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 […]
Just pop down to the hardware Stuart Hess The world was shocked by the Oklahoma bombing in the United States in 1995, and the FBI was severely rattled by an explosion at the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games. In both instances, pipe bombs were the weapons of choice. More than 80 pipe bombs have exploded in […]
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 […]
Phillip Kakaza CD of the week In the past four years the Blood and Fire label has established itself as the cutting edge label in reggae reissues. It introduced a whole generation of producers and DJs who took advantage of the new musical venture. Jamaican vocal singles were released with instrumentals – sometimes just rhythm […]
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 […]
Matthew Krouse The profile of Boer women encouraged by historians was one of quiet endurance, of hard times in British concentration camps at the turn of the century. This is in sharp contrast to the picture of the Boer woman as a bearer of arms, in khaki fatigues, fighting a guerrilla war – but that […]
herStoriA and Quality Life magazines have announced the winners of their story competition. Lise Day of George took first place with her story Malgas Point, Henrietta Rose-Innes of Cape Town came second with Conservation, and Graeme Friedman of Johannesburg came third with The Finger of God. The winning stories are published in this month’s edition […]