Kate Turkington INTO AFRICA: A Journey Through The Ancient Empires by Marq de Villiers and Shiela Hirtle (Jonathan Ball, R89,99) Analysing Africa is a bit like facing the many-headed Hydra. Just as you’ve got one section neatly disposed of, another rears up and puts you back where you started. Similarly, any book that attempts “to […]

Lynda Gledhill Compassion, caring and commitment has kept a non-governmental organisation in Pietermaritzburg alive despite a severe shortage of donor funds. While other organisations close down when the funding tap is switched off or fail to report properly to funders when extraneous spending occurs, Winnie Kubayi has kept her project alive and manages to report […]

More needs to be done to help local governments overcome their financial crises, writes Caroline Kihato The financial crisis that afflicts local government needs to be resolved. Local government is regarded as pivotal to development in South Africa as the majority of the population depend on it for the delivery of much-needed social services. By […]

Andrew Worsdale Domestic war film of the week In 1973 director Ang Lee (The Wedding Banquet, Eat Drink Man Woman and Sense and Sensibility) hadn’t set foot in the United States and couldn’t speak English. So it’s deeply paradoxical that he has directed a perceptive, poignant and sharp movie about the US during the era […]

Several million people and their families will be affected by the listings of South Africa’s two largest life insurance groups on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) within the next 18 months. For more than a year market observers have been expecting Sanlam and Old Mutual to announce their plans to demutualise and list on the […]

Wally Lambert As stock markets across the globe continue to react with no apparent logic to troubles in the East, there are few investors who haven’t considered cashing in their unit trusts for a holiday destination where nobody’s heard of “Asian flu”. Others will be looking to their “friendly” financial advisers while scouring the economic […]

Feminist hero or sex-fantasy figure? An icon for our times or archetypal goddess? Richard Kelly Heft discusses Barbie’s appeal She’s disparaged by feminists, studied by academics and is a subject of artists. Two Barbie dolls are sold every second of every day and now she is a cultural icon of our times. Barbie can inspire […]

Moi Lucy Hannan in Nairobi Dismay at recent political killings overshadowed the opening session of the Kenyan Parliament this week. Both sides of the house stamped, shouted and jeered, and opposition MPs waved placards protesting at “genocide” and “a legacy of killing”. More than 100 people have been killed in Rift Valley province since January […]

Shaun de Waal CD of the week Despite the recent lionisation of (Sir) Paul McCartney, mostly on the back of a bunch of old Beatles leftovers, he is still less interesting than the other half of pop’s most famous songwriting partnership. John Lennon’s post-Beatles output was uneven (blame Yoko!), but at least he kept pushing […]

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 […]