Janet Smith Since the 1950s in the United States, television has defined generations, with some programmes becoming objects of special public attention, even fanaticism. It’s no wonder a channel devoted to popular and cult series has finally been created, capitalising on the nostalgia of the television age before the digital generation overtakes it in the […]
Ann Eveleth United Democratic Movement leader Bantu Holomisa said this week he would ask Judge Willem Heath’s corruption watchdog to probe the involvement of close associates of Thabo Mbeki in the privatisation of tourism parastatal Aventura. Holomisa said Deputy President Mbeki and his entire office “should have recused itself” from a Cabinet committee set up […]
Herman Lategan: On stage in Cape Town Pick-Ups is the first play in Australian Alex Broun’s trilogy on the current state of easy sex, dysfunctional relationships and the fragility of the human condition. So what’s new? For years these clichs seem to have been the universal leitmotif in most of the world’s literary genres. But […]
In the early 1990s, analysts had few problems in assessing the South African leisure industry. The SABC ruled the airwaves from television to radio. In 1990, M-Net took a large slice of the top sector of entertainment viewership from the SABC. The film industry was ruled by NuMetro (part of the Gallo group, which was […]
Alex Sudheim: On stage in Durban On a boating trip in the English summer of 1862, Charles Lutwidge Dodgson held three children spellbound with the fantastical tales of a young girl in an imaginary land, all the while making hundreds of impromptu illustrations with a pencil. Upon returning home, he wrote down for Alice Liddell […]
Mungo Soggot A German citizen charged with sodomy and a string of banking scams involving sums of up to $100-billion has joined the club of heavyweight alleged fraudsters who fled South Africa and are now fighting extradition. Manfred Zachel was imprisoned in South Africa in 1996 after allegedly pulling off several frauds using a fake […]
Does conservatism lurk at the heart of the Klein Karoo festival?Lauren Shantall was there ‘Wat gaan die Afrik aner aan sy beeld doen? [What is the Afrikaner going to do about his image?]” a poster campaign asked provocatively at this year’s Klein Karoo Nasionale Kunsfees (KKNK) in Oudtshoorn. “Hy gaan hom lees [He’ll read it]” […]
Brenda Atkinson: Corporate art When Cecile Loedolff enthusiastically mentioned “totem poles” over a glass of wine and spinach phyllo tartlett in the Absa Towers foyer, I bit my tongue. Loedolff is Absa’s arts and function consultant, and the occasion was the announcement that the banking group will use a percentage of the building costs for […]
Keith Henderson Ficksburg and Fouriesburg are two small dorpies a couple of kilometres apart in the Free State. Around Easter, they probaby receive the most traffic they see all year. The local law-enforcement agencies probably get into a relative flap about the large numbers of strange-looking potential dagga-smokers that start appearing and do not approve […]
Dawood Dithato When Sir Ketumile Masire retired last week, the bitter pill of leaving Botswana’s highest office after 18 years was considerably sweetened. The size of the former president’s retirement package comes as another indication that his departure from public life was not the magnanimous gesture it was widely heralded to be, but a negotiated […]