David Beresford Another Country A former American foreign correspondent turned dot-com finance consultant tossed a thought to me over dinner the other day. He asked rhetorically what would have happened if PW Botha and his boys had tried to impose censorship on South Africa today as they did in the mid- 1980s? The question is […]
Desmond Tutu often caused bemusement when he said that apartheid oppressed us all – black, white and all the shades in-between – and that its end would free us all. The bewilderment that sometimes greeted his assertion was not difficult to understand. For, whatever curtailment apartheid imposed on whites’ liberty or life chances, it seemed […]
Those who are least keen on our new democracy, it seems, make most use of it. Take the current mobilisation against the Property Rates Bill, which offers further evidence that neat theories often fail to explain political life here. Logic suggests that majority rule should relegate whites to the outer margins of public debate. Race […]
Nechama Brodie A Toyota manager has been dismissed for allegedly e-mailing a caricature of Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe to his colleagues. The cartoon, which features Mugabe’s face pasted on to the body of a gorilla, with the words, “We want the farms to grow more bananas,” was thought to contribute to racial tensions in the […]
convention Bowled over by his talent and chutzpah, Microsoft sponsored 15-year-old Greg Cohen’s attendance at its first Tech-Ed 2000 Africa being held at Sun City in mid- August Lauren Shantall Headlines heralding computer whizzkids are as outdated as Windows 95. Which means that 15-year-old Greg Cohen’s case, no matter how much of a programming prodigy […]
‘cure’ gay men Howard Barrell Being called a nutter by the defence force that serviced apartheid might, in the eyes of many, be an endorsement of one’s sanity. But, for those conscripts who were victims of the form of psychiatry practised in the former South African Defence Force (SADF), it could be a horrifying experience. […]
Why is a oe500 lump of titanium shaking the genteel world of golf to its foundations? Richard Williams It’s lunchtime in Nevada Bob’s, and the boys are discussing length. Karl, thirtyish, has just emerged from the storeroom holding a golf club. It’s a driver, the type of club that sends the ball furthest whether you’re […]
Ebrahim Harvey left field The National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (Numsa) has a proud and militant history in the trade union movement. It was organisationally and politically arguably the strongest affiliate of the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) with an unwavering commitment to socialism. It also produced some of the best […]
Peter Robinson CRICKET Of all the mistakes made by Shaun Pollock in his first Test match as captain (and, let’s be honest, he made a few), the worst by some distance was his failure to call the toss correctly on the first morning in Galle. A lot went wrong for South Africa in the first […]
Andrew Worsdale TELEVISION I was there. At Granny Lee’s funeral in the Anglican Cathedral in downtown Johannesburg in 1989. As someone remarks in the upcoming documentary Metamorphosis: The Remarkable Journey of Granny Lee, “It was a de luxe state funeral.” I’d met him some years earlier when I used to hang out with friends at […]