headache Mercedes Sayagues To many Zimbabweans, Morgan Tsvangirai is nothing short of a hero. The man stands up to a repressive government. He denounces corruption, defends workers’ interests and rights, and chairs the movement to reform the Constitution. For his troubles he is bashed on the head and needs stitches. The attack appears ordered by […]

You can make your dreams come true without resorting to crime, young people heard at a Freedom Day concert I’m in the Beemer with two-thirds of Shana when the new Boom Shaka tune, Change Your Mind, hits the airwaves from Durban Youth Radio. Nathi, one of the chiselled young singers of Durban’s hot new kwaito […]

One of South Africa’s most senior prison officials has been linked to a slew of political assassinations Paul Kirk KwaZulu-Natal’s newly appointed deputy director of correctional services, Russel Ngubo, is being investigated by the elite Scorpion unit and the police for at least 30 murders. Ngubo – who is also an African National Congress councillor […]

After four years in the wilderness, Damien Hirst, the hooligan genius of the art world, is back Gordon Burn Four years ago, for his last major show, at the Gagosian Gallery in New York, Damien Hirst made a piece featuring a giant beach ball bobbling on a column of air. The ball was multicoloured and […]

Mary Dover South African hotel giant Southern Sun has secured a site for a new hotel in Tanzania as part of the group’s aggressive expansion into Africa. Southern Sun recently purchased the Lusaka Holiday Inn from the owners of the property, Anglo American, and a new hotel is under construction in Maputo, Mozambique. The 159-room […]

Neal Collins in London The venue: Selhurst Park. The date: early autumn 2000. The scene: Wimbledon’s players are gathered in the dressing room to begin their battle for promotion from Division One. Enter the new manager… “Right, lads, not many of you remember me, but here’s a reminder of what I’m all about (head butts […]

Ivor Powell The Office of the State Attorney has stopped providing legal assistance to victims of apartheid atrocities appearing before the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s (TRC) amnesty hearings and is instead funding only the torturers and policemen applying for amnesty. The decision hits victims currently employed by the state – mainly former Umkhonto weSizwe (MK) […]

John Hooper in Berlin The former head of East Germany’s Olympic programme went on trial this week in what will be an unprecedented public examination of the project to produce super women athletes by feeding them steroids without their knowledge. Opening the trial of Manfred Ewald, once head of the Gymnastics and Sports Federation, the […]