Renting or letting a property doesn’t have to be a trying experience, writes Wally Lambert You’d think we’d be sufficiently warned by the countless horror movies showing innocent-looking tenants turning nasty or happy landlords becoming heartless to think carefully when entering into a lease or rental agreement. But, whether landlord or tenant, the whole rental […]
FRIDAY, 7.30PM: ERITREA has confirmed that it bombed the northern Etiopian town of Adigrat on Thursday, killing four people and injuring more than 30. Adigrat has become Ethiopia’s main garrison for reinforcements and logistics, according to the Eritrean News Agency. Eritrea has also revealed that more than 30 civilians were killed or wounded in Ethiopian […]
Film-maker Wong Kar-Wai tells Rob Yates about his gay road movie, Happy Together, and about his other life It can get to be a bind, being the “most fashionable film director on the planet” (The Face magazine). Seriousness intrudes. People demand explanations, want to talk art. Why can’t they see that this movie- making lark […]
Wonder Hlongwa While thousands of South African youths are lingering in jails, on street corners or at home, hundreds of others are putting their skills and talents to work to improve the lives of their communities. “Social responsibility” has become the catchphrase for dozens of grassroots projects started by small groups of youths, many of […]
Richard Williams LUSH LIFE: A BIOGRAPHY OF BILLY STRAYHORN by David Hajdu (Granta, R89,95) Jazz has produced several memorable threnodies – one thinks of John Lewis’s lament for Django Reinhardt or Charles Mingus’s salute to Lester Young – but none more affecting than Blood Count, recorded by the Duke Ellington Orchestra in 1967, a few […]
Phillip Kakaza Rock In black jeans and fuzzy T-shirts, four- piece band Metal Orizon could easily be mistaken for an Afro-pop band. Yet even before you see them perform, the name Metal Orizon gives you a clue as to what these funky Tswana dudes are up to. Unusually for black people, they are into heavy […]
Andy Duffy Students and workers at the University of the North (Turfloop) have staged a remarkable coup, barring their academics and management from any role in the appointment of the university’s new vice-chancellor. Professor Njabulo Ndebele’s five-year tenure expires at the end of this month. A shortlist was presented as a done deal to the […]
After Jackie Brown and Get Shorty he’s hot in Hollywood and hailed as a literary genius by writers like Amis and Bellow. But few realise that the king of crime fiction thinks most filmed versions of his novels have been junk. Lawrence Donegan reports In the Squad Seven room at 1300 Beaubein beats the dark […]
David Shapshak Buying a cellphone is easy. Upgrading to a new phone when your contract expires, isn’t. You can either just go out and buy yourself the latest hot item to hit the shelves, or play the sophisticated marketing game which enticed you to buy your contract in the first place: sign up for another […]
Neil Manthorp Cricket The worst possible news for England became the best thing that could have happened to Dominic Cork during the first Test. Darren Gough’s broken finger was the result of crass thinking from the dressing room. Amazingly, Alec Stewart declared after the match that his team had “played risky and daring cricket” and […]