celebrated a historic court decision this week when a judge ruled that their sexual proclivities do not preclude them from bringing up a child. […]
The South African Law Commission is reviewing the marriage Act to develop legislation to protect domestic partnerships, whether same- sex relationships or heterosexual cohabitation. While its report will only be out in July, another report looking at the sharing of pension benefits after a relationship has ended is due soon. The pension-benefits discussion paper will […]
Anton Marshall On stage in Cape Town If it’s very difficult talking to comics about serious issues, it’s hell talking to comics about funny issues. Somewhere in Church Street, central Cape Town, there is a unique little coffee lounge that is called – well, The Coffee Lounge. It is unusual in that one floor above […]