Bill Ann Eveleth : IN THE ACT Minister of Health Nkosazana Zuma has the tobacco industry huffing and puffing over the Tobacco Products Control Amendment Bill, which aims to discourage young people from taking up smoking. Anti-smokers and a curious array of pro- tobacco lobbyists – including the Congress of South African Trade Union’s affiliated […]

Mungo Soggot The Cabinet has given Minister of Public Service and Administration Zola Skweyiya an extra R300-million to pay civil servants and fund the transformation of the public service. The increase is about 10% of the government’s R3,4-billion budget for what the public service department terms “the improvement of conditions of service”. The increase was […]

Loose cannon: Robert Kirby Like a lot of other South African men, I was pleasantly amused by Suzanne Daley’s often humorous quips about how diffident we South African males have been when it has come to keeping up with the life-needs of the ladies in our midst (“I’ll Have To Ask My Husband”, October 16 […]

This could be one of those rare concerts that goes down in history like the Amnesty International Concert in Harare in 1988. So if you’ve got some wheels and you’re in need of a restorative African musical adventure, then put that cabbie into first and head for lush Mpumalanga. About 30 minutes past Nelspruit off […]

Ken Barris THE LOSTNESS OF ALICE by John Conyngham (Ad Donker) The Lostness of Alice, the third novel by KwaZulu-Natal author John Conyngham, is placed on the cusp of South Africa’s transition. FW de Klerk is still in power, negotiations are proceeding in fits and starts, and the pariah status of the country is only […]

Alex Duval Smith Hundreds of people have been killed along the Nigerian coast, tens of thousands have been forced from their homes, and oil production – crucial to the country’s economy – has been cut by a quarter by an escalation of unrest that shows signs of civil war. The conflict began a month ago […]

LEWIS MACHIPISA, Harare | Friday 7.30pm. PICKETING Harare city council workers on Friday burnt the Zimbabwean national flag and assaulted the deputy mayor as they vetted their anger over the non-payment of their October salaries. The workers have vowed not to return to work unless they get their wages. They also are calling for the […]

Renowned cultural writer Mark Gevisser talks to Matthew Krouse about his journey to the essence of one of Johannesburg’s unique forgotten heroes In the city of Johannesburg, overrun with live chickens and minibus taxis, Anstey’s building retains its stark majesty. Not only because it’s a well maintained survivor of the city’s New York age, but […]

Anthony Browne: SHARE WORLD As the financial whirlwind that started in Thailand 15 months ago engulfs the rest of the world, it is difficult not to be pessimistic. A quarter of the world is in recession, the United States and the United Kingdom may well follow, Brazil and China are struggling, while the Indonesian economy […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Lagos | Friday 9.00pm. NIGERIAN authorities have imposed an overnight curfew on the oil town of Warri after clashes there left five youths dead and five soldiers wounded, a military officer said on Friday. The dusk-to-dawn curfew was ordered late on Thursday — the day of the clashes between youths of rival communities […]