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 […]

Veteran reporter Doreen Levin has been intrigued by the Miss South Africa beauty pageant since first covering the event in 1972 Rachel Martens ‘The first Miss South Africa competition I attended was held at the Johannesburg City Hall,” recalls Doreen Levin, wryly adding that much of the evening was spent carrying messages for irate performers […]

Jaspreet Kindra The Inkatha Freedom Party was bolstered by this week’s poll, beefing up its traditional rural support base in KwaZulu-Natal. The IFP managed to improve its performance in last year’s general election of 41,9% in the province, increasing its share to at least 45%. At the time of going to press the IFP had […]

Justin Arenstein and Michael Matari The Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) on Thursday demanded audio tapes from the SABC following reports that one of its regional Northern Province radio stations encouraged rural resi-dents to boycott the local government elections as part of an ethnic feud. Northern Province chief electoral officer Zwo Nevhutalu said Radio Munghana Lonene […]