Alex Clark The End of Alice by AM Homes (Anchor, R69,95) This novel, an everyday tale of paedophilia and child murder in middle-class America, is published in paperback plastered with the panegyrics of American critics, united mainly by their admiration for AM Homes’s horrifyingly “real” treatment of a taboo subject. At the same time, the […]

Despite attempts by leaders to clean up corruption in Africa, graft remains the order of the day in many countries, reports Chris McGreal There was a time when Kinshasa Airport induced mild panic in all who contemplated its grubby portals. A cocktail of chaos, intimidation and outright threats usually helped denude visiting business people of […]

Stefaans Brummer Evidence against Gauteng Premier Mathole Motshekga mounted this week when it emerged that the United States embassy in Pretoria had serious reservations about his administration of donor money in 1989. The Mail & Guardian earlier reported that the Irish organisation Trocaire, a conduit for European Union donor money, severed links with Motshekga’s National […]

Dan Glaister in London All in all, Elton John should be feeling quite pleased. After all, just 250 for some curtains is not bad by any standards. But unfortunately the other items on his 280 050 weekly spending list are causing concern. Accountants have warned of a cashflow crisis for the singer whose Candle in […]

Lesley Cowling : Material World Jetlag could be cured by shining a light behind your knees, say scientists who have discovered light-detecting equipment there. Experts in circadian rhythms, the daily nature cycles that cause flowers to open during the day, have found what they call “extraocular circadian phototransduction” behind the human knee. They tested 15 […]

FRIDAY, 8.00AM: PRETORIA Judge William De Villers on Thursday issued a summons to President Nelson Mandela to appear in court to explain his decision to appoint a commission of inquiry into rugby. The decision has alarmed the government, and Mandela’s legal adviser Nicholas Haysom said it will set a precedent, allowing anyone to challenge the […]

Andy Duffy African National Congress Western Cape leader Dullah Omar will resign this weekend, opening the door to a lively succession race and the possible dissolution of the party’s entire provincial leadership structure. The first public skirmish in the battle to fill Omar’s shoes broke out this week in two of the party’s most powerful […]

Steve Morris : Rugby The acid test for South Africa’s new regionalised Super 12 system does not come on Friday February 27, when the southern hemisphere’s provincial championship kicks off in Cape Town where the Western Stormers face Wellington at Newlands. Neither will it really come should one of the local composite teams make the […]

Iden Wetherell Televised scenes of demonstrators being teargassed and robust editorials in the country’s leading daily have so angered Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe that he has ordered a radical shake-up of the state-owned media that will see his already tight grip reinforced. Traditionally a faithful ally of Zimbabwe’s entrenched political establishment, the government media have […]

Palme d’Or winner A Taste of Cherry is now showing on the Cannes mini-festival. Dinah Arnott introduces its brilliant director. The award of a Cannes Palme d’Or to A Taste of Cherry, a film by Abbas Kiarostami, will hopefully bring the work of this astounding Iranian director greater prominence. From a background in painting and […]