Elisa Segrave: PERSONAL HISTORY I found my brother’s things in a box in my mother’s attic. She must have put them there after he drowned in our grandmother’s pond on my seventh birthday in November 1956. He was five. I found the box recently while sorting out my mother’s house. She has Alzheimer’s and has […]
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 […]
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 […]
I am pleased that the Mail & Guardian regarded the recent disbanding of the Medicines Control Council (MCC) as sufficiently important to run as a cover story (“Zuma shuts down health watchdog”, March 27 to April 2). As a medical practitioner, I’d appreciate the opportunity to convey my anger and disillusionment at the outcome of […]
James Garner South African rock bands may come and go at a rate that makes the turnover of Bafana Bafana managers look comparatively pedestrian, but Cape Town four-piece Lithium are one group that has managed to keep things together and develop their sound over a period of time. Many people felt that the band’s days […]
Bog bodies are an archaeologist’s dream come true. They can bring history alive more than any old document. But now, exploitation of the preservative peat in which they are found stands to rob us of this crucial link, writes Michael Pitts Given that he was an archaeologist, you wouldn’t think he’d have needed a drink. […]
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 […]
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 […]