South African Music Week: A CDreview special African Jazz Pioneers: Afrika Vukani (Gallo) The Pioneers haul out their old-style South African jazz stuff one more time, but it really is all wearing a bit thin now. Leader Ntemi Piliso, probably the last remaining member of the original Pioneers, groans his way through a song or […]

Martin Kettle For nearly a century, human visitors to the North Pole have found a frozen, featureless scene covered in thick ice. Until now. Earlier this month, a group of international scientists aboard a Russian ice-breaker arrived at the pole to find not ice but a stretch of open water at least 1km wide, with […]

blind Anthea Jeffery Crossfire To most South Africans, the word “racism” probably has its conventional meaning – connoting intentionally disparate treatment founded on race. Given our apartheid history, it refers to laws that deprive black people of the vote, or bar them from owning land, or exclude them from “white” schools and hospitals. It also […]

Steven Friedman worm’s eye view We continue to mention race in public, but not to talk about it. For those of us who have argued that we do not acknowledge race publicly as much as we should, the clash between President Thabo Mbeki and opposition leader Tony Leon should, in theory, be a breath of […]

Matthew Simpson LIFESTYLE Frankly flea markets have begun to bore me. The first one I ever went to was the mass of stalls which squatted outside the Market Theatre in the early 1980s when I was all of eight or nine years old. The place seemed to stretch for miles and was a treasure trove […]

In October the Internet will host its first election, with registered voters deciding who will regulate this medium Lauren Shantall Only 200 South Africans will be voting for one of two African candidates for Icann, the Internet “traffic authority” – despite there being nearly two million local users. The Icann election, from October 1 to […]

REUTERS, Johannesburg | Friday CONSTRUCTION and engineering company, Group Five Ltd, expected a sharp improvement in business, despite the 50% plunge in earnings per share in the last year. The group, which was hit by significant losses in its engineering division and a sluggish performance in construction, expects its EPS to surge by 70% in […]

Vusi Mahlasela says his songs assume their own direction, but he has been a master of his own destiny all his life Nicky Blumenfeld If South Africa’s recent history were to be described in narrative form, then Vusi Mahlasela’s life story would provide fitting material. It is also appropriate that his latest album, Miyela Afrika, […]

Justice is blind – and she’s close to broke, as a cash-flow crisis cripples the courts Glenda Daniels and Khadija Magardie The Johannesburg High Court has run out of money to pay for fax paper and has enough cash for just one month’s worth of judges’ telephone bills, it emerged this week. Lawyers told the […]

Robert Kirby CHANNELVISION Recently BBC World ran a documentary that I sincerely wish someone would shove down the throats of Mr Ronnie Kasrils, Mr Jeremy Cronin and any other latter-day commies they can find. Called Mission to Moldova, the documentary told the story of a voluntary United Kingdom charity aid convoy bringing three large pantechnicons […]