Johannesburg architects Jeremy Rose and Phill Mashabane recently won the Robben Island architectural competition Yvette Gresl In postapartheid South Africa Robben Island has taken on a dual significance. It is a contradictory symbol of extreme political subjugation and, in the words of Ahmed Kathrada, the “triumph of the human spirit”. Nelson Mandela, as a symbol […]
Melvyn Minnaar In the past those who fancied themselves in the frontline of the vintage would have been sipping brandnew “nouveau” wines with their autumn braais right now. Bubbling with fresh fruit and nifty modern winemaking methods ?this fad of getting new wine out under the new vintage label has mercifully?faded around here. In a […]
While England run free, Romania struggle against all odds to keep rugby alive Eddie Butler The last time I saw Florica Murariu was one lunchtime in Bucharest. He was on television. Not that he was doing anything. One of the finest forwards of his generation, one of the key players in the Romanian side that […]
Kathryn Smith African Window (National Cultural History Museum), 149 Visagie Street, Pretoria. Gordon Froud’s Plastic by Nature, a sculptural installation of objects constructed from plastic cutlery and crockery, is currently on view. Ends May 26. Also on view are paintings and drawings of the Namibian landscape by Beeuven Gerrytz. Ends April 29. Pierneef: Master of […]
Piers Pigou CROSSFIRE Although last week’s decision by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s (TRC) amnesty committee to grant Robert McBride and five others amnesty for the bombing of the Why Not and Magoos beachfront bars in Durban on June 14 1986, which resulted in three dead and more than 70 injured, was perhaps predictable, it […]
Several years ago we asked the same question:Is Thabo Mbeki fit to rule? At the time, it elicited a furious response from African National Congress representatives and a coterie of others keen to ingratiate themselves with the heir apparent to Nelson Mandela. It was deemed an unfitting question, insulting, arrogant and predictably racist. Today we […]
Robert Colman Lifestyle Two homegrown enterprises and a French import have brought fresh life to the Johannesburg suburb of Troyeville. If you aren’t a local it’s well worth crossing the northern suburbs curtain to try them. First stop is the Spaza Art Gallery. Artist Andrew Lindsay has gathered a rich network of young talent from […]
Six years ago Timothy McVeigh killed 168 people when he blew up the Alfred P Murrah building in Oklahoma City. Now it is his turn to die. His namesake, Tracey McVeigh, travels to his hometown to investigate the making of the US’s greatest mass murderer On Monday Timothy James McVeigh celebrated his 33rd birthday. He […]
Robert Kirby CHANNELVISION Craig Matthews’s excellent documentary Of Ochre andWater:Himba Chronicles from the Land of Kaoko, was about the threat to the cultural, religious and social traditions, the very substance, of Namibia’s Himba people by the proposed construction of a vast dam on the Kunene river. Ergo, hydroelectricity for Windhoek. Matthews says that his involvement […]
Barry Streek and Paul Kirk The Minister of Safety and Security Steve Tshwete says more than 152 000 rapes and attempted rapes in South Africa were reported to the police in the three years between 1997 and 1999 almost 140 a day. Most reported rapes and attempted rapes per province took place in Gauteng, 36 […]