the `magic bullet’ The first thing to know about Viagra, the little blue erection pill, is that every man alive can recall at least one occasion when they’d have really liked to pop one. The second thing to know is that if you don’t believe the first thing, you soon will. Viagra is expected to […]
for Savimbi Tangeni Amupadhi A former Civil Co-operation Bureau (CCB) agent named as the ring-leader in the theft of arms from military bases is now said to be organising mercenaries for Unita. Johan Niemoller, said to be the leader of Die Volk, whose members allegedly stole weapons from two military bases in the Free State, […]
Robert Kirby: Loose Cannon I must confess to feeling a bit ambivalent about Dr Nkosazana Zuma’s latest anti- smoking crusade. As a three-years-on ex-puffer, my wife assures me I have all but emptied my well of self- righteous reformist zeal. I now tend to let people get on with their tobacco undisturbed by pious sermonettes […]
The two most senior African National Congress officials in the Free State have been shunned by their supporters on the eve of the party’s preparations to elect new provincial leadership. ANC Premier Ivy Matsepe-Casaburri and the provincial chair, Zingile Dingale, appear to be facing the chop. None of the 10 Free State ANC regional branches […]
Andrew Muchineripi Soccer Test cricket umpire Mervyn Kitchen is not the only official removing dollops of egg from his face. Premier Soccer League referee Achmat Salie cautioned Orlando Pirates midfielder Naughty Mokoena twice on Sunday without sending him off. Mokoena received a yellow card soon after half-time at Vaal Professionals in the opening round of […]
Ann Eveleth Recruited into the United Democratic Front in 1989 and booted out of the African National Congress eight years later, United Democratic Movement general secretary Sifiso Nkabinde is a classic case study of the theory that it’s better to have someone inside your tent pissing out than outside pissing in. It took a virtual […]
Sechaba ka’Nkosi Remember Musa Myeni? He was the Inkatha Freedom Party firebrand who once threatened to unleash 150 000 Zulu impis on Gauteng to deal with township residents. That was during the violence in the early 1990s between IFP-aligned hostel dwellers and youths on the Reef. Seven years later, he has substituted his political ideology […]
Alex Duval Smith Some things change – Zaire is now the Democratic Republic of Congo – but despots just change their spots. President Laurent-Dsir Kabila, hailed as heading a new breed of African leaders, increasingly looks like Mobutu Sese Seko, minus the leopard-skin hat. On May 17 1997, thousands of people welcomed Kabila’s victorious rebel […]
Ken Barris THE IBIS TAPESTRY by Mike Nicol (Knopf) The cover blurb describes The Ibis Tapestry as “a thriller with all the searing immediacy of today’s headlines”. An understandable bit of commercial fantasy perhaps, but wildly inaccurate, and unjust to a book that should be taken seriously on its own terms: as a referential maze […]
Arnold Kemp in Paris Tour de France It was 9.30pm when the police came for Rodolfo Massi, entering his hotel by a back door. They searched his room and found corticoids in a case. They gave him time to shower and eat before taking him to the police station. Then they drove him north from […]