Andy Duffy The group behind the controversial Aids drug, Virodene PO58, has so far spent around R1- million on the drug, including paying its manager roughly R150 000 for three months’ part- time work. Cryopreservation Technologies (CPT) refuses to divulge its funding sources, beyond its 10 feuding shareholders. But the extent of the expenditure, which […]
Alex Duval Smith Evidence of PW Botha’s personal role in ordering bomb attacks and killings to thwart anti- apartheid activity was revealed at this week’s trial of the former state president. The sensational minutes of top- secret meetings in the 1980s, obtained from the national archives by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, confirm claims that […]
What do you think? We invite our readers to respond to John Pilger’s analysis of South Africa. The best replies will each receive a free copy of his latest book, Hidden Agendas, published by Vintage. Fax your responses to (011) 403-1025 or e-mail [email protected]
Sexy Boys gang leader Michael Booysen has an uncanny gift for silencing witnesses and staying out of jail. Andy Duffy reports The investigation into the gang murder that triggered one of the most brutal conflicts on the Cape Flats is a case study in the many flaws in the state’s law enforcement armoury. The police […]
Education’s financial crisis is having a devastating impact on South Africa’s publishers of textbooks, writes Swapna Prabhakaran South African educational publishers face lean times as the Department of Education shifts gears, changing its approach to implementation of the new outcomes-based Curriculum 2005. While the new curriculum does require new textbooks, the department has sidestepped its […]
Shaun de Waal: CDs of the week Someone of an older generation once told me he felt quite upset that so few younger people would ever fully appreciate the joys of Mozart. I’m afraid I’m one of them, but I feel the same way as he did when it comes to jazz,particularly its greatest practitioners […]
Bill Buford: GRAFFITI The literary news in New York has been of acquisitions. The most noteworthy, of course, is the acquisition of Random House by Bertelman’s. The Pierpont Morgan library has just been given a gift of rare “American literary properties” collected by Carter Burden, a New York businessman with an interest in the media […]
Jane Rosenthal WAY UP WAY OUT by Harold Strachan (David Philip, R42,99) It’s a strange practice this, of putting out a brand new novel, first print run of the first edition, with snippets of review-type comment already adorning the cover. Way Up Way Out has been done in this way. And it’s not just any […]
Michael Billington: London theatre I have measured out my life in productions of Uncle Vanya – two in particular, by Laurence Olivier and Peter Stein, will haunt me to my grave. Katie Mitchell’s RSC/Young Vic co-production may not be on quite the same exalted plane, but it remains a treasurable occasion, penetrating the memory for […]
Dear Phillipe:…It certainly has not taken you long to become a household name in South Africa. One week to be precise. Snubbing the media, intimidating and humiliating players. What a start! I know you were critical of the South Africa media long before you set foot on our soil because I read your interview with […]