doubts Sechaba ka’Nkosi Former Transvaal attorney general Jan d’Oliveira confessed his doubts about the state’s case against the Eikenhof Three to the Chief Justice Ismail Mahomed as early as last September. However, exactly six weeks later, D’Oliveira surprisingly revoked his earlier stance, citing “certain consultations” and said he would oppose any application for remittal D’Oliveira […]

strength stuns MPLA Unita’s improved military strength is of growing concern to Angola and its neighbours, write Chris Gordon and Howard Barrell Unita military pressure on the government has escalated dangerously over the past week, prompting deep concern among neighbouring governments. A powerful Unita offensive, including tanks and heavy artillery, on forces at Kuito and […]

Twenty-five years after William Plomer’s death, Stephen Gray searched out more of his literary remains A quarter of a century ago William Plomer died in England unexpectedly. His revision of his two memoirs into one Autobiography was not yet complete. His Collected Poems of 1973 – including all of his best South African items – […]

Andrew Worsdale Movies of the week I once worked at Film Fun, renting out 16mm movies. With a host of films to choose from, my favourite was Norman Jewison’s The Cincinnati Kid with Steve McQueen and Edward G. Robinson. A gambling movie set in New Orleans in the 1930s, I must have watched it five […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Friday 6.50pm. THE South African “A” team which meets the touring West Indies at the Pietermaritzburg Oval on Saturday are certain to be in for some fireworks. The team, skippered by Gauteng wicketkeeper Nick Pothas, is woefully underprepared for the near-Test situation and half the team will only arrive in Pietermaritzburg […]

Captain Euro Donna Block: SHARE WORLD Look, up in the sky! It’s a bird. It’s a banker in blue tights. No it’s Captain Euro, defender of truth, justice and a stable European exchange rate. Armed with a currency converter and calculator-like brain, the latest costumed cutie to hit the streets of Paris, London, Milan, Cologne […]

Ken Barris, who won the M-Net Book Prize for The Jailer’s Book, has just published a new novel. Shaun de Waal interviewed him via e-mail Your new novel, Evolution (Zebra) is not nearly as dense as The Jailer’s Book, either on the level of the prose and metaphor, or on the level of the narrative […]

Ratanga Junction – `the first full- scale theme park in Africa’ – opened its doors to a fun-hungry public this week. Dave Chislett dared to ride the Cobra roller-coaster As one approaches the main gates to Cape Town’s Ratanga Junction the first feelings of unreality begin to set in. I mean, how many people do […]

Robert Mattes: A SECOND LOOK As reported recently (“The ANC and the seven dwarfs”, December 4 to 10), voter surveys have revealed increasingly large proportions of voters who might be persuaded to vote differently than they did in 1994. The first Opinion ’99 survey in September 1998 revealed that 56% of all potential voters now […]

An exhibition full of evocative images shows Africa as seen by African photographers, reports Alex Dodd >From its earliest days photography has been a dangerous medium. Since its inception last century, photographic images of Africa have mainly served to bolster Western perceptions of this continent as a messy tangle of jungle, starvation, exoticism, ignorance, weakness […]