TUESDAY, 8.30AM: TWO candidates face off for the vacant seat of Western Cape Premier Hernus Kriel, who resigned on Monday. Health MEC Peter Marais, an outspoken hardliner, is the leading coloured National Party leader and the likely choice to hold the vital coloured vote in the next election. Rival candidate Gerald Morkel is the Community […]
TUESDAY, 5.00PM: NIGERIA, which has just replaced planned presidential elections with a referendum, has been criticised for the move by the United Kingdom and the United States. The elections for a civilian president were cancelled after all five authorised political parties nominated military ruler General Sani Abacha as their candidate. Now Nigerian will have two […]
TUESDAY, 10.30AM: A SOMALI faction leader negotiating the release of 10 kidnapped foreign aid workers, including South African pilot Robbie Burt, says the talks are “encouraging”. “We cannot promise their freedom, but the negotiations are encouraging. No more threats will be made to kill them and negotiations will be carried out in an orderly manner,” […]
Bongani Siqoko The clinic at Elomoya village, north of KwaZulu-Natal, which was built by the community almost three years ago, is still standing in long grass, unstaffed and unequipped. This means that for people to get proper health care, they have to walk 36km to the nearest Ndlangubo clinic or 45km to Gezinsila. After three […]
There are an estimated 7,5-million illiterate adults in South Africa, but the number of adults who are poorly educated and ill-equipped to participate in our economy is much higher. But even for those who can, there is little to read. The recent Department of Education policy document and the multi-year plans released by the department’s […]
Brenda Atkinson Excuse me, I’m about to gush. The object of this critical affirmation is a 500-page directory that will raise the excluded and chronically confused cultural majority in South Africa to the minority ranks (such as they are) of the cognoscenti. A big welcome to the South African Handbook on Arts and Culture for […]
Don Maclennan’s new poetry volume, Solstice, has won him two awards. He spoke to Denise Rack Louw `I dislike interviews, but I enjoy conversations,” award-winning poet Don Maclennan tells me with a twinkle. I am visiting Maclennan at his Grahamstown home to find out more about the writer and his work – including Solstice (Snailpress), […]
Unesco has declared 23 April -William Shakespeare’s birthday -the annual World Day of the Book. The idea has spread rapidly and successfully over much of the world. In Catalonia, Spain, for instance, there is a festival of bookselling, and buyers are given a rose. In Holland a well-known author writes a small book and this […]
Janet Smith PROFESSOR EXPERIMENTO’S FRIGHTENING FORMULA by Janie Oosthuysen (Human & Rousseau, R24,95) Children who are already on their way to reading novels will love this unusual little drama, set in a scientific lab, where rats are infinitely more brave and clever than the humans who would experiment on them. It tells the tale of […]
What do you think? We invite our readers to respond to John Pilger’s analysis of South Africa. The best replies will each receive a free copy of his latest book, Hidden Agendas, published by Vintage. Fax your responses to (011) 403-1025 or e-mail [email protected]