Anna Borzello in Kampala A coalition force of Ugandan rebels, Sudanese government troops and former fighters of ousted Zairean president Mobutu Sese Seko is operating from bases in Garamba National Park in the Democratic Republic of Congo, according to the Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA). Garamba, in the north-east of Congo, borders Sudan to the […]
Ferial Haffajee When Deputy President Thabo Mbeki returns from his Asian jaunt this weekend, he will bring little tangible home with him. But his visit to China, Japan, South Korea and Hong Kong has done an intangible good for Africa. “Mbeki’s visit has helped overcome the barrier of perception,” says Rafiek Bagus of Investment South […]
Andy Duffy The head of African studies at the University of Cape Town (UCT) has downed tools amid a racially charged dispute over the content of the university’s new foundation programme. Professor Mahmood Mamdani, director of the university’s Centre for African Studies, has withdrawn from the programme. A public seminar has been called on the […]
Suzy Bell Woodstockian and music collector Dave Marks may be from the wild flower-child generation, but he’s no Durban Poison whingeing hippie. He’s the dynamic managing director of Third Ear Music and he has kept meticulous archives of live recorded music over the past 30 years. Now it is starting to be released through an […]
Malcolm Hacksley SOLSTICE by Don Maclennan (Snailpress/Scottish Cultural Press, R49) Don Maclennan is intensely respectful towards words, his own and those of others, and uses them remarkably sparingly. The subjects and ideas in these poems call forth a spontaneous response, but the Maclennan response is rigorous in its self-control. Perhaps it is true that “songs […]
Brian Wafawarowa Opinion The current crisis in education poses one of the greatest threats ever to long-term development, peace and reconciliation in South Africa. The unheard truths about the atrocities perpetrated against the South African child through the denial of a decent education are as grievous as what has emerged at the truth commission. The […]
Mathole Motshekga’s past has come under new scrutiny from the ANC, writes Stefaans Brummer The African National Congress is investigating claims that Gauteng Premier Mathole Motshekga spied for the apartheid government. An ANC commission of inquiry – appointed in February to investigate a string of allegations against Motshekga, primarily of financial irregularities – has now […]
Bongani Siqoko Soccer Orlando Pirates midfield sensation Steve “Chippa” Lekoelea could see his childhood dreams become a reality this year. Lekoelea, who is gunning for a place in the Bafana Bafana squad to take part in the World Cup finals in France, could also land a contract with Dutch football giants PSV Eidenhoven. “When my […]
Jarvis Cocker is a latter-day folk hero in Britain. He talks to Caroline Sullivan about his and Pulp’s new album Jarvis Cocker is one of rock’s great kitchen-sink lyricists, so it was fitting that our first meeting took place in a kitchen. It was late 1992, at a party in a south London council flat. […]
Richard Williams: Movie of the week It has all the virtues of a classic British costume drama. A dead-on sense of period. Clothes so exquisite they make you want to go shopping. What a surprise, then, that we emerge from The Wings of the Dove thinking mostly about sex. Sex and Henry James? Hardly the […]