Wealthy and successful South African women are taking their place in the business world, writes Ferial Haffajee Meet the uptown girls … if you can get an appointment. Everybody’s clamouring to wine and dine Hazel Ralefeta, Wendy Luhabe, Salukazi Dakile-Hlongwane and their friends. If you don’t know the names, get to know them fast. These […]
South Africa’s economic fortune may once have been built on gold, but nowadays an ill-timed investment in the metal might just lead to economic ruin. Gold-board shares have recently become among the most volatile of choices, a victim of an erratic international gold price. But there are believers who claim there is money to be […]
Chris Roper The Smirnoff International Fashion Awards proved one thing: the fashion world is almost always at least five years behind whatever is culturally and ideologically current. This was brought home to me forcibly when I took my seat and found myself impaled on a glass ashtray. They’re actually encouraging people to smoke in the […]
Mungo Soggot An illegal investment company that preyed on elderly people has been taken over by the Reserve Bank, amid reports that the collapsed scheme’s mastermind has fled to Beirut with tens of millions of rands. The scheme, Proplace, promised many of its customers a monthly income. Many of them depended on this, after investing […]
Antjie Krog’s book on the truth commission has been highly acclaimed. But, argues Claudia Braude, Krog is too creative with the truth Fact, fiction or falsehood? The question is everywhere in reading poet and journalist Antjie Krog’s Country of My Skull (Random House). It is the first book on the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), […]
Angella Johnson VIEW FROM A BROAD `Hi! I’m Angella and I’m a compulsive overeater.” “Hello Angella. Welcome,” comes the rousing chorus. I look at the 30 eager faces peering expectantly at me and feel a rush of anxiety. You see, I am the new girl. The latest victim. They are almost drooling in anticipation of […]
Brenda Atkinson You’ve gotta love the Absa Group. This corporate banking crowd has been quietly ploughing money into local contemporary art for, oh, quite some time now. They continued to build the collection initiated by Volkskas in the days when you couldn’t see the bank tellers for the Van Wouws. They’ve endorsed the Volkskas Bank […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]