It seems literary prizes are a dime dozen these days. While prizes help support literature and help to increase the audience for new and worthy voices, there are other ways too, writes Jacana publisher Maggie Davey.
Touching the Void enlarges the sense of what a documentary can achieve, writes Peter Bradshaw. It leaves the audience on the edge of its seats, lips parted, knuckles whitened.
The sorrows of young Botok began when he was half-born. His mother, a regal dromedary named Ingen Temee — who is also the first-billed star and title character in The Story of the Weeping Camel — got fed up during the last stages of a difficult labour. And so a story of rejection, compassion and reconciliation was born, reports Jessica Winter.
Steps have been implemented to combat corruption at Gauteng vehicle testing stations, the community safety department said on Friday. This followed allegations that officials were fraudulently issuing roadworthy certificates at the Wynberg testing station. Officials allegedly colluded in this corruption by accepting bribes to ignore the fraud.
The leader of Namibia’s largest opposition party on Friday criticised the government’s plan to expropriate white farmers, saying that it will destroy agriculture and harm black farm labourers. Ben Ulenga of the Congress of Democrats also called on Germany to help with land reform through more financial aid.
While the fate of two South Africans being held for suspected terrorist activities in Pakistan remained unclear on Friday, an independent analyst described their situation as bleak. If tried in Pakistan, the death penalty is mandatory for terrorism and the definition of the crime very broad, the analyst said.
"We’re living in a society where everyone with dreadlocks or an Eryka Badhu headpiece calls themselves poets," says Napo Masheane, member of the Feela Sistah collective. As strangers in foreign lands, Africans are finding visibility through poetry, writes Nadine Botha.
"One senses how [Andrew] Meldrum really wanted to see Zimbabwe as a success story, a beacon of good governance and human rights in Africa; yet he was also a journalist who sought to tell the truth to the best of his ability. Truth won out over optimism." Anthony Egan reviews the deported journalist’s memoirs.
Her vast array of shoes became a symbol of her greed and untold wealth, writes John Aglionby. Now, it seems, the boot is on the other foot.
As <i>Catwoman</i> opens in August, this month’s movie quiz focuses on cats (and other felines) in the movies. The first five respondents to e-mail us a set of 20 correct answers, along with their names and addresses, will win a long-sleeved Catwoman T-shirt and branded cap. E-mail to <a href="mailto:[email protected]">[email protected]</a> by August 13, putting ‘movie cat quiz’ in the subject line.