Martin Kettle in Washington The city of Louisville in Kentucky boasts possibly the world’s only statue of Louis XVI of France – in honour of the man from whom it takes its name. It is doubly odd to find a statue of the last of the Bourbons in the middle of a mid-western state becau […]

The Time of the Writer festival was recently held at Natal University. South African author Farida Karodia was there Monday In the afternoon Nigeria’s Nobel winner Wole Soyinka, British author Barbara Trapido, Zimbabwean Yvonne Vera and Breyten Breytenbach, there since Sunday, drift into the lounge. Some of the writers on the programme have not turned […]

I find myself sitting next to Mike Atherton as the England cricket team crowds on to a small plane leaving Guyana for the next Test in Barbados. He is reading the memoirs of Pablo Neruda, the Nobel Prize-winning poet from Chile. Atherton is also impressively familiar with Guyanese literature and mentions the recent death of […]

Tracy Murinik: On show in Cape Town Like the variegations of a leaf skeleton, or a highly convoluted, contoured mapping of space, Paul Edmunds’s assemblages inveigle themselves along the foundations of the Mark Coetzee Fine Art Cabinet in an installation entitled Once Again. Hundreds of small plastic cable ties and bottle tops, all meticulously joined […]

Adam HauptOn stage in Cape Town The nightlife in central Cape Town is vibrant, and a casual observer watching the cars cruising and the dudes boozing might easily think that the multicultural beast that is South Africa is perfectly represented here. But this is a misapprehension. The m ore pretentious forms of cultural expression still […]

fallout from Vryburg Bongani Siqoko The ongoing racial clashes at Vryburg High School in North West province have put a strain on many Afrikaans schools around the country – some of them battling to overcome the perception that they are all racist. The principal of Elandspoort High School in Pretoria, Sarel du Toit, said Afrikaans […]

Charl Blignaut: On stage in Johannesburg It is no doubt extremely uncool of me to not to gush about Ben Elton’s Popcorn. I mean, I ask you, how can a ”Generation-X West End smash hit” that uses terms like ”Tarantino-esque” in its publicity material possibly be anything but deadly hip? Actually, the answer is simple; […]

Tracy MurinikOn show in Cape Town Like a leaf skeleton, or a scrutinised microdot, or a highly convoluted mapping of space, Paul Edmunds’s assemblages inveigle themselves along the foundations of the Mark Coetzee Fine Art Cabinet in an installation entitled Once, Again. Hundreds of small plastic cable ties and bottle tops, all meticulously joined and […]

Marthali Brand The Internet is set to be the next advertising goldmine, if the number of online South African newspapers is anything to go by. A search for newspapers on the South Africa Online search engine gives more than 30 hits, including obscure publications like Die Padda and Colin’s Family Focus. But the really serious […]

THURSDAY, 11.30AM: MAMELODI Sundowns have a clear lead in the Professional Soccer League championships after beating Moroka Swallows 1-0 at the Odi Stadium on Wednesday. Kenny Niemach scored the Brazilians’ only goal in the 55th minute after linking well with Oumar Barro. Barro, who is Sundowns’ new Burkinabe international, had the Birds’ defence in all […]