a game Shaun de Waal Soccer CD of the week When the words “World Cup” come up in conversation, I usually have to ask politely which sport is involved. Okay, it has now been drummed into me that most of the world is presently focusing its attention on a series of soccer games in France. […]

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 […]

Tangeni Amupadhi The People’s Poet, Mzwakhe Mbuli, believes he may have been set up on robbery charges because he was poised to blow the whistle on a drugs and gun-running ring involving top government officials. This week Mbuli shed some light on a smuggling conspiracy between South Africa and Swaziland as a possible reason why […]

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 […]

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 […]

These are the key women’s investment companies in South Africa: n Women’s Investment Portfolio This company is the mother of female-led investment companies. Last year it started a holding company to offer preferential shares to the female public. It expects to turn a profit by 2000. It has investments in financial services, the Bidvest group […]