Tangeni Amupadhi Mpumalanga police have failed to trace a former Delmas mental patient who they say might help in the investigation of the beheading murders of at least four people. The police said Johannes Mohale- Monareng (alias Mohlala), who cut off a child’s head and tried selling it in 1990, was last seen at his […]
Friday night Nathan Zeno There is no Saturday night in Cape Town – or rather Saturday night is for losers. Let me qualify that. If you know anything about this town, you’ll be in bed recovering on Saturday night. There is enough on any given Friday night to exhaust you and if not there’s always […]
Robert Kirby: Loose cannon Like many of my fellow citizens, I am now sleeping much more comfortably at night. After South Africa’s much maligned defence force so commendably and so swiftly trounced one of the poorest, most fragile countries on the African continent, I find instilled in me a feeling of enraptured patriotic self-esteem. Not […]
season Mercedes Sayagues tries a popular Southern African aphrodisiac, but finds the side effects too hot to handle I tried wankie, and it works. But I don’t think I will try it again. Wankie (herbs, in seShona) is the generic word for traditional aphrodisiacs for women in Zimbabwe, but there are as many names as […]
politics Cameron Duodu: LETTER FROM THE NORTH The Democratic Republic of Congo has always aroused two contradictory emotions in me as an African: the ecstasy created in the soul by appreciation of some of the best music on the continent, and the fear and anger aroused in the mind by irrational, blood-spattered politics that resurfaces […]
Lauren Shantall Movie of the week In an apathy-addled, dislocated age, Michael di Jiacomo’s latest offering, Animals – screened together with his short film The Tollkeeper – measures out an imaginatively potent dose of heartfelt living. Screened first, the highly visual The Tollkeeper is an unexpected cinematic treat. It opens, in the grainy black and […]
In Andr Brink, Africa meets Europe. He talks about his latest novel to John Higgins `There he stopped, and turned his back to the precipice, and …” The audience gasped in horror as Andr Brink completed the sentence from his new novel, Devil’s Valley (Secker &Warburg). Genuine horror: Brink’s narrative had captivated everyone, no mean […]
Lesotho rebel soldiers this week invited reporter Sechaba ka’Nkosi to view their secret camps Rebel soldiers of the Lesotho Defence Force (LDF), who ignored this week’s ultimatum to report back to their bases, claim a large quantity of arms are in their hands at safe houses around the capital Maseru and in surrounding villages. The […]
Keep South Africa Beautiful closed its files this week after its funds dried up, writes Wonder Hlongwa South Africa’s biggest waste management and environmental awareness organisation has closed shop because of corruption, mismanagement and lack of funds and direction. The closure of Keep South Africa Beautiful comes at a time when government departments are struggling […]
Mungo Soggot The Supreme Court of Appeal has ushered in a new era of press freedom with a ruling that journalists can escape liability for false and defamatory facts by showing they were reasonable or careful. The landmark judgment in favour of City Press will release South African journalists from a long list of rulings […]