Traditional chiefs may abstain from voting in next year’s elections, writes Sechaba ka’Nkosi KwaZulu-Natal chiefs who voted for the African National Congress in the last election are signalling they are likely to abstain from party political activity in next year’s election. At the heart of their dissension is unhappiness with the recognition and remuneration they […]

Suzy Bell On show in Durban There’s a mighty fine poetic clerk working in the corporation department in Durban, whose head is a-swim with splicing Strauss, Shakespeare, Mozart and Milton, together with baubles and beads collected from Las Vegas, Paris and Durban. He is performance artist Vernon Burns, who has designed eight highly operatic costumes […]

Brenda Atkinson Multimedia The world of William Kentridge is one of considerable public profile, prolific artistic production, and enigmatic private symbolism. South Africa’s most acclaimed artist, his conceptual and aesthetic sensibilities have brought him growing critical kudos over the decades. But despite his international ubiquity, Kentridge remains something of a dark horse. Reserved in interviews […]

Richard Jago Tennis Martina Hingis made tennis history in a meteoric rise to the top of the women’s game. At the start of the year she led the rankings by 3E000 points and her position as number one seemed impregnable. Then in May she lost to Anna Kournikova in Berlin – and cracks began to […]

Anthony Holiday Over a Barrel The secret malaise is no longer concealable. Its symptoms are manifest everywhere from conclaves in Cape Town to the conflict in the Congo. South Africa’s Department of Foreign Affairs – and hence also Deputy President Thabo Mbeki and President Nelson Mandela himself – are taking decisions and engaging in the […]

Peter Makurube Live in Johannesburg The annual Jazz on the Lake festival is back and the organisers are hoping to beat their own record of 30E0000 revellers. Too bad, however, because the park is becoming too small for people to enjoy music. The public toilets can’t cope. The music comes first and the audience prefers […]

cash Insurance companies are paying claims in vouchers rather than cash, writes Ferial Haffajee The trauma of being mugged, having your car stolen or house broken into can be assuaged by the thought that if you’re fully insured, you should soon be getting a payout to replace your lost belongings. But when you lodge an […]

A noisy office is not only irritating, it can affect your work performance, writes Peter Baker Colleagues talking, telephones ringing, e-mails bleeping, photocopiers whirring: these everyday sounds make up an “acoustic wallpaper” in most offices -and one that can affect productivity and stress levels. Noise impairs people’s ability to perform simple tasks such as remembering […]

CHRISTIAN FIGENSCHOU, Johannesburg | Thursday 5.00PM. LATEST new vehicle sales figures released by the National Association of Automobile Manufacturers show that sales of new passenger cars slumped in August to the lowest level this year. The only good news came in the heavy commercial sector, where sales held their own in spite of declining business […]

Shaun de Waal CD of the week Between 1973 and 1980, Tom Waits made seven albums for Asylum Records. From those works were selected and collected the songs that appeared on his previous “best of”, conveniently tagged The Asylum Years. You could hear, over those albums, the transformation of someone who was always an unusual […]