Robert Kirby: LOOSE CANNON I see The Great Professor Jay Naidoo is up to his Indian rope tricks again. Should racist-bashers bulge to the previous sentence, let rest. I use the term, Indian rope trick, in its flattering sense. As a part-time magician, I have only praise for illusi ons that both delight and confuse. […]
Shaun de Waal: International tour What does it all mean? Besides the obvious live band footage (treated or untreated), the series of images flashing past on the giant video screen that is arguably the most essential part of U2’s PopMart concert is an almost bewildering cornucopia of pop/ art iconicity. Perhaps it is unfair to […]
FRIDAY, 3.00PM: AN unbeaten 81 by Shaun Pollock, and poor slip catching by Roshan Mahanama, paved the way for South Africa to post a good first-innings total of 418 on the second day of the first Test against Sri Lanka at Newlands on Friday. Dropped by Mahanama when he had 25, Shaun Pollock lived on […]
Lynda Gledhill It may not be possible to put a price on someone’s life, but doctors know it takes enormous amounts of money to give the thousands of South Africans infected with HIV a longer, healthier life. Drug therapies have proven to be very effective at fighting the virus and have dramatically improved the outlook […]
Alet van Rensburg The new civilian caretakers of Vlakplaas – former base of the notorious police C-10 hit squad – are interested in buying the farm from the government and turning it into a rehabilitation centre for “lost souls”. The old farmhouse on Vlakplaas is now filled with Louis and Lucia Smit’s furniture. They’ve turned […]
Marion Edmunds One of the world’s most respected human rights watchdogs has accused the South African government of committing serious human rights abuses against illegal immigrants, in a damning report that draws parallels with the apartheid regime’s treatment of blac ks. The Human Rights Watch report is the first significant attack from an international agency […]
Stefaans Brummer Gauteng Premier Mathole Motshekga has spun a web of lies around an accident three years ago in which his luxury Toyota was wrecked. Afterwards, he ran up a car-finance debt of more than R140 000, but ignored a court order to settle. The inconsistencies appear to include perjury, when Motshekga insisted in an […]
GANDHI’S LEGACY: THE NATAL INDIAN CONGRESS, 1894-1994 by Surendra Bhana (University of Natal Press, R64,95) Though not the only Indian political organisation in Natal during the last century or so, the Natal Indian Congress (NIC) was by far the most important in terms of commitment to liberation not just for Indians but for the disenfranchised […]
Marthali Brand The Internet is set to be the next advertising goldmine, if the number of online South African newspapers is anything to go by. A search for newspapers on the South Africa Online search engine gives more than 30 hits, including obscure publications like Die Padda and Colin’s Family Focus. But the really serious […]
Adam HauptOn stage in Cape Town The nightlife in central Cape Town is vibrant, and a casual observer watching the cars cruising and the dudes boozing might easily think that the multicultural beast that is South Africa is perfectly represented here. But this is a misapprehension. The m ore pretentious forms of cultural expression still […]