Steve Smith Live in Cape Town I once read this astute statement somewhere (Q magazine, I think): “A significant measure of a band’s ability is how they approach cover songs.” Witnessing a gig shared by Cape Town bands Fever Pussy and Blunt, the accuracy of that yardstick was once again confirmed. One band got it […]
Watching local soccer drama Lisenethini on SABC1, Peter Makurube recalls days when failure to gain entry to a stadium reduced grown men to tears The creation of a soccer drama Lisenethini, starring local heroes, about our own demi-gods of the pigskin, is the best thing to have happened on television since the first screenings of […]
Band member and music writer Dave Chislett gives his view of 5FM’s live sessions Lately, late night radio listeners will have encountered a treat on 5FM, at 11.30 on Tuesday nights: the TDK Live’n’Loud sessions, on Barney Simon’s South African music explosion slot, have been showcasing the very best in South African rock and pop […]
OWN CORRESPONDENT, Cape Town | Thursday 7.00pm. AN inquest into the murder of Cape Flats drug-lord and gang leader Rashied Staggie, on Thursday heard evidence in Cape town that the group responsible for his death, Pagad, at the time considered the murder to be a military operation. A police operative Captain David Africa told the […]
Zwelithini ka Mvelase Uncompromising winter’s sun blasts its ultraviolet rays into my eyes as we swing into the Hector Petersen Square, Orlando West, for a presentation to Soweto of an art work titled Hector Petersen Mosaic, by the late activist/artist Theo Gerber’s wife, Susie. It’s Sunday in Soweto, Donny Hathaway’s soul classic Children of the […]
It’s been a long hot summer for Russian markets and just when relief appeared to be on the way with an International Monetary Fund (IMF)bail- out package of $22,6-billion, a new wave of panic sent the already brutalised financial markets into a tailspin. Economic fallout from the Russian crisis could spell political trouble. For European […]
Tangeni Amupadhi A string of extraordinary coincidences surrounds the death of Josiah ”Fingers” Rabotapi, one of South Africa’s most industrious criminals, who was shot dead by police in a Sandown flat on Tuesday. Black officers charged with tracking Rabotapi – who was on the run after escaping from custody – were sent to search for […]
Chris Roper On show in Cape Town The listing for this exhibition in the Mail & Guardian last week read ”Four Durban artists”, without their names. It’s a space-saving ploy, but it also says a lot about the way we Capetonians conceptualise the foreigners in our midst, as if they’re some kind of homogeneous group […]
money Michael Metelits One of the more puzzling, and confusing, ideas in finance is the notion of a money market. But money markets are actually relatively simple, and form a key part of a diversified investment portfolio. When you borrow money, you are ”buying” money now in exchange for money in the future. The ”price” […]
Nicci Gerrard First Person Things aren’t just discovered. They have to be needed as well. The Vikings reached America long before Columbus. But the Vikings had no use for America, the way that the Spanish Empire did. And there are other more intimate kinds of discovery. When John Donne wrote of: O my America, my […]