Sechaba ka’Nkosi Divisions within the African National Congress’s top structures this week spared Gauteng MEC for Safety and Security Jessie Duarte her job for the time being, despite growing pressure on Premier Mathole Motshekga to sack her. Senior officials in the party are said to have been furious at Duarte’s decision this week to withdraw […]
Vatmaar, the Afrikaans novel by a man in his 70s which won the M-Net and the CNAprizes, recently elicited a heated auction among German publishers. The rights to a German translation were finally sold to Luchterhand, a literary house with a good reputation, for a high five-figure sum. Vatmaar has already been published Meulenhoff in […]
Adam Haupt The University of Cape Town’s Contemporary African Music and Arts Archive (Cama) got its African Alchemy project started with a workshop, which was facilitated by musician, producer and artist Brian Eno. The obvious connection to be made here is with the forthcoming visit of mega pop group U2’s Popmart tour – Eno produced […]
Andy Duffy Nine of the 10 deans at the University of Cape Town (UCT) are to be replaced as part of an aggressive affirmative action drive and management shake-up. The university is also putting all staff through rigorous performance checks, to weed out underachievers and free up posts for new black and female employees. All […]
Nigeria Nobel laureate Wole Soyinka visited South Africa for a writers’ festival in Durban. He spoke to Suzy Bell A distinguished man in black sips a cold Amstel in the retro lounge of the Blue Waters Hotel in Durban. He’s Wole Soyinka, acclaimed playwright, essayist, novelist and memoirist. He’s the quietly spoken winner of the […]
up Winning tenders to run government contracts is becoming an increasingly important source. There are widespread fears that this may contribute to a decline in criticism of the government. Mark Heywood, head of the Aids Law Project, which may close at the end of this month after government funding was cut back, says foreign funders […]
Lynda Gledhill Preliminary results of a financial audit of South Africa’s largest literacy NGO – the National Literacy Co-operation (NLC) – closed the doors of the organisation last week amid allegations of mismanagement. The initial report, released to the Mail & Guardian this week, confirms a lack of proper record keeping and expenditures that were […]
The political mud-slinging that erupted this week between the Democratic Party and the African National Congress over the so-called “Aids treatment” Virodene has served to obscure the real issues, and significant dangers, associated with the Virodene project. Minister of Health Nkosazana Zuma’s fierce response seems to indicate that the tenacious minister has not yet given […]
Mungo Soggot Central Energy Fund chair Don Mkhwanazi tried to crush government opposition to his appointment of Emanuel Shaw II with a string of threatening letters to the civil servant who raised the alarm. The Mail & Guardian is in possession of two letters Mkhwanazi wrote to Deputy Director General of Minerals and Energy Gordon […]
Suzy Bell: Durban nightlife The cool idea of a “recovery room” and cigar lounge at Bean Bag Bohemia, installation art at Crash, capuccino chairs at Jamb Lounge, breakbeat insanity at Bedlam, and the mellow mood at Dusk till Dawn constitute a fine, fat slobbery kiss for Durban’s nightlife, which has clawed its way from the […]