MONDAY, 1.30PM The leader of the Anjouan separatists in the Comoros announced that he will hold a “cabinet” meeting today to decide what to do next. Local businessman Ahmed “Charlie” Charikane held a candle-light press conference in a local hotel and said his first priority would be to re-establish phone links to the outside world […]

MONDAY, 10.30AM: AMERICAN energy expert Amory Lovins, currently visiting South Africa, says Eskom is making a mistake “running wires out to people who can’t pay”. He suggests that Eskom “leap-frog” to looking at the potential of solar energy, which would cut infrastructure costs and help consumers pay their energy bills. Lovins, who runs the Rocky […]

Hazel Friedman Jazz enthusiasts in Cape Town will be forgiven for thinking they are somewhere on the west coast -America’s west coast, that is. The source of their confusion is P4 in Cape Town – a new jazz radio station that got airborne on September 1. After the 6am news bulletin, listeners would have been […]

Dance music stars Boom Shaka look set to sever ties with the label that created them. Maria McCloy asks them why Boom Shaka are arguably South Africa’s most popular dance music outfit. They emerged as stars in the stable of Kalawa records, home to the likes of Brothers of Peace, Trompies and Bongo Maffin. But […]

Andrew MuchineripiSoccer The strength of South African club football will receive one of its most thorough examinations this weekend when champions Orlando Pirates and cup winners Jomo Cosmos visit North Africa. Pirates are in war-torn Algeria for a crucial African Champions League second- round fixture against Union Sportive de la Medina d’Alger (USMA) while Cosmos […]

Swapna Prabhakaran A restaurant in the upmarket Johannesburg suburb of Rosebank has been accused of racism after five black men were barred at the doors by the bouncer. The men had come from Namibia and Zimbabwe to do a course in sports journalism and made their way to the Storyville resturant, accompanied by a white […]

The spectre of institutional racism haunts two events, the death of Sam Nolutshungu and Wits academic William Makgoba’s recounting of his `victimisation’ A sudden bout of amnesia must have gripped polemicist Jon Qwelane as he sat down last month to attack the media’s coverage of the late Professor Sam Nolutshungu. Under the headline “Once again, […]

Lizeka Mda `On the available evidence the death cannot be attributed to any act or omission amounting to a criminal offence on the part of any person,” ruled the magistrate in the Steve Biko inquest in November 1977. All he had determined was that the cause of death was indeed brain injury. Now, 20 years […]

National art collections are about visual history, memory and identity. At their best, they offer a key to the map of our past, a means of preserving roots and a document of unique and shared cultural formations. In South Africa, the politics and ethics of forming such collections are emerging from a history marked less […]

Town Julian Drew Few election campaigns draw more international interest and none are subject to greater conjecture than the contest for the Olympic Games. Experts around the globe deliberate over the influence of various International Olympic Committee (IOC) members and speculate about various bloc votes. At the end of the day, however, speculation is all […]