Dror Eyal The dust is blowing in from the east. Sand clouds that whip the air, flay my skin, sting in my eyes. Dust in each breath I swallow, grit grating between teeth, sticking in my throat. Dust in my food, dust in my beer. Winds blowing up a storm in front of the main […]

For the time being, war-torn Sierra Leone has no standing army of its own. But Chief Sam Hinka Norman, reappointed as deputy minister of defence, says he has other forces to call on. “If you point your rifle at me, you may believe it, it will not strike me,” he says. “When all this is […]

Andrew Muchineripi : Soccer It has been the worst of times and the best of times for Doctor Khumalo, the Kaizer Chiefs and Bafana Bafana icon, who comes closer to walking on water than any other South African soccer star. Just how popular Doctor is was driven home with a forceful bang at FNB Stadium […]

Shaun de Waal : CD of the week It is not in order to denigrate him that one argues Philip Glass has found his perfect medium in the film score. His operas -and opera has long been seen as a pinnacle of the Western art-music tradition -are long and boring to listen to; Glass’s minimalist […]

Stefaans Brmmer Mininster of Safety and Security Sydney Mufamadi has shrugged off murder claims against Superintendent Lappies Labuschagne, the member of the police team investigating Robert McBride – but now Mufamadi faces civil action for the death of one of Labuschagne’s alleged victims. Mufamadi and police Deputy Commissioner Zolisa Lavisa have resisted calls for Labuschagne’s […]

Andy Capostagno : Cricket It must be something in the genes. National team selectors of any sporting code from any country are usually men (or women) of experience and intelligence with an understanding of the pressures and complexities of their particular game, individuals who talk genuine horse sense on the golf course or in the […]

Re-skilling and counselling are the new norms for retrenchments, writes Charlene Smith More and more people are facing retrenchment as companies have to let go of the old to make way for the new – take the large corporation that recently retrenched 80 top managers to make way for affirmative action appointees. Restructuring – and […]

Mungo Soggot The downfall of state oil chief Don Mkhwanazi this week came after the Cabinet blocked an earlier attempt by the Minister of Minerals and Energy, Penuell Maduna, to keep him at the helm of the Central Energy Fund (CEF). Maduna tried to persuade the Cabinet that Mkhwanazi, the fund’s chair, and his board […]

Suzy Bell Clay – ubumba -has never looked so glamorous. “Ceramics!” sniffs Kobus Moolman, the education officer of the Tatham Art Gallery in Pietermaritzburg, as his hand waves at the magnificent historical and contemporary collection of ceramics now on exhibit. There are delicate animal studies by Hezekile Ntuli from the 1930s, voluptuous beer vessels in […]

Claudia Braude Negotiating the Past: The Making of Memory in South Africa edited by Carli Coetzee and Sarah Nuttall (Oxford, R110) South African academics and artists have discovered the memory market, a thriving area in the United States and elsewhere. In Negotiating the Past: The Making of Memory in South Africa, editors Carli Coetzee and […]