Japanese writer, Haruki Murakami has won the world’s richest short story prize, the Frank O’Connor International Short Story Award, for <i>Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman</i>, reports Darryl Accone.
Dambudzo Marechera and Sony Labou Tansi are not household names in South Africa, or Africa. But if the German academic and African literary scholar Flora Veit-Wild is to be believed, they should be, writes Percy Zvomuya.
Artists Ralph Borland and Julian Jonker have taken 72 versions of Solomon Linda’s <i>Mbube</i> and created <i>Song of Solomon</i>, a sound installation that is part orchestration and part algorithm. Niren Tolsi reports.
Niren Tolsi speaks to Black Consciousness poet Mafika Gwala about times unremembered.
Shaun de Waal looks at South African books that explore how land defines life.
Two women have been arrested in Cyprus on suspicion of sorcery and fraud after allegedly swindling gullible victims by convincing them they were sick and cursed, local media said on Friday. In one case, a Greek Cypriot woman was arrested after bilking 496 000 Cyprus pounds (-million) from a bank clerk between May 2005 and July 2006 after convincing the woman she was cursed.
Minister of Health Manto Tshabalala-Msimang has been admitted to hospital with a lung infection, her spokesperson said on Friday. Sibani Mngadi said the minister had been admitted to Johannesburg Hospital on Thursday. ”She was not feeling well and was taken to hospital. They decided to admit her to do further tests and see if she is reacting to treatment,” he said.
Cape Town mayor Helen Zille on Friday assured the city’s residents that disadvantaged people would continue to receive services. ”This month I would like to invite all residents who owe council money for rates and services, but who are unable to pay their debts, to come forward and take advantage of our indigent policy,” she said in a statement.
The Zimbabwe government has denied claims by the main labour union that more than a dozen of its members were assaulted in police custody following foiled street protests last month, it was reported Friday. Members of the union were injured while trying to resist arrest by jumping off police vehicles, Deputy Home Affairs Minister Reuben Marumahoko told Parliament on Thursday.
Former teammates and coaches have hailed Fabien Barthez as a goalkeeping genius after he announced his retirement from football on Thursday. ”Fabien informed me of his decision 10 days ago. To me, he is the greatest goalkeeper France have had,” Toulouse coach Elie Baup, who gave Barthez his professional debut in 1990, told French sports daily L’Equipe on Friday.