Tangeni Amupadhi Nine-year-old Mita Molete came home from school crying a few weeks ago. She pleaded with her mother not to let her go on a school tour to Durban. Molete, whose scalp was hacked with a panga during the 1992 Boipatong massacre on the Vaal Triangle, has developed a fear of Zulus. “She does […]
From a mud hut in Transkei to the Union Buildings in Pretoria is not that far, but it’s been a long road for President Mandela, writes David Beresford Below the village of Mvezo, on the side of a hill overlooking a bend of the Mbashe River in the former Transkei, three circular mounds of earth […]
Iden Wetherell When the Democratic Republic of Congo’s President Laurent Kabila paid a flying visit to Harare last week, he told reporters he was there for routine consultations with President Robert Mugabe. But the presence of Zimbabwe’s defence chiefs suggested a more pressing purpose. Mugabe is chair of the Southern African Development Community’s (SADC) organ […]
Nelson Mandela is worth a fortune. The world’s most beloved statesman and most famous ex-con is an obvious target for merchandising.
President Nelson Mandela has celebrated his 80th birthday by marrying his sweetheart, Graça Machel, in a private civil ceremony at his Houghton home on Saturday.
I’d hate to think what would have happened to artist Steven Cohen if he’d waltzed around this year’s national arts festival with his banner decorated with the words: “Give us your children. What we can’t fuck, we eat.” No doubt Deputy Minister of Home Affairs Lindiwe Sisulu would have had him for breakfast. Conversely, had […]
Howard Barrell and Mungo Soggot The relatively unknown African National Congress politician appointed as South Africa’s top prosecutor has shrugged off fears that he will follow the dictates of his political masters when he takes up his new job in two weeks’ time. Cape Town lawyer Bulelani Ngcuka, deputy chair of the National Council of […]
Coenraad Visser Love and land. Love that is stolen; land that is stolen. Thirty-five years later, love that is returned; land that is returned. “A promise made, broken, and then restored.” That, according to Michael Williams, librettist and producer, is the simple theme of Roelof Temmingh’s new opera, Buchuland, which opens at the State Theatre […]
Peter Makurube Pretoria’s anomaly has always been that it is the headquarters of apartheid and jazz. On one side of the city they chilled out to Bles Bridges and other nostalgic musicians. On the other side the spirit of Malombo won the hearts and minds of the people. Gradually,after all these years, Pretoria is learning […]
Luke Harding Cg’ose Ntcox’o, an illiterate Botswanan artist, was delighted when British Airways (BA)bought one of her works. She promptly splashed out on seven cows, built herself a shack on the edge of the Kalahari desert, and gave the rest of the money to her many nomadic relatives. Last week, however, Ntcox’o was deeply unhappy […]