Ken Barris, who won the M-Net Book Prize for The Jailer’s Book, has just published a new novel. Shaun de Waal interviewed him via e-mail Your new novel, Evolution (Zebra) is not nearly as dense as The Jailer’s Book, either on the level of the prose and metaphor, or on the level of the narrative […]

The David Gleason Column This is the last column I shall write this year – and I have to say I’m rather glad 1998 has come to a writing end. It has been a brutal year for me personally, but also for many thousands of South Africans who have been trampled upon, caught by the […]

strength stuns MPLA Unita’s improved military strength is of growing concern to Angola and its neighbours, write Chris Gordon and Howard Barrell Unita military pressure on the government has escalated dangerously over the past week, prompting deep concern among neighbouring governments. A powerful Unita offensive, including tanks and heavy artillery, on forces at Kuito and […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Friday 6.50pm. THE South African “A” team which meets the touring West Indies at the Pietermaritzburg Oval on Saturday are certain to be in for some fireworks. The team, skippered by Gauteng wicketkeeper Nick Pothas, is woefully underprepared for the near-Test situation and half the team will only arrive in Pietermaritzburg […]

David Shapshak Spending It In science fiction, functional technology has long been integrated into mainstream culture as fashion. Technology has often been reinvented as fashion, witness what Bang & Olafsson have done for the dour hi-fi or Apple’s iMac for the home personal computer. The cellphone, that once distinctive sign of a yuppie, is going […]

jail? If ever there was a case which exposed the shortcomings of the police, the prosecution service and the judiciary, it is that of the Eikenhof Three. The facts in support of their innocence have yet to be tested in court but, to the reasonable man, appear overwhelming. Their fingerprints were never found on the […]

Wonder Hlongwa It’s that time of the year again, and in many townships in and around Gauteng people are preparing for boomfires. A boomfire is a huge flame made from a tall dry tree ringed with old tyres and set alight on New Year’s Eve. While the tree and tyres burn for the whole night, […]

Fine Art: Tracey Murinik Willie Bester, Louis Jansen van Vuuren and Zwelethu Mthethwa form a rather unexpected and somewhat unlikely trio at the Association for Visual Arts (AVA) in Cape Town this month. They have come together not only to exhibit their own respective works but also to collaborate on a number of pieces which […]

dream in tatters Cameron Duodu: LETTER FROM THE NORTH There are few countries whose near- destruction, through civil war, has pained me as much as that of Guinea- Bissau. This country fired my imagination in the early 1970s, for although its population was less than a million, it became – together with its sister, the […]

Andy Capostagno Cricket There were many reasons to be cheerful if you were a South African in Port Elizabeth last Saturday. The national side had just beaten the much vaunted West Indies by 178 runs to go 2-0 up in the five Test series and there was much back slapping and cheery chat about the […]