Taking his cue from President Thabo Mbeki, Western Cape Premier Ebrahim Rasool — while delivering his maiden premier’s speech in the provincial legislature — committed his government to implementing 20 ”measurable actions” within the next 100 days, including training 515 new railway police.
More than 600 leaders from all sectors of society and from 46 countries will take part in the World Economic Forum’s 14th Africa Economic Summit in Maputo, Mozambique, from June 2 to 4. Its main purpose is to get business leaders and governments together to overcome the obstacles holding back many African economies.
Beyond its chronic and potentially fatal medical and demographic dimensions, Aids is a social, cultural and political phenomenon. There are no easy solutions, no easy answers to the questions the pandemic poses. Anthony Egan looks at three books that attempt to address the issue.
MOVIE OF THE WEEK: As a novelist and as a screenwriter, Hanif Kureishi has always been intensely interested in sexual relationships, particularly unusual ones. And Kureishi delivers just that in this intriguing film, <i>The Mother</i>, writes Shaun de Waal.
"You wouldn’t blink twice if you saw Mad Max in this position or Clint Eastwood in this position". Uma Thurman answered questions about Quentin Tarantino and Kill Bill in a round-table discussion in Los Angeles.
Last week in Toronto, Canada, it was obvious that the documentary has entered a new era of popularity when more than 40 000 people attended the 11th annual Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival. Jeremy Gans reports.
"A self-described "peripheral shit-stirrer", Boshoff cannot but be aware of the neurosis invoked by his defining physical feature. But then Boshoff, arguably the country’s foremost conceptual artist, has always pursued his own anonymity as ruthlessly as he has courted controversy." Sean O’Toole on how conceptual artist and eccentric Willem Boshoff’s new exhibition unearths the risky politics of the written word.
As Malawi’s courts grapple with the electoral challenge lodged by the opposition Mgwirizano coalition to last week’s poll, the country’s new President, Bingu wa Mutharika, is trying to win hearts and minds with talk of poverty alleviation and corruption busting. "Malawi is not a poor country," he said at his swearing-in ceremony.
A party at i-shebeen Madiba in Brooklyn, New York, usually features live South African music, the exuberant restaurant owner Mark Henegan and the lively denizens of Fort Greene, one of Brooklyn’s most ethnically mixed neighbourhoods. On May 2 the restaurant was packed with South African filmmakers celebrating the end of <i>Ten Years of Freedom: Films From the New South Africa</i>, writes Bronwyn Law-Viljoen.
Several hundred unarmed army reservists in Madagascar on Friday barricaded Parliament and said they were taking lawmakers hostage to press for long-standing demands they be paid for backing President Marc Ravalomanana during the country’s political crisis in 2002.