THEATRE: Hazel Friedman IF there’s one conclusion to be drawn from On My Birthday, Aubrey Sekhabi’s play about domestic violence, it is this: while noble causes and educational initiatives may go together like a horse and carriage, they can also make for pretty dodgy theatre. All too often, the well-intentioned playwright-cum- sociologist reduces life’s twists […]

Aspasia Karras In the year ending 1992/93, the parastatal that ran the nine state airports was operating at a considerable loss. Dirk Ackerman, the recently appointed managing director of the Airport Company formed in August 1993, is clear about the reason: “Traditional bureaucratic inefficiency.” Too many captains wanting to direct the ship resulted in three […]

Suspected Rwandan killers could be allowed to remain in South Africa indefinitely, reports Mungo Soggot THE Rwandan government is monitoring two war criminals who are living in South Africa, and it believes there could be more lurking among the many Rwandan refugees in this country. But the absence of an extradition treaty between South Africa […]

John Crowley IN THE BEAUTY OF THE LILIES by John Updike (Hamish Hamilton, R94) THE novel, since its beginnings, has generated large numbers of subgenres. The varieties have lately seemed to proliferate wildly, like varieties of snack foods on supermarket shelves, and the bright if somewhat illusory array attracts not only readers but writers tempted […]

Briton Angella Johnson The attorney general’s office in Pretoria is seeking the extradition from the United Kingdom of a Briton charged with murdering two black men at a neo-Nazi training camp near Heidelberg. Tyrone Chadwick, who jumped bail last year and is believed to be living in the UK, was expected to stand trial later […]

GWEN ANSELL pays tribute to the man who introduced the sounds of West Africa to the world THE king of highlife is dead. Emmanuel Tetch (ET) Mensah, trumpeter, saxophonist, bandleader, composer (and, in periods of musical layoff, a practising pharmacist), has died in his birthplace of Accra, Ghana, at the age of 77. Highlife music […]

ANC leaders are not backing Free State premier Patrick `Terror’ Lekota in a fight against corruption, reports Rehana Rossouw Free State premier Patrick “Terror” Lekota has exposed abuse of almost R6-million of public money. A Mail & Guardian investigation has found that some of the money was allegedly spent by senior members of the provincial […]

Nthato Motlana’s high-profile team that is supposed to be raising R300-million for higher education has been hit by criticism, reports Philippa Garson THE high-powered team of academics and business executives set up by the education department last year to raise money for needy students has not yet raised a cent. Some members of the Eminent […]

Dale Carnegie would have been proud of FW de Klerk’s performance at the National Party’s weekend congress, writes Gaye Davis NATIONAL Party leader FW de Klerk is credited with being something of a magician among politicians, capable of producing a rabbit from a hat. The analogy was particularly apt at the opening of his party’s […]

Cape Town gang buster leader Muhammed Ali “Phantom” Parker is not the caped crusader his nickname suggests, but a man who has tasted death and is prepared to die for the cause he believes in, friends and relatives said this week. Parker was shot in the chest at the siege of gang leader Rashaad Staggie’s […]