Matthew van der Want: Opinion Just Jinger, who supported U2 in Cape Town, recently spent some time in from Canada and New York, where they showcased their talent to some major label A&R people. South African DJs, journalists and label managers alike brim with national pride as they enthuse over the imminent discovery of a […]

Heribert Adam: CROSSFIRE An unfortunate feature characterises the reasoning of Crossfire’s columnists about the role of the black bourgeoisie. Legitimate questions around empowerment and Afro-pessimism are racialised. The colour of Afro-pessimism’s face should be as irrelevant as whether black fat cats emulate white fat cats. What matters is their common exploitation, their undeserved perks at […]

Charlene Smith Despite a recent drop in interest rates, and a further 1% to 2% drop expected later this year, property markets remain in the doldrums. Banks are under pressure too as defaults on mortgage bond payments increase. Housing sales are weak and industrial, commercial and retail rentals are stagnant or declining. The only city […]

Cape Town appears to be the new crucible of white South African rock. Here we take a look at three top Capetonian bands Janet Smith The point is that none of them would fit in a beige hotel room where the gold paint is peeling off the fake rococo vases. The mini-bar would be cleaned […]

Elisa Segrave: PERSONAL HISTORY I found my brother’s things in a box in my mother’s attic. She must have put them there after he drowned in our grandmother’s pond on my seventh birthday in November 1956. He was five. I found the box recently while sorting out my mother’s house. She has Alzheimer’s and has […]

Tim Radford Scientists are poised to explore a mysterious lost world more than 3,2km below Antarctica. A huge lake, insulated by millions of years of ice, could hold living creatures that inhabited the planet more than 30-million years ago. British, French, German, Russian and American scientists met in St Petersburg recently to agree on what […]

Adam Haupt The South African Screenwriters’ Laboratory (Scrawl) is one of those laboratories which South Africa’s Oh Schucks … society would never have imagined possible during the crocodile years. In fact, many film makers (and those trying to break into the predominantly white male industry) still whinge quite tearfully that the future of filmmaking is […]

James Garner South African rock bands may come and go at a rate that makes the turnover of Bafana Bafana managers look comparatively pedestrian, but Cape Town four-piece Lithium are one group that has managed to keep things together and develop their sound over a period of time. Many people felt that the band’s days […]

Tangeni Amupadhi The civil war in Angola could resume as early as this month despite recent concessions by the rebel Unita movement to the terms of the Lusaka peace accord, a report by the Institute for Security Studies (ISS) says. According to the ISS, a rift has emerged within Unita between those opposed to war […]

John Updike’s new novel is dividing the critics. He spoke to Joanna Coles Waiting for the lift with John Updike at his Park Avenue hotel, he catches sight of himself in the chrome doors, his face a beige pancake from an earlier television appearance. “Oh dear,” he giggles brightly, his jaunty green eyes staring back […]