Sarah Bullen TAKING STOCK Extensive restaurant menus tend to throw me into a panic. Decisions are not made on the spur of the moment but agonised over, in case someone orders something that looks better than my dish. Placing an order is a painfully long process that most often ends in me asking the waiter […]
Bryan Ferry, who plays in South Africa this week, is the perfect example of a rock star growing old gracefully Lindsay Baker We don’t really like our rock stars to age. Should they be allowed, at age 54, to wear leather trousers and persist in performing? As a rule, we prefer to think of them […]
David Beresford ANOTHER COUNTRY The best chance of some degree of immortality nowadays would appear to lie with the hope of being dug up by a palaeontologist. It is a prospect which troubles me for various reasons including concern that one day they will find my skeleton and will speculate about my life without taking […]
Hazel Friedman’s new book about Norman Catherine uncovers his unique conceptual space ‘Twas a dark and stormy night …” Actually it was nothing of the kind last week when Norman Catherine celebrated 30 years of artistic output with an exhibition and the launch of the book Norman Catherine. One almost felt that at any moment […]
Paul Kirk One of KwaZulu-Natal’s senior military intelligence operatives has dodged an order banning him from living on army premises after being accused of running a brothel from his barracks. According to a senior South African National Defence Force (SANDF) officer, Captain Dumisane Thango was banned from army premises in November 1999 after he was […]
Tangeni Amupadhi A member of the Namibian Cabinet accompanied by two police officers this week barred a television news team of the public broadcaster from covering an impromptu press conference of an opposition party. Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, Information and Broadcasting Gabriel Shihepo hauled two Namibian Broadcasting Corporation (NBC) parliamentary journalists out of the […]
Professor Njabulo Ndebele was this week appointed vice-chancellor of the University of Cape Town (UCT) with the unanimous approval of the council. In a closely guarded selection process, Ndebele emerged as the favourite to take up the reins, as outgoing vice-chancellor Dr Mamphele Ramphele moves to her new position as one of four managing directors […]
Barry Streek The proposed merger of the Independent Broadcasting Authority (IBA) and the South African Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (Satra) has been changed to ensure that the new body, now to be called the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (Icasa), has constitutionally entrenched independence. The Democratic Party’s Dene Smuts said the amended Bill recognises the […]
The beauty of the game of cricket lies in its complexity, of which one becomes acutely aware when facing the difficulties of explaining the game to a newcomer. “It’s like baseball with two hitters,” is a familiar starting point, “except the ball bounces.” Ah, but what permutations lie behind that small qualification … The terror […]
Tim Radford United States chemists and engineers have developed a polymer which could trigger another revolution in computing and communications – and bring Star Trek-style 3D hologram fantasies a step closer to reality. Using the new material, they promise an “opto-chip” that will process signals at 100 gigabytes a second. This is the equivalent of […]