"In Africa I think art is still very close to life. And issues [that] African artists are dealing with are issues of life". Brenton Maart asks top curator Simon Njami what makes African art African.
A new book collects the writing of South Africa’s literary lion, Es’kia Mphahlele. In this edited extract from one essay, he describes how reading books enriched him as a writer.
The 2005 <i>BusinessMap</i>/<i>Business Report</i> Black Economic Empowerment (BEE) Awards were announced in Sandton on Thursday night, with the prestigious BEE deal of the year going to Grasslands Development Trust’s purchase of 100% of Grasslands Agriculture. The awards celebrate the top achievers in BEE.
Pope John Paul II has suffered septic shock and a heart attack, and his condition is "very serious", Vatican spokesperson Joaquin Navarro-Valls said on Friday. "Following a urinary-tract infection, septic shock and a cardiocirculatory collapse occurred," Navarro-Valls said in a statement. The pope received the last rites on Thursday evening after suffering the heart attack.
"In an internationally condemned move, an enraged King Mswati III of Swaziland has decided to close his country’s borders with South Africa, starting on Friday." Sounds unbelievable? It is! Read the <i>Mail & Guardian Online</i>’s April Fool’s Day story that had its readers wondering about the Swazi monarch’s shock announcement.
The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has set up a quarantine zone along the frontier with Angola in response to fears that a recent outbreak of the deadly Marburg virus could spread across the 1 750km border. Congolese Health Minister Emile Bongeli said: "Though there are no signs of any cases in the DRC, we live with the threat of another outbreak, so we are taking precautions."
A chance of a rate cut by the South African Reserve Bank later this month was put out of reach by this week’s weakening of the rand, persistently high oil prices, a widening current account deficit and robust credit growth. On Thursday, the Reserve Bank reported that private sector credit extension in February grew by 17,01% compared to a year earlier, up from 15,22% in January.
"I write this article as a white man. I write also as a South African and as a democrat. These are identities that are important to me and many other South Africans. They cut across race, gender and generation. They provide a basis for collective work and for bridge building. So why should white men be taken out of the category ‘South African’ and subjected to special treatment," asks Robert Morrell.
A third killer earthquake may be lurking beneath the Indian Ocean, seismologists say. Last Monday’s quake was caused by an increased geological stress set up by the giant earthquake in December, and they fear the process will repeat itself. Phil Cummins, a seismologist, said: "There is a chance that the next segment further to the south-east could rupture sooner than we expected. But we can’t predict the time."
South Africa’s largest land rights movement, the 20-year-old National Land Committee (NLC), has been brought to its knees by ideological infighting, financial mismanagement and an exodus of member organisations. The crisis, which was set to be debated at an emergency board meeting on Thursday, has already frightened off the foreign donors who funded the NLC’s umbrella structure since its inception.