WEDNESDAY, 4.00PM: THE investigation into the circumstances surrounding the air crash that killed Mozambican president Samora Machel 12 years ago took a new twist on Wednesday when a Mpumalanga scrapyard owner claimed that wreckage in the possesion of police did not come from Machel’s plane. African Eye News reports that Greg Duffey, of Duffey’s metal […]
MONDAY 6.30PM THE trial of former state president PW Botha, in the dock for refusing to respond to a subpoena from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, was adjourned until August 17. Judgment is expected on August 18. At the resumption of the trial on Monday after a few days’ ajournment, the state prosecutor, Bruce Morrison, […]
MONDAY 6.30PM: THE rebels fighting in Guinea-Bissau said on Monday that they would be willing to end the revolt if President Joao Bernardo Vieira resigned. The rebellion broke out last week, triggered by the dismissal, for trafficking guns to Senegalese rebels, of Brigadier Ansuman Mane as defence force chief of staff. A spokesman for the […]
FRIDAY, 5.30PM: THE Mozambican judge handling the case of detained foreign affairs official Robert McBride has been threatened by people he believes to be South African agents who have ordered him to nail McBride or ”otherwise you’ll be in trouble”. A reliable source has informed the Mail & Guardian that Judge Carlos Caetano, who has […]
Alex Sudheim On show in Durban As a storyteller, Alson Ntshangase is more of a Dostoevsky than a Wordsworth. His darkly glowing paintings betray the workings of a mind far more interested in the skull beneath than the skin above. “If I start painting a rose I feel I am wasting my paint because I […]
Douglas Rushkoff: ONLINE No matter how much we might love to hate Bill Gates, we can’t help but have mixed feelings about the United States Justice Department and the two dozen or so states suing Microsoft for violating anti-trust laws. Fresh from their unsatisfying victory-with- no-spoils over the tobacco industry last season, US attorneys general […]
Robert Kirby: Loose Cannon In Wachthuis mugs did Meyer Kahn A stately drivel-dome decree; Where George, the sacred fuzzman, ran By canons measureless to man Down to a Muf’madi. I think we’ve got ourselves a real treasure in Meyer Kahn, CEO of the South African Roundheads: Atmosphere for Crime Control Division. Not only is our […]
Inga Latham On stage in Cape Town In the Coffee Lounge in Cape Town, comedian Chris McEvoy is warming up with Sczhoid before the Grahamstown run of his one-man show, Bitter. After the three flights of stairs up to the Top Floor Theatre, McEvoy is lucky any of us still have breath with which to […]
Suzy Bell He’s decidedly upbeat, helluva hip and deliciously quirky. He’s the feverishly talented young editor of Directions men’s magazine. Brendan Cooper (28) is ever so stylish in antique velvet green Diesel jeans, black Woolies T-shirt, Adidas trainers. With a BA in psychology and after two years gallivanting around Europe, he cut his teeth on […]
Tangeni Amupadhi A high court decision to extend the bail of three Afrikaner youths found guilty last week of murdering and assaulting black people has increased racial tension in the divided Upington community. Blacks in the town have criticised the bail extension as further proof of the judiciary’s lenience towards whites. The court heard the […]