There is a significant yet unexplored link between the abuse of alcohol and drugs and the spread of HIV/Aids Khadija Magardie All indicators point to the fact that the young and economically productive are the most likely to be felled by the HIV/Aids pandemic. According to a recently released report by Love-Life, an advocacy body […]

Fuel shortages, roadblocks, hijackings and intimidation are all part of daily life in Harare. Mercedes Sayagues reports I returned to Harare after two weeks in Latin America and found a city that lives in fear. Many – I am one – fear when the needle on the fuel indicator drops below half a tank. Grief, […]

David Beresford ANOTHER COUNTRY Many years ago I interviewed the former British prime minister, James Callaghan. He was foreign secretary at the time. The event was unremarkable, except that it was conducted in a nursery school classroom. We could not find anywhere to sit and he ended up wedging his considerable frame into one of […]

Siki. Dutch director Niek Koppen, who will be a guest of the festival presents his hour-long work of 1992 about Louis M’Barick Fall, who in 1922 became the first African to win a world boxing title. The documentary recounts the life of Battling Siki, the intelligent “savage”, activist, dandy, husband and womeniser. Using unique film […]

Valentine Cascarino Iboh ART Painting in watercolour is frowned upon – the victim of a disturbing myth, mostly harboured by critical modernists who believed watercolour is Victorian and amateurish. Those critics don’t even consider the fact that painting in watercolour presents a direct link to the development of romantic painting in the 19th century. Neither […]

Thebe Mabanga IN YOUR EAR The community radio sector has received an impressive boost with the launch of the Coca-Cola Enjoy hour. The project was started in February as a six-week pilot project on Alex FM. The project then became national, incorporating a selection of drive-time presenters, including Alex FM and Voice of Soweto in […]

Kit Peel Don’t be fooled by the stoepville houses, the laid-back feel, the picture-book tranquillity. The fact that it was mostly Afrikaans civil servants until the 1970s and thereafter arty eccentrics. The oh-so- carefully maintained fib that says: “We’re this alternative little lamb in the commercial beast city of Africa.” The old Melville crowd will […]

The scenery in the Pilanesberg is exquisite: a mix of undulating granite hills and broad plains Angus Begg I’ve had an itch to go camping again for a good while now, thinking I might take my five-year-old nephew, Tadeu, away to one of the bigger game reserves, where he can have his first glimpse of […]

Evidence wa ka Ngobeni The South African Association of Youth Clubs (SAAYC), the national youth organisation that boasts four-million- strong membership, has refocused its course again – this time it is working on changing the attitudes of millions of young people and motivating them to take charge of their fortune. “Gone are the times of […]

Brenda Atkinson MARKETING THROUGH MUD AND DUST by Muzi Kuzwayo (Ink Inc) One would think that the advertising industry in South Africa would be at the frontier of research into selling products to black South Africans, the so- called “emerging market” of the post- apartheid era. But a pervasive cultural ignorance lingers and plays out, […]