Chris McGreal Nigeria’s new military leader, General Abdulsalam Abubakar, appears close to releasing the imprisoned presidential election winner, Moshood Abiola, after the two men held talks ostensibly aimed at agreeing on conditions for the restoration of civilian rule. But opposition sources say the army is pressing Abiola to renounce his claim to the presidency and […]
Fashion fiend turned house hunk Jeremy Healy is the latest big name DJ to tour the country. Charl Blignaut calls him up in London on the eve of his visit Theres a measure of reassurance in that little peep that sounds just as the call connects Johannesburg to London. Multinational fingertips. A cheery Hello? crosses […]
Andy Duffy and Megan Voss The government is to send independent investigators into the University of the Transkei (Unitra) – the first time it has wielded the powers of intervention recently created through higher education legislation. The probe, due to start this weekend, will focus on what government officials have termed a “police state” allegedly […]
Ann Eveleth Mothinya Molakeng (53) quit his job as an agricultural extension worker in 1994 to farm the land from which the former government brutally evicted his and 124 other families in 1978. He is still waiting. The commission on land allocation, set up in the dying days of the National Party’s reign, agreed in […]
Stuart Millar He is probably the best-selling poet of all time after William Shakespeare and Lao Tzu. His books have sold more than 10-million copies in English alone. Even now, he is revered as a guru and an inspiration of the New Age movement. But now, 75 years after the publication of his most famous […]
Tony Twine A tailpiece to a news bulletin a few years ago reported that a young child had lost his first milk tooth and had been instructed on how to liquidate his asset via the tooth fairy market. Much to his delight, the tooth disappeared overnight, to be replaced by a shining R5 coin it […]
take back land Mercedes Sayagues They trickled in, women with bundles on their heads, men on bicycles. In small groups they camped on four commercial farms in Marondera, 70km east of Harare. They arrived on June 17, and today there are perhaps up to 1 000 men and women from 20 villages in the dirt-poor […]
Marthali Brand Moveable feast Everyone knows the restorative qualities of a hearty soup. Even a cup of instant soup can revive me after a hard day in front of the computer, or a tough workout at the gym. And a hot vegetable concoction served with a slice of buttered wholewheat bread can warm up any […]
Shaun de Waal BEELTENIS VERBODE by Hennie Aucamp (Human &Rousseau, R79,95) In this book, Hennie Aucamp, one of the leading prose-writers in Afrikaans, collects his reviews, done mostly for the magazine De Kat, of what he calls following the Dutch egodokumente. By that he means biographies, autobiographies, memoirs, collections of letters. Almost all the subjects […]
If youve ever perused the Johannesburg Stock Exchange share pages in search of potential shares and happened on the property section, youll have noticed that there are three separate sectors listed there: property companies, property trusts and property loan stocks. One of the least talked about and underrated of the three is the property loan […]