Robert Kirby CHANNELVISION Of the opportunistic infections which flourish around the HIV is the series of vulgar entertainments which regularly appear in its name. Sarafina 2 was the first of these unpleasant tumours and has been followed by many florid metastases, like the R5-million extravaganza mounted at the opening of the Aids Conference in Durban […]

Neil Sonnekus SIGNS OF THE HEART by Christopher Hope (Picador) There are usually two reactions to the name Christopher Hope. The first and most frequent, usually by those who worship television programming, is one of blank incomprehension. The other is slightly more difficult to pin down and therefore more interesting. It is something that approaches […]

Dave Barry Body Language When I’m in the supermarket checkout line, I always look at Cosmopolitan magazine to see if the editors have made any progress in their ongoing effort to figure out men. I’m sure you’re familiar with Cosmopolitan (“Fun Fearless Female”). It’s the one with the cover that always has a picture of […]

He’s ditched the 36-hour benders. He’s selling the Brighton party pad. And his new album’s eased back on that cheery big beat Fatboy Slim sound. But Norman Cook is still held in god-like reverence by, well, everybody Dom Phillips The first thing a very pregnant Zo Ball does when I walk into her kitchen is […]

David Beresford Another Country Increasingly I find myself turning first to the scientific news when I stagger out of bed in the morning, shuffle and shake through to my study and switch on my ageing computer (it feels as reluctant to boot up as my mind) to flick through the international and local newspapers on […]

Thebe Mabanga theatre Every week night for the better part of this holiday season, the stars put on a show at the Market Theatre. Only the shows are not for free, and the stars do not number 1?000 actually it’s just eight. Three of these stars feature in Call Us Crazy at the Barney Simon […]

Marianne Merten Hitler beat Shakespear (sic) hands down in Harare, ward 99 in Khayelitsha township on the outskirts of Cape Town. Hitler Mdoda, the African National Congress candidate, says his name had never stood in his way. It was given to him by his father “an illiterate man who thought [the Nazi dictator] was a […]

Bongani Diako and Theunis Roux crossfire In his response to our article on the Chatha claim, the regional land claims commissioner for the Eastern Cape makes a number of statements that cannot be left uncontradicted (“‘Betterment’ was a violation of land rights”, December 1 to 7). In between the various slurs, commissioner Tozamile Gwanya makes […]

TMChan a second look Johannesburg people usually look shocked when I say Jo’burg is one of my favourite cities. They seem embarrassed, as though what I was telling them was not that I liked their hometown, but rather that I was growing an extra toe. With delicate tact, they want to know things like how […]

James Hall Generations of fathers in Jasper Nxumalo’s family of Hhohho, Swaziland, have found an expedient and, they say, biblically sanctioned way to achieve primogeniture, or obtain a male heir: incest with a daughter. “I slept with my first-born daughter because it is family custom to do so,” Nxumalo told the Mbabane Court of Appeal […]