John Sturrock HOW PROUST CAN CHANGE YOUR LIFE by Alain de Botton (Picador, R126) THE montage on the jacket of this slim volume is ominous: why should the gloomy Marcel Proust pictured there have a lurid bird clawing at his shoulder? Is it perhaps a parrot, echoing the unfortunate claim in the blurb that How […]
Chris Dunton FOUR PLAYS compiled and introduced by Zakes Mda (Vivlia, R49,99) THE earliest play here is Maishe Maponya’s Umongikazi/The Nurse, dating from 1983. The premire production toured Europe, though deprived of its two leading performers who were refused travel documents “for security reasons”. That was then – and indeed the play’s subject-matter was itself […]
WEDNESDAY, 11.30AM JOHANNESBURG Consolidated Investments’ MD Bill Nairn resigned yesterday after compromising his position by publicly backing Cyril Ramaphosa’s New Africa Investments Limited in the race for a stake in the mining giant by black empowerment investors. As it turned out, Nairn backed the wrong horse, as Nail’s African Mining Group failed to raise the […]
Even though JOE QUEENAN is annoyed by Spike Lee, he thinks that, with the release of Get on the Bus, it’s time to show respect I DON’T know any white people who like Spike Lee. I know white people who used to like Spike Lee, but that was before his anti-white tirades, his going to […]
Andrew Higgins in Hong Kong IN the dying days of British rule, all eyes in Hong Kong are fixed on a corpse. Around it crowd dozens of television cameras and a throng of mud-slinging mourners. The cause of the controversy is the death of a philandering, opium-smoking and much loved Cantonese opera star. Tang, best […]
RUGBY:Steve Morris IT is a sad state of affairs when the top sides in this country are left to fight it out among themselves for the scraps of the Super 12 semi-final berths. But, as things currently stand in the maelstrom of the three-nation provincial competition, this is indeed the case. With the Auckland Blues, […]
TUESDAY, 9.00AM ENERGY Minister Penuell Maduna yesterday accused the multinational oil companies of exercising a stranglehold on the local oil industry. He suggested instead a government-backed national oil distributor, with a black empowerment share, which would redistribute its profits inside the country. Maduna said the oil industry benefitted from sanctions-era agreements to encourage multinationals to […]
NEW FRONT IN DRUG WAR A GROUP calling itself “Soldiers of Islam” today claimed responsibility for last night’s firebombing of a house in Lenasia, near Johannesburg. An anonymous caller said Soldiers of Islam will continue to bomb houses belonging to drug dealers. The firebombing adds a new twist to the ongoing war between Cape Flats […]
MONDAY, 4.30PM LABOUR consultants Andrew Levy & Associates today published its quarterly wgae report, which shows that wages in SA increased by an average of 9,1% in the first three months of this year, just below the 9,6% average inflation rate so far this year. Researcher Jackie Kelly said wage increases across all industries ranged […]
TUESDAY, 11.00AM: UNITED States soccer authorities have invited SA to an international friendly in Miami, Florida in September, Safa CEO Danny Jordaan said yesterday. However, Bafana Bafana’s tight schedule for the rest of the year might mean them turning down the invitation. The team has still to play 10 international matches this year, and September […]