NET WATCH During a recent Guardian debate over the commercialisation of the net, ntk.net’s editor Danny O’Brien complained that banner advertising was now taking longer to download than the actual content of most web pages. Users with local dial-up connections find this particularly frustrating, so finding a way to circumvent the bandwidth- eating ads could […]

Khadija Magardie The SABC has refused to accept last week’s judgment by the Broadcasting Complaints Commission of South Africa (BCCSA) which found the public broadcaster guilty of unfair reporting against Allister Sparks. The BCCSA has acknowledged that it has received an application for a review of its decision from the SABC. The directive which ordered […]

David Beresford ANOTHER COUNTRY Piet the mongrel is dead and buried at the bottom of the garden, I am told, under the loquat tree. Most pets tend to have been special, post mortem; it is perhaps the selective nature of memory. But, although some might say the quality is not discoverable among animals, I think […]

Robert Kirby Channel vision I grew wary of the SABC’s motives in broadcasting the now notorious documentary on Sierra Leone after they had given the umpteenth advance warning about the programme: “It includes graphic scenes of extreme physical violence … will be offensive to sensitive viewers … blindfold the children.” In yet another grimy departure […]

Throughout the world Dirk Coetzee is credited with blowing the whistle on Vlakplaas, but the secret police unit’s activities were first revealed by Almond Nofemela to a fellow inmate on death row. Gomolemo Mokae spoke to Sibusiso Masuku about his role in the affair It is not difficult to get to the home of former […]

Behind the obfuscatory officialese of the government’s new taxi programme there lies a carefully worked-out strategy aimed at transforming every facet of the unruly industry. Among the strategic objectives of the new taxi deal are: l to take control of taxi ranks run as private fiefdoms by particular associations and warlords to the detriment of […]

Bob Woolmer FROM THE PAVILION The one-day triangular series featuring South Africa, England and Zimbabwe is coming to its climax. The hosts are expected to win; they are the favourites. The team has changed again (Dale Benkenstein, who had been promised an extended run, got two games!), and it won’t be long before the team […]

>From films to soundtracks to piano recitals, Ryuichi Sakamoto has fingers in all sorts of pies – and every one of them seems to taste delicious. Except Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence, writes Michael Quinn Pop star, actor, classical musician, opera composer, world music pioneer, techno innovator, Academy Award winner and, yes, mustn’t forget, fashion model […]

Adam Haupt Capoeira, Brazil’s beefy martial arts form, has an interesting history that takes one into Brazil’s colonial past. Its movements evoke its people’s African origins. Given its place in the history of the “new world”, it’s odd that two Swedes – Paul Blomgren and Billy Malm – are in South Africa to “re-introduce” this […]