Charlene Smith As if the truth about Father Christmas and the Tooth Fairy wasn’t devastating enough, now comes the news that not all chocolate Easter bunnies are chocolate – certainly not the cheap imported ones. Pity the Easter bunny that used to enjoy a tranquil life on supermarket shelves before being hidden under bushes for […]
A Roman death is always a noble death and the hearts of military traditionalists will have been gladdened by the dignity with which the commander of the South African National Defence Force, General Georg Meiring, this week fell upon his own sword. Modern constitutionalists may also take comfort from the effectiveness with which the executive […]
Ralph Borland A division of a major advertising agency has been contracted by cigarette giant Rothmans to create a brand aimed at a new generation of smokers: 18 to 24-year-olds. Insiders at Ogilvy & Mather Rightford Searle-Tripp Makin say the Cape Town- based advertising agency took up a multi- million contract to market brands owned […]
Who is . . . Paul Mashatile? Mukoni T Ratshitanga Way back in 1987, while in detention at the small Jeppestown police station, Paul Mashatile never imagined that his jailers would one day have to account to him. Nor did the police themselves in those turbulent days think of being led by a township activist. […]
Mahluli Mngadi: In your ear In these days of wall-to-wall music everywhere, it is refreshingly rare to listen to a well-researched and produced programme on a local community radio station. But then one should not be surprised because Bush Radio is the mother of community radio stations in Africa. It was a founding member of […]
Charl Blignaut: On stage in Pretoria In 1997, South Africa’s leading concert promoter Attie van Wyk announced that he and showbiz afficionado Bernard Jay would be establishing a new company, In-Concert Theatre. They would be looking to inject a dash of star quality on to the local stage by importing international stars to perform in […]
Robert Kirby: LOOSE CANNON We should all be grateful to Kader Asmal for giving a whole new meaning to the term Moral Rearmament. Spawned in the late 1930s, the original Moral Rearmament movement advocated absolute morality, private or public. Which is more or less what Asmal likes to advocate as the precept for quite a […]
Lizeka Mda: CITY LIMITS Drive east along Marcia Avenue towards Bruma Lake. At the intersection of Derrick Avenue, turn left and blink. You could be forgiven for thinking you had been transported to China. The Chinese signs jump at you from both sides of the street. Apart from the video shop, the fast-food chicken outlet, […]
There may be something to the conspiracy theories surrounding the crash of the Rietbok 30 years ago, writes Mike Loewe South Africa’s oldest aviation mystery, the ”disappearance” of South African Airways’s Rietbok, took a new turn this week when a prominent left-wing historian revealed that one of the victims on board, Audrey Rosenthal, was working […]
Andy Capostagno Rugby It has been a mixed week for teams who wear blue. Last Saturday morning the Auckland Blues lost 33-18 to a rejuvenated Queensland Reds line-up in the Super 12. In the afternoon the once-proud Blue Bulls plumbed the depths as they went down 57-27 to the Natal Wildebeests in the Vodacom Cup. […]