Lara Marlow in Algiers IN the manner of Michael Collins, invisible to British security as he rode his bicycle through Dublin, Abu Mohammed blended into the hotel, passing under the noses of dozens of armed plainclothes men in the lobby. In his twenties, cleanshaven and in stylish clothes, he looked more like a member of […]

Controversy surrounds the killings at a platinum mine near Rustenburg last weekend. Joshua Amupadhi reports EVERY man was “a potential corpse” when violence spread last weekend near a Rustenburg platinum mine, resulting in the death of 32 men. Mine worker Solly Kokone, who was enjoying a mug of beer when the fighting began, told the […]

Until now, Home Affairs has not had to explain its decisions to refugees. It now must do so, writes Marion Edmunds FOUR Angolan refugees and the Human Rights Commission (HRC)have won a decisive legal victory over the Department of Home Affairs, forcing officials to explain why they accept some refugees as legitimate asylum-seekers, and reject […]

Pat Schwartz LAPALEBOMBO: An African Paradise by Gill Bosonetto (Puffin, R59,99) THE concept is great. All the sentiments are in the right place. Ulla Blake’s illustrations are charming. What a pity the author feels the need to anthropomorphise her animal characters in a particularly twee way! Imagine, if you will, a giraffe called Camilla, a […]

FILM: Derek Malcolm ‘SHE’S not far,” Mr Knightley tells Emma, when she complains that the marriage of Harriet has robbed her of her friend. “Almost half a mile,” complains her father in complete sympathy. Things that go on in the small town of Highbury indeed appear to be “of greater interest than the movement of […]

Advertising has invaded the quiet confines of a local art gallery. Hazel Friedman notes the reactions to this transgression RADIO 702 always says it best with sound, right. Er not quite. These days it also says it with sight (and site). In a first for South Africa, it has placed one of its advertising billboards […]

Marion Edmunds NATIONAL Public Service Commissioners are hoping to claim hundreds of thousands of rands of financial compensation for early retirement next year, even if they continue to work in the public service. Forty-four public service commissioners – appointed after 1994 in terms of the interim Constitution – will have to retire early from their […]

A retrospective of Jrgen Schadeberg’s work over the last 40 years confirms his enduring photographic eye. HAZEL FRIEDMAN spoke to him IT takes a strange kind of eye to be able to see life constantly through a lens — a kind of nomadic outsider-looking-inside perspective and a remarkable degree of detached curiosity. Not to mention […]

ART: Suzy Bell THE entire Victorian and Foreign collection should be sold,” said Andrew Verster with panache. “What?” shrieked the British Empire, “Has the man gone quite mad?” Certainly not. But have you walked into The “Pink Victorian Room” or “The Circular Gallery” lately? It reeks of colonialism — and we’re not just talking about […]

Jacquie Golding-Duffy scrutinises the credentials of the newly appointed South African Broadcasting Corporation board members THE appointment of members to the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) board has been finalised, with President Nelson Mandela rubberstamping 16 of the 21 names submitted. But only five of the successful candidates seem to have specialist media experience, while […]