THEATRE: David Le Page BESSIE HEAD’S novel Maru is a stark dissection of racial prejudice, all the more compelling for looking at the relationship of black Batswana and the Bushmen. It is not a perfect novel, but there is enough insight, and unexpected writing, to make it memorable. Walter Chakela’s adaptation for the stage, now […]
CINEMA: Andrew Worsdale POSSIBLY the greatest action director in the world, John Woo is relatively unknown in South Africa. The only one of his films to have played on the main circuit is Hard Target, his first US feature, with local boy Arnold Vosloo as a dinkum Afrikaans mercenary, and Jean-Claude Van Damme intent on […]
Mungo Soggot JUSTICE Minister Dullah Omar said this week he was awaiting “certain information” about the controversial retirement of former Witwatersrand attorney general Klaus von Lieres und Wilkau, but had yet to launch an official investigation. After resigning and receiving a R12 000-a-month ill-health pension courtesy of the taxpayer, Von Lieres took on the defence […]
Mungo Soggot MINERAL and Energy Affairs Minister Pik Botha wants a South African oil field deep in the heart of the old Soviet Union. He told the Mail & Guardian this week he is trying to perusade local oil companies to form a consortium to buy an oil field in Kazakhstan, one of several politically […]
RUGBY: Jon Swift THE shambolic machinations of the disciplinary procedures evident throughout the Super 12 this past week have all the hallmarks of a South African Everest expedition. Queensland Reds winger Damian Smith is sent off against New South Wales for two dangerous head-high tackles, and less than a week later appears without sanction against […]
Attorneys general in two provinces are on the verge of pressing charges in two celebrated cases of murder of anti-apartheid activists, writes Eddie Koch Suspects in two of South Africa’s most publicised murder mysteries — the slaying of the Pebco Three and the gruesome assassination of Pretoria doctors Fabian Ribeiro and his wife Florence — […]
A new Bill before the Namibian legislature proposes stiff penalties for journalists found in ‘contempt of Parliament’, reports Graham Hopwood JOURNALISTS are fearful that Namibia’s era of official goodwill towards the media is over after the tabling of a draft law which seeks to punish journalists for reporting leaks or “false information” on parliamentary affairs. […]
As the final constitutional deadline draws closer, some rights remain unresolved, write Gaye Davis and Justin Pearce Exhausted constitutional negotiators kept smiling — sometimes grimly – — this week, saying they were on track to meet the May 8 deadline for the adoption of the final Constitution. But the happy faces barely concealed the reality […]
Philippa Garson reports on mixed reactions to the proposed new higher education system MANY academics blanch at the discourse of today’s education policy-makers, who talk of multiple exit and entry points, ladders, frameworks and flexibility — descriptions of “pathways of learning” that seem to bear closer resemblance to complex obstacle courses than the hallowed process […]
Ann Eveleth Rural voters in 22 KwaZulu-Natal communities have threatened to boycott next month’s elections if democratic reforms are not introduced in their areas, the Association for Rural Advancement (Afra) said this week,. The communities — representing about 20 000 voters in the KwaZulu-Natal Midlands and north-west regions — called on Local Government MEC Peter […]