Adam Haupt The South African Screenwriters’ Laboratory (Scrawl) is one of those laboratories which South Africa’s Oh Schucks … society would never have imagined possible during the crocodile years. In fact, many film makers (and those trying to break into the predominantly white male industry) still whinge quite tearfully that the future of filmmaking is […]

Tangeni Amupadhi The civil war in Angola could resume as early as this month despite recent concessions by the rebel Unita movement to the terms of the Lusaka peace accord, a report by the Institute for Security Studies (ISS) says. According to the ISS, a rift has emerged within Unita between those opposed to war […]

Alex Sudheim: On show in Durban ‘I do not care about fashion, only about permanencies,” proclaims neo-modernist Jeanette Winterson, tireless defender of the timeless, transcendent nature of great art. A point of view which has been heavily denigrated with the establishment of postmodernism’s hypercriticality. “What is certain is that pictures and poetry and music are […]

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]” […]