Tangeni Amupadhi The National Youth Commission has declared 1998 a year of delivery after two years of talk-shops and much fuss about the salary of its chair. For the youth of South Africa, however, the commission is doing too little, too slowly. Random interviews conducted with youth this week revealed high levels of impatience with […]
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 […]
Olivia Strange Pursuits Sorry, chaps. Although it’s definitely your province, you’re worse at it than we are. Women, that is, and fly fishing. “Their timing is so much better. They’re relaxed about it and don’t become panicked or competitive,” says Mark Eardley, compleat fly fisherman and instructor at the Footloose Trout Farm just outside Johannesburg. […]
In the hierarchy of crimes it is the murderer who is regarded with particular distaste and in the pantheon of murderers there is none who evokes quite as much horror as the poisoner. There is, therefore, something inevitable about the Truth and Reconciliation Commission winding up its work with the disclosure of a poisoning conspiracy […]
Lesley Cowling A new state-of-the-art telescope to be built in the Karoo will give South African astronomers a window seat on the furthest journey yet through southern skies. The construction of the R100-million Southern African Large Telescope (Salt) at Sutherland, approved by Cabinet last week, means local cosmologists can now maintain their position at the […]
Soccer legend Ruud Gullit gives his views on how to survive the biggest soccer event of its kind The most important thing is to take the first round very seriously indeed. It is not just a matter of getting the lesser nations out of the way before the real fun starts: teams that think that […]
Ronald Atkins Jazz CDs of the week Discussing jazz and how the free-wheeling Sixties changed the rules, the double bass is often singled out for its newly liberated role. Regarded as the workhorses of bebop, pounding the beat in the background, bassists now moved towards the front. As a member of Ornette Coleman’s original quartet, […]
Bongani Siqoko Drunken men and women’s voices rise from the beer hall in Monyakeng township, Wesselbron, about 45km from Kroonstad in the Free State. Life seems normal, but the truth is the exact opposite. This community is grief-stricken and angry over the death of Lethusang Mohloane – whose only sin was to shoot birds on […]
Charl Blignaut On stage in Johannesburg `Eskus me,” says a heavily pregnant Lila Luna-Skya in her bruised and broken English, “Uh know is not very glamorous when you hav to give birth on stage .” But I mean what can a girl do? Particularly when she’s a foreigner in a foreign country. And not just […]
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 […]