Marianne Merten What is one to think when an eight-year-old girl appears on stage during a beauty pageant dressed in see-through lace and a black G-string? Are her ambitions the same as those of the young women of the Miss World or Miss South Africa competitions who no doubt will always profess to want to […]

Turner Prize winner Steve McQueen breezed through Cape Town to launch an exhibition of his major film installations Lorna Ferguson With the demise of the Johannesburg Biennale there have been no mechanisms in place to bring internationally renowned contemporary artists to South Africa to invigorate and inform our art scene. Which makes the appearance of […]

The South African challenger has had a protracted and unusual build-up to his fight in Sheffield this weekend Gavin Evans Mbulelo Botile is under no illusions: fall short against Paul Ingle on Saturday night and his career is effectively over. Which is why his preparations for this big event in Sheffield have been curious, to […]

Chris McKenzie and Justin Arenstein Mpumalanga’s new R630-million legislature is illegal and its construction has destroyed at least three protected plant species. The controversial complex is almost complete, but it has still not been approved by the Nelspruit City Council or the national Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism. Meanwhile, forensic investigators attached to the […]

Ntuthuko Maphumulosoccer The Liberian team has come back with a bang recently beating the Super Eagles of Nigeria 2-1 in a World Cup qualifier and beating Cape Verde 3-0 in the preliminary round of the African Cup of Nations qualifiers. Liberia have visited South Africa once before but not to play the home nation. They […]

Thebe Mabanga In July this year when South Africa lost the right to host the 2006 World Cup to Germany, the Mail & Guardian lamented the development as a “sad reflection on Europe”. In one of its best editorials, the paper lambasted the European mentality, which it noted, was “bereft of generosity and redolent with […]

John Aizlewood NOT CD OFTHEWEEK A greatest hits by any other name, but with a title only Elvis Presley could share, the 27-track 1 (EMI) delivers what it promises: all The Beatles’ British and American number-one singles, from Love Me Do (one American week on its belated release there in 1964, but still 1’s opening […]

The Zimbabwean president’s popularity is at an all-time low and Zanu-PF must decide whether to ditch him Chris McGreal Zimbabwe’s ruling party opened an extraordinary congress this week with the one issue on everyone’s lips officially off the agenda Robert Mugabe’s future. The Zanu-PF party has purged and sidelined critics of Zimbabwe’s beleaguered president ahead […]

Iden Wetherell Thabo Mbeki’s mission to broker a solution to Zimbabwe’s protracted land crisis has ended impaled on the rock of President Robert Mugabe’s monumental ego, it became clear this week. In Harare two weeks ago for talks with Mugabe ahead of a crucial visit by United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan’s envoy Mark Malloch […]

Working-class hero? My arse! He was about as working class as a suburban dentist. Sexy? He was hideous, says Julie Burchill I don’t normally feel the need to return to the scene of a hate-crime once I’ve dissed ’em, they stay dissed but in John Lennon’s case, I will make?an exception. John Lennon! Even his […]