Lynda Gilfillan Hunters from all over the world are increasingly setting their sights on the Eastern Cape as a game-hunting destination. The game and wildlife industry is claimed to be the only growth point in the beleaguered South African livestock industry – up 40% last season – and the Eastern Cape is cashing in. It […]
BLOOD ACRE by Peter Landesman (Penguin) There is a sense of inevitability about this elegant noir novel – that awful deeds will out in dark and slimy places, that one cannot run forever from the wreck one has made of people’s lives. Coney Island during a winter storm is the right place for such a […]
On a trip to the Sossusvlei dunes, Kit Peel found a spot of luxury in the harsh desert Guidebooks are misleading. There’s nothing new in that. You go to England but don’t really expect, as part of your itinerary, to have tea with the queen or hang out with Damien Hirst in his latest eatery. […]
Anton Harber OBITUARY There will be many stories told of the work Ismail Mahomed, the chief justice who succumbed to cancer last week, did for his clients in his many years at the Johannesburg Bar. I want to tell of one where we insisted he not do any work. Mahomed often represented the Mail & […]
Tobias Schmitz CROSSFIRE There are currently strong signals in the media that the government intends to restructure Eskom into a holding company for a range of power generation, transmission and distribution agents. Things have changed since the 1960s and 1970s, when parastatals were an uncritically accepted vehicle of service delivery. During that period they were […]
Merryman Kunene In the aftermath of Bafana Bafana’s poor showing at the Nike Cup in the United States recently, the issue of finding a new national team – and coach – is back in the spotlight. By the end of the 2000 African Cup of Nations campaign in Ghana and Nigeria, South Africa had been […]
PALM STALKER by Rocco Bergh (Penguin) Naval architect Robert Arquette has had an interesting beginning – a father lost at sea, a mother who died giving birth on a Zululand beach, the child reared first by a hard-drinking Scot living a lonely life in the bush, then by a shady missionary. Found by his uncle […]
Melvyn Minnaar LIFESTYLE In 1874 Mark Twain wrote to his wife from London: “Livy, my darling, I want you to be sure to have in the bathroom, when I arrive, a bottle of scotch whisky, a lemon, some crushed sugar and a bottle of Angostura Bitters. Ever since I have been in London I have […]
That spirited agnostic Minister of Education Kader Asmal asked for prayer last week. Hundreds of people of every race, religion and background stopped the traffic outside 123 Schoeman Street, Pretoria, to rename the Ministry of Education building Sol Plaatje House. Zanile Mbeki unveiled the plaque, Boitemelo Plaatje-Molefe, the pioneer’s granddaughter, read a tribute, and the […]
history Ebrahim Harvey LEFT FIELD The recent re-emergence of the white Afrikaner taalstryd movement has generated heated debate in this and other papers. Unfortunately, there are some historical myths about Afrikaans and the “coloured” people it seeks to win over which have been perpetuated and need to be debunked. Much as language is the lifeblood […]