Nicky Barker Induna Jonathan Buthelezi lives with a small community in the tribal lands of the Buthelezi next to the Ngome Forest in KwaZulu-Natal. The clan occupies a piece of land on two timber farms adjacent to the Sapekoe Tea Plantation, where they all work. The farms run steeply down a mountain, with 80ha of […]

James Wood Underworld seems to me an achieved failure, of a kind any novelist might have been proud to produce. It is so often well- written, so punctually intelligent, so serious and ambitious, that it almost produces its own antibodies and makes criticism a small germ. One faults this novel warily, because DeLillo is an […]

hospitals Ann Eveleth Horror stories of South African public hospitals abound, but perhaps none more poignantly than recent claims by paediatric staff at Durban’s King Edward Hospital that “children have died because of insufficient staff being available”. The hospital’s paediatric department has battled “for years” to convince provincial health authorities to give it more nurses, […]

The state-owned synthetic fuel producer is demanding another R1,8-billion, reports Mungo Soggot Mossgas, the state-owned synthetic fuel producer which is one of South Africa’s most expensive white elephants, has asked the government for another R1,8-billion. The latest call for cash by the plant — which is controlled by the embattled Central Energy Fund (CEF) — […]

Charl Blignaut On stage in Johannesburg Three-quarters of the way through Kere Nyawo’s gritty prison comedy Hola Majita, a young male prisoner is forced to don a frock and perform the duties of a whore. Where is all this leading, I wonder. Another quaint, stereotypical comic device pretending to be something more than a handy […]

Andrew Muchineripi : Soccer No footballer will be more closely followed, on and off the pitch, during the African Nations Cup in Burkina Faso this month than Abedi Ayew, the veteran Ghana midfielder popularly known as Pele. To be named after the Brazilian who played in a World Cup final at 17 and is arguably […]

Mungo Soggot and Wonder Hlongwa The man who is likely to become deputy president of South Africa has been taken to court for not repaying his R120 000 overdraft and for failing to honour payments on a R400 000 home loan. Standard Bank confirmed this week that it successfully obtained judgment against Jacob Zuma — […]

Andy Duffy More than 530 people died at the hands of the police in the last nine months of 1997. Early investigations pinpoint police negligence as a main cause of the deaths, though the police watchdog, the Independent Complaints Directorate (ICD), has also found evidence of murder and culpable homicide. The ICD’s figures show that […]

John Seiler Important questions have been asked about the still-unresolved collapse of most major Pacific Rim financial markets and economies, but the common conclusion is flawed: that the Asian governments involved, and by extension this and other African governments, have a minimal role to play in dealing with the complex mix of economic and political […]

Ferial Haffajee A leaner, meaner Independent Broadcasting Authority (IBA) went on show this week at the start of its most gruelling licence hearings yet. By the end of March it must decide which of seven strong contenders will win the coveted private television licence. That’s a decision likely to be contested whichever way it goes […]