Sechaba ka’Nkosi The South African Democratic Teachers’ Union (Sadtu) has warned there could be more disruptions in education if the ministry does not review some of its policies. This week, barely hours after the union claimed its most important victory since its inception eight years ago, Sadtu officials said there could be further strikes to […]
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 […]
The technology explosion has given a new dimension to office warfare, writes Chris Ball Imagine opening your office post and finding a memo from the boss attacking you in highly abusive terms. But we live in the age of the electronic office, and memos are now often e-mails. Click on “address” after receiving a particularly […]
Andrew Worsdale Very infrequently does a movie stick to the top of my mouth. I’ve become inured to seeing mad-ass Hollywood rubbish, that our dear distributors launch on the stupefied public with as many as 37 prints, to satisfy movie mall “taste”. Happy Together is made by Hong Kong wunderkind Wong Kar-Wai and is released […]
Andy Duffy The charge of patronage politics resurfaced in the Western Cape this week amid claims that the National Party has spent more than R5-million of public money in a crude attempt to buy votes. The NP-led provincial government has doled out much of the cash – extra social services grants to homes for the […]
Andy Capostagno Rugby We have reached that time of the year when people begin to talk in clichs. Stuff like: “We don’t believe that we are favourites for the match. Just because it’s a northern hemisphere team we’re expected to win comfortably, but we won’t be taking them for granted. A test match is a […]
Krisjan Lemmer The former head of the police forensic laboratory, General Lothar Neethling – whose dubious achievements include shutting down Max du Preez’s glorious rag, Vrye Weekblad, by suing them for libel over the suggestion he was a poisoner – was among those whom the Truth and Reconciliation Commission wanted to question this week about […]
Ferial Haffajee The controversy surrounding the top job in South African broadcasting continued this week, with indications that the SABC board could face charges of unfair labour practice. SABC deputy chief executive Govin Reddy, who did not get the position of chief executive, has levelled allegations of racism against the board. This week the board’s […]
No one can dispute the fact that the past has a lot to do with the mess our education system is in today. But when four years of democratic governance have gone by and conditions in most schools are as bad as ever, if not worse, it’s time to acknowledge that mistakes have been made […]
South Africa’s 15-million illiterate people were left in the lurch when the National Literacy Co-operation had to close because of financial irregularities, writes Mungo Soggot The long-awaited forensic probe into the financial scandal that shut South Africa’s biggest literacy organisation reveals expense-account abuse on the part of its national director and mismanagement. The national director […]