I was extremely disturbed to read in the Daily Mail & Guardian the other day that the South African government had refused political asylum to Catherine Kaunda, daughter of former president Kenneth Kaunda. I do not know the full particulars of the case. Whatever the reason, it is the right of a sovereign government to […]
Ivor Powell With mounting political violence and endemic intimidation in some areas threatening to disrupt the June 2 election, a leading violence monitor has called on the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) to cancel polling in areas where political parties and their agents were prevented from operating. Speaking at a workshop on violence and the elections, […]
Iden Wetherell Frustrated by the refusal of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) states to support the embattled governments of the Democratic Republic of Congo and Angola, Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe has crafted a weapon he hopes will deal a decisive blow to rebel movements in the region. Meeting with presidents Jos Eduardo dos Santos […]
As South Africans prepare to confirm the new era at the polls, Howard Barrell looks at what happened to the kings of old When last seen, Barend du Plessis, the man who was placed in charge of the national finances after his computer company had gone bust, looked like an aging beauty queen. Consultant, director […]
Ivor Powell Some time last year those in the inner circles of the African National Congress and the party’s official spin doctors took to referring to Deputy President Thabo Mbeki, in a seemingly hubristic way, as “the president”. It was only when you challenged them, insisting that the president’s name was Nelson Mandela and that […]
Joanna Walters An unseemly race has begun: a stampede to resume trade with Libya, a political pariah that just happens to be swimming in oil. It all depends on whether the trial of the Lockerbie suspects in the Netherlands throws up anything about government involvement in the deed- and in a host of other old […]
Malachy McCourt 44: A DUBLIN MEMOIR by Peter Sheridan (Macmillan) Will the Irish ever stop the churning out of novels, poetry, epics, histories, stories (short or long, individual or collected) and now a flood of memoirs? Not bloody likely, sez the man, not with the world standing with eagerness and wallets agape to pay for […]
Last year there was more hype around Josiah Thugwane’s participation in the London Marathon than about the millennium bug. This year, the Olympic champion is downplaying his chances after inadequate preparation, leaving Elana Meyer to carry the burden of South African hopes at one of the world’s top three big city marathons. The 32-year-old Meyer […]
Loose cannon:Robert Kirby Charlene Smith’s was an extraordinarily brave description last week, of the twin ordeals she underwent – at the brutal hands of a rapist and then at the equally brutal hands of those to whom she turned for help. With the exception of one compassionate and determined policeman, the people who should have […]
Brett Bailey and Beezy Bailey (not related) have combined to create some (black) magic. Alex Sudheim falls under the spell `They have had to focus on their bodies being made of wood or clay or porcelain or plastic,” says Brett Bailey of the “statues” that comprise the cast of his black magic performance piece Ju-ju. […]