THEATRE: Andrew Wilson WHILE some of Athol Fugard’s later works, like A Place With the Pigs, are mark ed by claustrophobic symbolism and metaphor, his earlier plays like Hello and Goodbye and People Are Living There are finely textured examples of dirty real ism, where action and character are not slaves to ethereal philosophies or […]

Gwen Ansell NOSTALGIA and the recycling of old legends dominates the public face of South African jazz and audiences might be forgiven for fearing that’s all there is. But while we have, as yet, no coherent new jazz movement in this country, a ha ndful of players are striking out in fresh directions – there […]

Shaun de Waal HOMOSEXUALITY: A HISTORY by Colin Spencer (Fourth Estate, R69,95) TAKING on an almost ludicrously broad field, Colin Spencer whizzes through man ifestations of same-sex love from prehistory to the present day. His overviews of ancient societies and the Renaissance, particularly, are interesting and u seful, but he seems unsure of which theory […]

Chris Dunton SINGING AWAY THE HUNGER: STORIES OF A LIFE IN LESOTHO by Mpho M’atsepo Nthunya (University of Natal Press, R79) IN her foreword to this autobiography of a 66-year-old Mosotho woman who has ” little formal education, less privilege and almost no experience of books or w riting”, Ellen Kuzwayo comments: “One has a […]

Jacquie Golding-Duffy THE government conceded this week that the Independent Broadcasting Authority’s (IBA) mandate for the SABC, central to plans to transform the broadcaster, is too expensive. The Telecommunications Ministry and the SABC said funding constraints and suggestions that the broadcaster become commercially self-sufficient had rendered many of the IBA’s recommendations impractical. The government has […]

Richard Thomas in Washington IT looks as if the game is finally up for=20 the tobacco industry. The anti-smoking=20 lobby is anticipating a spell of success=20 after decades of disappointment in the=20 courtrooms. For 1997 is the year when=20 government bodies finally square up to a=20 corporate lobby whose wealth and power=20 seemed to guarantee […]

`revenge’ Stuart Hess MORE than a week after rioting to protest=20 high taxes, residents of Johannesburg’s=20 coloured areas remain defiant of the=20 government, saying that an old oppressor=20 has merely been replaced with a new one. The rates row which sparked the rioting -=20 in which police have confirmed two people=20 died – is only […]

The medicines control bureaucracy is being accused of denying people with Aids a chance to save their lives. Jim Day reports THERE are people with Aids in South Africa who want to take Virodene now – and they want no part of what they see as bureaucratic meddling by the Medicines Control Council. Patients interviewed […]