The Soweto String Quartet’s second album, Renaissance, is set to rocket the ensemble to international fame, writes GLYNIS O’HARA RIGHT now we’re living through South Africa’s Renaissance, say the Soweto String Quartet. “It’s in all aspects of life. It’s an awakening, a rebirth, as well as in the redefining of South African arts. Europe had […]

Until fairly recently, black magazines were treated by publishers and advertisers as a Cinderella medium. There was little or no investment in the titles “as brands” or in the editorial. Even the paper the magazines were printed on was inferior to that used for white magazines. An argument countering this was that black magazines ran […]

The land of the sinking yen is in economic crisis. Keith Harper in Tokyo asks what’s going wrong JAPAN’S emergence as an economic superpower, second only to the United States, had been – until the 1990s – one of this century’s most dramatic changes in the global pecking order. But as the yen soared to […]

Stefaans BrUmmer investigates the suspects behind the Worcester and Rustenburg blasts The Boere Aanvalstroepe (Bat), which claimed responsibility for the Worcester and Rustenburg bomb attacks, appears to link directly to the Afrikaner Weerstandsbeweging. AWB leader Eugene Terre’Blanche this week told the Mail & Guardian in an interview that Bat consisted of members of his organisation, […]

National Parks Board CE Robbie Robinson has chosen to retire on a matter that could split the board, reports Anita Allen The imminent departure of Dr Robbie Robinson as chief executive means that the 17-member National Parks Board is going to be put to the test. Not only does it have to choose a successor […]

HAZEL FRIEDMAN finds out why the work of local art guru, the late Neil Goedhals, is hanging in Johannesburg finds out why t THE life and death of Johannesburg artist Neil Goedhals inspired as much myth-making as his work inspired emulation. Six years after his death, his memory and the legacy he bequeathed to a […]

turbojav ATHLETICS: Julian Drew Africa has never won a medal at Olympic or world championship level in the throwing events. Some theorists – no doubt from the same school of thought which once asserted African physiology was not suited to running – have claimed that this is as a result of anatomical differences. The exploits […]

Andrew Meldrum in Matandele, Zimbabwe SURROUNDED by government ministers and tribal chiefs, Sinqobile Mabhena appears a model of female subservience as she bows her head and modestly lowers her eyes. But this demure 23-year-old has rocked Zimbabwe’s traditional culture by becoming one of the first women to take on the powerful mantle of tribal chief. […]

Thousands of children have been recruited into a fearful army that claims inspiration from God, reports Anna Borzello in Gulu, Uganda IN northern Uganda, villagers do their best to follow the 11 commandments of Joseph Kony, altar-boy turned born-again guerrilla whose Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) is terrorising the countryside. The first 10 are as given […]

Marion Edmunds Pragmatism has defeated romance at Villiera Wine Estate just outside Stellenbosch, where wine-maker Jeff Grier has swapped natural corks for synthetic stoppers to seal his cheaper bottles of wine. While some wine aficionados have decried the move as a tragedy for South African wine drinkers, others are praising Grier for bravery. They are […]