"After a somewhat slow start, in which author Stephen Taylor explores the backgrounds of the crew and passengers, his narrative sweeps one away like a rip tide". Maureen Brady reviews <i>The Caliban Shore: The Fate of the Grosvenor Castaways</i>,
"When I first read about the Khoi man Claas Blank and his 1735 affair with fellow Robben Island prisoner Rijkhaart Jacobsz, a sailor from Amsterdam, I knew I wanted to make a film about it." Filmmaker Jack Lewis writes about his role in the making of <i>Proteus</i>, an international co-production.
Sixty-four suspected mercenaries allegedly hired to overthrow the government of oil-rich Equatorial Guinea, along with their three-man flight crew, were expected to make sworn statements on Friday. Meanwhile, a United States official has denied the US was involved in the alleged coup plot.
If you didn’t pluck up the courage to propose to him on February 29, why not book a romantic vacation and pop the question later in the year? Here are the top places to bend your knee. From Prague and Las Vegas to Cape Town and Cyprus, Liz Bird hunts far and wide for the world’s top romantic getaways.
Angola’s ruling party on Thursday unveiled 14 preconditions for upcoming presidential and general elections, saying these had to be fulfilled before any ballot was held in the war-scarred country. ”We have to first fulfil these conditions and then prepare for the elections,” a party spokesperson said.
Minister of Public Enterprises Jeff Radebe handed over R100 to South African Transport and Allied Workers Union (Satawu) leaders in a symbolic gesture of solidarity in Pretoria on Friday, after being asked to intervene in the baggage-handling strike involving private black empowerment company Equity Aviation Services.
The blasts in Spain that killed nearly 200 people could illustrate a trend towards "spectacular" attacks, with terrorist groups adopting tactics proven to cause mass casualties, British experts said on Friday.
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/pd.asp?ao=32602">’Today, they killed every Spaniard'</a>
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/l3.asp?ao=32603">The war moves to Europe</a>
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/pd.asp?ao=32549&t=1">E-mail warns of ‘black wind of death'</a>
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/pd.asp?ao=32550">Another bomb found in Madrid</a>
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/l3.asp?ao=32601">African Union condemns blasts</a>
"Number Four has always been a part of black life in Johannesburg. As children, many of us knew a brother, an uncle or even a father who had been inside. It was also common for us to witness cleansing rituals for people who came back from the prison." Steve Kwena Mokwena unlocks a door to SA’s shady past at an Old Fort prison complex exhibition.
"If Israel can boast of anything in the human rights arena, it is its treatment of lesbians and gays, whose activities were decriminalised in 1988." Israeli culture subsists on the theme of passion in a time of war, writes Matthew Krouse.
Dizu Plaatjies just got a new spring in his step. With a solo album released late last year, and a blow-away performance at the Oude Libertas auditorium last weekend, Plaatjies has been reinstated on the musical map, writes Fidel Mbhele.