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 […]
Wally Mbhele 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 […]
Princess Anne had some. So did the pope. And so did the king and queen of Spain. Mate de coca, that is, or coca tea. It is recommended for anyone arriving at the high altitude of La Paz, the capital of Bolivia in South America. The tea is credited with warding off the side effects […]
Adam Habib: CROSSFIRE There have been a number of innovative and controversial contributions in this column and other sections of the Mail & Guardian about our failure to develop a people- centered democratic transition. First we had John Pilger’s analysis indicting the African National Congress government for taking care of the “haves” and forgetting the […]
After Jackie Brown and Get Shorty he’s hot in Hollywood and hailed as a literary genius by writers like Amis and Bellow. But few realise that the king of crime fiction thinks most filmed versions of his novels have been junk. Lawrence Donegan reports In the Squad Seven room at 1300 Beaubein beats the dark […]
Wonder Hlongwa While thousands of South African youths are lingering in jails, on street corners or at home, hundreds of others are putting their skills and talents to work to improve the lives of their communities. “Social responsibility” has become the catchphrase for dozens of grassroots projects started by small groups of youths, many of […]
code Nick Hopkins and Keith Devlin When The Bible Code was published, even the most grudging cynics had to admit something astonishing was afoot. The book claimed to have discovered hidden messages within the scriptures which predicted major events in world history. References to World War II, the Gulf conflict, the assassination of John F […]
Film-maker Wong Kar-Wai tells Rob Yates about his gay road movie, Happy Together, and about his other life It can get to be a bind, being the “most fashionable film director on the planet” (The Face magazine). Seriousness intrudes. People demand explanations, want to talk art. Why can’t they see that this movie- making lark […]
Lizeka Mda The Department of Education in the Eastern Cape is in such a chaotic state that branches of the South African Democratic Teachers Union (Sadtu) have called for its scrapping and for the national Department of Education to run education there. And the Cape African Teachers Union recently called upon the Eastern Cape government […]
The welcome board to Stutterheim describes the town as the “Little Bavaria of the Border”. The town’s first settlers were German. Today, however, the majority of the 35 000 citizens are Africans, and live across the valley from the town itself in squalid conditions that are echoed all over the Eastern Cape. In the heart […]