Dodgy money accounts for much of the world’s GDP, but this may not be all bad, writes Dan Atkinson TAKE it from the top: counterfeit goods account for 9% of world gross domestic product (GDP), the black economy ranges in size from 5 to 25% of GDP, bribery and fraud accounts for – oh, another […]

Martin Orkin SHAKESPEARE AND SOUTH AFRICA by David Johnson (Clarendon, R450) SHAKESPEARE and South Africa is a provocative and important attempt not only to relate the political mission of English studies in the past 200 years to its historical context, but to debate its future. David Johnson traces the origins in the 19th century of […]

FINE ART: Adam Haupt LARRY SCULLY’S array of five gleaming projectors seems incongruous in the Teutonic white monstrosity that is the Stellenbosch Town Hall. As one of the few black people there I feel equally out of place, although I do notice Wally Serote present, and feel reassured by that old familiar dictum: ”Do not […]

FINE ART: Julia Teale JOHAN LOUW’S first solo show, An Exhibition of Oil Paintings, shows the work of a young artist determined to get to grips with painting. The work, consisting of near- monochromatic paintings-with-figures, a few landscapes and a couple of drawn cont (French chalk) heads, is compelling: one is drawn in, captivated. The […]

YOUSSOU N’DOUR, possibly the most famous African musician in the West due to his appearance in the Amnesty International Human Rights Now world tour in 1988 and a smash hit with Neneh Cherry in 1995, says he has no real problems with fame. The only difficulty, as far as he’s concerned, was that it took […]

Gaye Davis THE row over a woman’s allegations that the Catholic church paid for an abortion when she fell pregnant during a love affair with a priest escalated this week when it emerged no sanction has yet been taken against the priest. Bishop Mansuet dela Biyase, head of the Eshowe diocese, confirmed he was telephoned […]

Andy Duffy A funding crisis has virtually paralysed the South African Human Rights Commission just six months after it was launched. The commission, set up to police the Bill of Rights, began swinging the axe earlier this week after failing to secure an increase in its R6,4-million budget, which is a third of what it […]

Mark Gleeson looks at the mythical potential of Zaire, who play Bafana Bafana in a World Cup qualifying match next month ZAIRE’S soccer team is as elusive, enigmatic and potentially dangerous as the animal they claim as their mascot. The Leopards will be in town on November 9 to play South Africa at Soccer City […]