African radio is switching from being a vehicle of the state to one of commercial enterprise. Peter van den Akker reports A TAXI driver called Antwi, in Ghana’s capital Accra, roars with laughter. “She is a sugar mammy herself!” he exclaims, and to get his message across to his passengers, he points repeatedly to the […]

Applications for amnesty from the the PAC and ANC are pouring in to the truth commission, and with a likely extension of the cut-off date right-wingers will also be able to apply, writes Eddie Koch PRESIDENT Nelson Mandela is expected to cap a week of dramatic developments around the truth commission by announcing on Friday […]

KwaZulu-Natal farmers who have resorted to radical private security measures “are fuelling racial tensions, reports Ann Eveleth EX-KOEVOET soldiers are patrolling the rugged terrain of Weenen after a spate of farm murders in the KwaZulu-Natal Midlands, say prominent farmers and police in this frontier town. The Weenen Farmers’ Association hired the guards after the son […]

Rehana Rossouw ATTEMPTS by Pan Africanist Congress members to ease the departure of its president, Clarence Makwetu, have been stymied by his insistence on contesting his position at the organisation’s congress this weekend. While Makwetu has not been blamed entirely for weaknesses in the PAC, senior members believe his deficient leadership has contributed to the […]

Angella Johnson IT was a Friday evening when “Joseph” and “Sinah” settled their two youngest children into bed and retired to their room. As was their custom, they made tea with a herbal concoction bought from the local sangoma. This time, unknown to them, it had been spiked with a deadly poison. On drinking the […]

Ecologically fragile land in the Drakensberg is to be planted with pines, reports Eddie Koch WATER and Forestry Affairs Minister Kader Asmal is under fire in KwaZulu-Natal from organisations across the political spectrum over his ministry’s decision to allow some 3 000ha of ecologically fragile land on the Drakensberg escarpment to be planted with commercial […]

Bafana Khumalo ONE of the most enduring images I have of Hugh Masekela is that of stocky man surrounded by a band, hand raised and confronting an audience of rowdy revellers who would rather be sitting at a shebeen regaling each other with stories of sexual conquest than listening to jazz music. This would sometimes […]

revamp Andy Duffy THE Gauteng provincial government is to revamp its maternity services – a move which could lead to the closure of poorly supported units in Soweto. The plans, to kick in next year, include attaching new maternity facilities to overloaded hospitals and, according to department sources, closing some of the 20 existing outlying […]

Chris Dunton THESE THINGS HAPPEN by Shaun de Waal (Ad Donker, R59,95) AT over 200 pages, this is a generous collection a dozen stories, one of them, “Dave”, a wonderfully sustained piece, taking up a quarter of the book. All but four of the stories are on gay life, one way or another even so, […]

Tic Tic Bang has shown that there is room for competition in the local music industry. Glynis O’Hara reports TWO idealistic young men, who loved what South Africans might call alternatief (alternative) music, have proven that being big in the distribution business is not necessarily better. Anybody who knows anything about the music industry will […]