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 […]

Ferial Haffajee and Sechaba ka Nkosi : WORKERS’ DAY SUPPLEMENT The Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) has decided not to field candidates in next year’s election. In a break with a tradition set in 1994 when the labour federation sent 20 top unionists to Parliament, it has now decided not to do so. […]

Douglas Rushkoff : ONLINE How could the breakfast readers of Melbourne possibly benefit from the musings of a cyber-writer from the other side of the world? Why should the innocent trees of South Africa be sacrificed to provide printing space for the rantings of a New York-based media theorist? Because, like it or not, thanks […]

Andy Duffy The head of state education in the Northern Cape faces a disciplinary hearing next week on charges of misconduct. Zodwa Dlamini is alleged to have defied MEC for Education, Arts and Culture Tina Joemat and provincial Director General Martin van Zyl in their attempts to manage the embattled provincial education department. The province […]

Barbara Ludman REIGN IN HELL by William Diehl (Heinemann, R99,95) LUCKY YOU by Carl Hiaasen (Macmillan, R84) Thrillers reflect Americans’ concerns more accurately than CNN – and when one has books by two bestselling writers focusing on right-wing militias, it’s a fair bet that that phenomenon figures in American nightmares. Militias rose to general consciousness […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

Rastafarians in South Africa want freedom of religion and the right to smoke ganja, writes Zebulon Dread Arthur Molisiwa is doing a masters degree in mathematics and his father is chair of a corporate giant; Moses Mlangeni holds a BSc in economics and is doing a postgraduate training course in business journalism sponsored by New […]

Janet Smith A campaign to revive workers’ culture is at the heart of the Workers’ Library and Museum’s May Day celebrations and 10th anniversary festivities at the Electric Workshop in Newtown, Johannesburg, on Saturday May 2. Omar Don Mattera, Jeremy Cronin, Mi Hlatshwayo, Alfred Qabule, Nise Malange and other South African poets will perform on […]