For decades, ‘Miss Katia’ was the first port-of-call for war reporters in Angola. John Grobler met her in Cape Town, where she is retired Sometime in 1977, the government in Luanda had “a little coup trouble” and imposed a midnight-to-6am curfew – which remained in place for the next 15 years or so. “I think […]

Babak Dehghanpisheh An Egyptianwriter who converted from Islam to Christianity and is resident in South Africa has come under fire from Muslims and is now under police protection. Known only as Mustafa, the name under which he writes, he is a scholar who fled persecution in Egypt -where conversion is illegal – making an incredible […]

Andrew Muchineripi: Soccer Arch-rivals Kaizer Chiefs and Orlando Pirates meet for the third time this season at FNB Stadium on Saturday, and after two drawn championship clashes there must be a result in the Bob Save Super Bowl second-round clash. The luck of the draw brought together at an early stage two teams the public […]

Lorraine Pace While out walking his dog one summer’s day John Payne met an angel. “It was an ethereal bright golden image, a bit like a shadow embossed on air,” says Payne of his encounter. “The angel was very tall, about 3m, and while no words were spoken I heard a message: ‘You are loved.’ […]

Andy Capostagno: Cricket One hundred and forty seven is an important number. It was the number of the bus I used to catch to school and it was the number achieved for the first time in the world snooker championships by the reformed Canadian pool hustler, Cliff Thorburn. When Thorburn sank 15 reds, 15 blacks […]

Charl Blignaut: On stage in Johannesburg Confounding though it may seem, it is quite likely that one of the main reasons South African contemporary dance finds itself poised on the brink of serious international acclaim has to do with the battle for resources and a workable artistic space that local dance has had to emerge […]

Connor Cullinan Radical adult comic book Bitterkomix has been excluded from this year’s Klein Karoo Nasionale Kunstefees (KKK) in Oudtshoorn, despite a successful show at last year’s event. The organisers have given conflicting reasons for the exclusion; Bitterkomix’s editors say they suspect censorship by stealth. The comic, an Afrikaans collection of graphic narrative, was founded […]

David Beresford A LONG NIGHT’S DAMAGE: WORKING FOR THE APARTHEID STATE by Eugene de Kock as told to Jeremy Gordin (Contra Press, R89,95) The temptation is to recommend this book as required reading in South Africa’s schools, offering as it does an awful warning to future generations as to the consequences when society allows the […]

Martin Scorsese’s film Kundun is one of several new Hollywood movies on Tibet, writes Ed Douglas Long ago, in a land far, far away, a gentle people who believed in the spiritual force that joins us with everything else in the universe was overrun by an evil empire that believed in nothing beyond the material […]

Stephen GrayUnspoilt places Borakalalo means (in Setswana) the “relaxing-place”, and it encompasses what previously was known by red-faced fisherfolk as the Klipvoor resort. Boetie with his latest bait still wades out through the reeds to reel in a gasping silver, yellow-streaked common carp, with scales like rand coins – at his own risk these days, […]