Golden moans It’s all sleaze, bullies and damn lies this week. And most of it took place in the allegedly calm, tranquil and like, shoo hey peace man, city of Cape Town. Several reports of abuse of musicians have been filtering in from the weekend’s huge Benson & Hedges Golden Tones kwaito and d’gong bash. […]

Andrew Muchineripi : Boxing What does the future hold for newly-crowned WBU heavyweight champion Corrie Sanders? The 31-year-old Pretoria southpaw completely overshadowed American Ross Puritty in a non-contest at the Carousel last Saturday and set himself up for an encounter with a champion of another organisation, probably at the same venue next February. IBF junior […]

Mercedes Sayagues : Unspoilt places Life in Ras Nungwi is regulated by the tide. At Zanzibar’s northern tip, tides are gentle but far-reaching. As the turquoise water recedes 2,5km to the coral reef village women appear. Their high-pitched voices, Swahili laughter and lively gossip – women’s complicity in a rare moment of freedom from family […]

FRIDAY, 6:30PM: BENNETT SIBIYA, the man who ‘framed’ a Truth Commissioner, admitted yet another lie to the Goldstone Commission (see below): he said he only did gardening as a ‘cover’, and that his real occupation was a poacher. He said he had been caught poaching crayfish in January 1994 by policeman Des Segal. Instead of […]

Jonathan Romney New music Four months ago, Robert Wyatt became a grandfather at the age of 52, and it’s fair to say that the role suits him down to the ground. He has the right beard for the part, and he makes the kind of music you’d rather hope a grandfather would make – melancholic, […]

his sleeve? The Most Reverend Njongonkulu Ndungane writes that Sipo Mzimela’s actions reflect a cavalier attitude to democratic government It is common cause that South Africa has some of the most overcrowded prisons in the world. It is also common cause that this country earned a name for itself, pre-1994, as having a prison system […]

Janet Smith In a cyber world, girls are not necessarily made of sugar and spice and all things nice, nor do virtual crocodiles necessarily eat them smeared in caramel. But Codi (see cover picture), with her Fifth Element bob and her hot-stuff lycra playwear, is as spunky as good girls from reality are sweet. Born […]

Madeleine Wackernagel : Taking Stock Everybody’s talking about it – globalisation, that is. And everyone, apparently, is part of the new economic paradigm. There are exceptions, of course, but apart from a few retrograde isolationists, the world is one great big, happy market. We’ve been here before: globalisation is simply a new term for an […]

Uganda is a nation numbed by past atrocities. But, despite a booming economy, the hard times are not over yet. Matthew Engel reports On alternate evenings, everyone’s electricity is switched off for up to four hours at a time. North of the capital there is a savage war going on. There is another one to […]