Janet Smith PROFESSOR EXPERIMENTO’S FRIGHTENING FORMULA by Janie Oosthuysen (Human & Rousseau, R24,95) Children who are already on their way to reading novels will love this unusual little drama, set in a scientific lab, where rats are infinitely more brave and clever than the humans who would experiment on them. It tells the tale of […]
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]
Who is . . . Vuka Tshabalala? Swapna Prabhakaran and Mungo Soggot Judges rarely open their mouths outside court. When they do, it is never about their cases. And it is almost never about themselves. It was therefore a surprising decision on the part of Judge Vuka Tshabalala to abandon the rule of silence outside […]
Andy Capostagno Cricket People tell me I have a nice job. Go to as many rugby and cricket matches as you like, don’t pay to get in, write a few lines about the match and spend the rest of the day relaxing in the pool on one of those inflatable chairs with a hole in […]
A decade ago the satirist Pieter-Dirk Uys portrayed a beer-paunched yob drunkenly staggering around the stage, yelling: “I’m a white South African – so fuck you all!” The audience would giggle nervously at their recognition of this familiar bully, the quintessential macho rugger-bugger, reckless, brainless and loud, flaunting his bigotry at all those unfortunate enough […]
Lizeka Mda: CITY LIMITS That Simone! She is a daredevil on wheels as she hurtles down the pavement along Clarendon Place on roller skates. When her cousin Illone points out a gentle slope on the premises of the Hillbrow police station as being ideal for a slide, Simone launches herself with all the force of […]
John Hooper in Rome The job of safeguarding cultural treasures, said Eugenio La Rocca, picking his words with exquisite care, “needs to be carried out without clamour, though we never intended to turn it into a clandestine activity”. There again, anyone might proceed with caution if he were admitting to the world that he had […]
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 […]
Charlene Smith Minnie Mouse, Mickey Mouse, flying ducks and cheaply made chintzy porcelain with transfer printing are among the hottest items selling at antique dealers now. And while your mother or grandmother may have paid a few bob for them in the Fifties, they are now selling for thousands. Kitsch rules. Royal Winton, described by […]
WEDNESDAY, 6.00PM: A DAMNING report cataloguing the Nigerian military junta’s systematic violation of basic human rights was issued by a UN special rapporteur on Wednesday. The report, the first to be devoted entirely to Nigeria, provoked an angry reaction from Nigeria’s foreign minister Tom Ikimi, who said the European Union, and Britain in particular, wants […]