curious tale of three schools Bengu’s school falls on hard times Andy Duffy The school Minister of Education Sibusiso Bengu established and ran before he went into politics has been hit by funding cuts, forcing it to close its doors to hundreds of schoolchildren. The KwaZulu-Natal provincial education department has told Dlangezwa High School that […]

Bongani Siqoko: Soccer When the new national soccer team caretaker coach Matsilele Jomo Sono named his squad for the Confederation of Southern African Football Associations (Cosafa) Cup match against Namibia in Windhoek on Friday, one player whose call-up was long overdue is Mamelodi Sundowns defender Themba Mnguni. Mnguni has been awaiting the call-up since the […]

Lynda Gledhill At times this week it seemed as though the paint peeling off the walls was moving faster than justice inside the Johannesburg Magistrate’s Court. There was nothing that could be done to stop the additional delays in court processes brought on by prosecutors’ refusal to work overtime. Defence attorneys, who at the beginning […]

Janine Stephen ‘I tell you what,” said local resident Jean George in a hushed tone, “that American lady was half bare.” Nominated for the 1997 Adult Video awards’ Best Group Sex Scene and Best Female Performer of the Year, United States porn star Christi Lake brought reporters flocking to Parow Industria on the dusty outskirts […]

Melvyn Minnaar : Potable pleasures Tradition has been trashed. That’s the general view – not only in Matieland, Melville and Malmesbury, but also in Mozambique – of the terrible Tassenberg Tragedy. The most famous and best-selling red wine in our country has been bastardised. Tassenberg’s label tells a new, sad truth: the contents in the […]

Brenda Atkinson wonders whether Kendell Geers’s recent show was a success. Was it a punchline without a joke? An olive without a Martini? A vetkoek without filling? Was it an ingeniously constructed art event, an accurate barometer of cultural neurosis, or a distorted painting of political intervention gone horribly wrong? It was an exhibition by […]

Ann Eveleth A South African parachute manufacturer has threatened an irate consumer with extortion charges after the skydiver demanded his money back for faulty equipment that could have cost him his life. The Durban-based Chute Shop told Witbank skydiver Paul Ikin it would lay a criminal charge against him if he persisted with his threats […]

Greg Bowes Get the Funk Out (GTFO), the CD-sized magazine that billed itself as “the entertainment magazine for advantaged common folk” has ended its print-run. Its recently launched sister publication Explorer will continue to provide fortnightly listings for the Gauteng area. In its short lifetime GTFO transformed itself from a somewhat unfocused A4 mag to […]

Robert Kirby : Loose cannon Granthurst High Security Pre-Release Cellblock North Hampshire January 19 1998 My dear Mr Mandela I have heard that you might well be soon looking for a new political heavy to run one of your richer provinces into the ground. One of your UK talent scouts advised me to apply to […]

A medical programme to eradicate river blindness enters its second decade with great results, writes Anthony Gilbert For centuries, a debilitating, disfiguring and often blinding disease called river blindness (onchocerciasis) has plagued people who live in tropical regions. The disease is endemic in 35 countries, primarily in parts of Central and West Africa and limited […]