Chris McGreal writes from Kinshasa on the machinations behind the chaos in Zaire THE gatekeeper shakes his head in despair at mention of the leopards of President Mobutu Park. No one fed them, he says, until one by one they disappeared from their cages along with the lions and rhinos. Only a few starving monkeys […]
From the Cape Flats to downtown Johannesburg hip-hop is rising on the streets. We look at its evolution and its roots – and at what’s going down in Hollywood Maria McCloy in Johannesburg HIP-HOP is worldwide, or so the saying goes. Well it’s true there are rappers all around the globe – stretching from what […]
THE ANGELLA JOHNSON INTERVIEW PICTURE this as the new corporate logo for South African Airways: a humongous image of Desmond Tutu’s beaming face emblazoned on the tail of the national carrier, with the words “gravy plane” running alongside. This was just one of the numerous items of “hate mail” Peter Vundla says his advertising agency, […]
Mungo Soggot SOUTH AFRICA has experienced a massive surge in non-mineral export volumes matched only by the Asian tigers, says Mike Schssler, an economist at stockbroker EW Balderson. Schssler says latest Portnet figures show a 33% increase in the volume of exports that left the port of Durban last year. The port handles a wide […]
president IT is usual for newspapers, in the name of free speech, to excoriate those who resort to the laws of libel. But there are grounds for regret among the most freedom-loving of journalists that the case of De Klerk v Mokaba is unlikely to be heard, at least in relation to the African National […]
Susannah Frankel in Paris CALL it fin de sicle confusion if you will, but something, in fashion at least, is rotten. There was a cynicism underlying many of the so-called high points of the Paris autumn/winter ready-to-wear collections that made for uncomfortable viewing. Increased media attendance meant even fewer real clothes and more bare-faced sensationalism […]
Huge losses in revenue to pirates have goaded the music industry into constructive action, reports Glynis O’Hara IN China, eight people were executed last year for music piracy. “Just like that,” says Mike Snow, drawing a line across his throat with his finger. The trouble is, they weren’t the big guys. And, according to overseas […]
The IFP has dictated to the new provincial premier whom to appoint to his Cabinet, reports Ann Eveleth INKATHA Freedom Party leader Mangosuthu Buthelezi appears to have blocked attempts by KwaZulu-Natal’s newly elected Premier Ben Ngubane to appoint a provincial Cabinet without his approval. IFP parliamentarians told the Mail & Guardian this week Ngubane -sworn […]
A high court judgment sends the wrong message to police torturers and their victims, argues `Serjeant at the Bar’ A JUDGE in the Johannesburg High Court has refused to make a special order for costs against the minister of safety and security and two others in connection with an incident of police torture at the […]
THE march of Laurent Kabila and his spirited rebel army through the jungles of Zaire is less a war story than a tale of disintegration. If he had transport, Kabila would be in Kinshasa already, if there were roads. The difficult part only begins when he gets to the capital, when the euphoric crowds that […]