Nelson Mandela is promoting peace and development in Luanda … but neither are foregone conclusions Chris Gordon President Nelson Mandela’s visit to Angola this week takes place against a background of rumours of war and the poor health of President Jos Eduardo dos Santos. Mandela is scheduled to meet Dos Santos to discuss the two […]
Stephen Gray : Unspoilt places ‘Prickly pear”, I suppose I knew, was the homely way to refer to that flat, jointed, paddle-leaved plant which holds its barrel- shaped fruit aloft like sore thumbs. If pushed, I could have volunteered its botanical label: Opuntia – a suitably blunt name for the gawky, invasive alien that should […]
Shaun de Waal : CD of the week The Rough Guide books have been helping people (usually young, hip people)find their way around the world for years. Recently a set of superb music guides was added to the list -World Music, Jazz, Rock – and now, in a logical extension of the concept, here comes […]
Chris Roper As Mark Coetzee’s black and white photographs once again raise their shapely penises on either side of the acrylic painting of a South African monument that constitutes the middle panel of his Triptych, censorship once again raises its ugly little head in the middle of conservative Stellenbosch University. The last time this happened […]
Andrew Worsdale : Movie of the week Love and Death on Long Island, a wryly observed romantic comedy, stars John Hurt as fuddy-duddy writer Giles De’ath. He works with a fountain pen; eats his meals at the same time every day; doesn’t have a television; hasn’t seen a movie in 20 years (he calls them […]
Brenda AtkinsonOn show in Johannesburg South Africa is not known for abundant, or even exciting, public art. In fact you’d be hard pressed to find an inspirational public work were you tracking one down, let alone stumble across a few in the course of your day. Of course, there are those pigeon-perch monuments to political […]
Alex Sudheim : On show in Durban ‘I am a visual poet,” says Deryck Healey. Trite as it may superficially sound, once immersed in his art and his nature, one realises this brief epithet is really the only one that fits. There is a quality in Healey’s work, and in his approach to making it, […]
Tom Quoin : Architecture We will soon have a home for our Constitutional Court. If construction proceeds as expected, it should be ready for occupation early in the year 2000. The building will stand on the upper reaches of the newly named Constitution Hill, north of the painfully memorable Fort, Johannesburg. It will overlook the […]
Andy Capostagno : Rugby Maybe he knew. Maybe he knew that even he couldn’t improve upon 74-28 and that therefore retirement was the most sensible option. Sean Fitzpatrick was probably sitting in the stands at Eden Park on Sunday watching his beloved Auckland Blues deconstruct the Western Stormers and he probably thought, hell, I can’t […]
WHO IS . . . GERALD MORKEL? Gerald Morkel, the man who will replace Hernus Kriel as premier of the Western Cape on May 11, is best described as a politician who has risen without trace. A stranger to controversy, one could say his very blandness ensured the job would be his. It was a […]