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, […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
Adam Mars-Jones THE WHEREABOUTS OF ENEAS McNULTY by Sebastian Barry (Picador, R110) Sebastian Barry’s new novel is so full of magnetising beauty that it all but harasses a reader into submission. You can try to protest, to say, “I’m a reader and you’re a book, can we not keep this on a professional basis?”, but […]
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 […]
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 […]
This is a conflict as strangely conducted as it is pointless in origin, writes David Hirst in Zalambesa Zalambesa is a natural pathway for armies. It lies on what, when Eritrea was still a province of Ethiopia, was a main highway between Addis Ababa and Asmara. Set in spectacular landscape of deep gorges, fantastic rock […]
The most famous lover of all time spent his twilight years as a librarian in a little- known Czech town. Kate Connolly reports Macaroni, crayfish, and duck in marmalade sauce was on the menu at a strange little dinner in a dilapidated castle in northern Bohemia last week. The guests were as weirdly diverse as […]