GLYNIS O’HARA does a ‘vastrap’ with Boereqanga’s Nico Carstens NICO CARSTENS, once the darling of boeremusiek, subsequently an outcast, has been staging a quiet comeback over the last few years through his work with the likes of Ray Phiri, Johannes Kerkorrel, and now boereqanga. It’s absolutely amazing what a nifty little name can do because […]

James Meek in Moscow MOST Muscovites, cynical by nature, suspected the giant billboards were a trick to make them buy something they did not want. Others saw the adverts, featuring a beautiful woman gazing adoringly at all and sundry with the message ‘I love you’, as the latest wheeze by the mayor, Yuri Luzhkov, to […]

In December 1959 Benjamin Pogrund covered a PAC conference in Orlando for the Rand Daily Mail. Now he reports on the latest PAC conference SHORTLY after 1am last Monday the Pan Africanist Congress was transformed from a dying no-hoper into an organisation of spirit and potential. The dramatic change came with the announcement at its […]

CHARL BLIGNAUT shares lunch and ideas with Robert Hodgins, man of vision and painter extraordinaire ‘BETWEEN 12.30 and 3pm I paint in my underpants or not at all,’ says 76-year-old artist Robert Hodgins of the heat that, throughout summer, converts his makeshift outdoor studio into a sweltering greenhouse. Pretty apt, the greenhouse, I decide after […]

Subsidy cuts to tertiary education institutions are far more serious than they at first appear, argues ‘Brenda Gourley, vice-chancellor of the University of Natal (Durban) There has been a great deal of news coverage about the subsidy and financial-aid cuts to universities. Organisations all over the world suffer reverses of fortune and trim their sails […]

BAFANA KHUMALO spoke to Dawn Mpati, one of the new faces and voices in continuity on SABC2 in 1997 There used to be a time in this country when being on television meant celebrity. Continuity presenters would also appear in newspaper features full of inane details about their lives. That was when the television test […]

This will have to be a hurried letter. Some people can begin relaxing at this time of the year, but not the president of the republic. First of all it was the Free State, which I thought I had sorted out until Friday morning when Ivy came banging on my door, sobbing and wailing that […]

While a detailed breakdown of amnesty requests is not yet available, it seems the majority have come from those already behind bars, reports Eddie Koch Although hundreds of guerrillas, policemen and some government ministers have made a late rush to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, the great majority of requests for amnesty for human rights […]

The festive season is here and it already shows. This morning I was on a Metro train from Stellenbosch to Rondebosch. As usual, in the coach which I boarded, there was a congregation of women Christians preaching the word of God. Sadly, today the ladies failed to impress me because their service was not pure. […]