Vampires loom large at the South African International Film Festival. Stanley Peskin explores their appeal THE vampiric desire expressed in the phrase ”kiss me with those red lips” has exerted a potent hold over audiences for almost a century. Whether there are any traces of vampirism to be found in the history of Vlad Tepes […]

MASSES … The new government faces a real problem in the number of illegal immigrants and refugees in the country. Clearly, an unbridled flow across our borders is a potential source of conflict in a country with massive unemployment and resources to meet the needs of reconstruction and development already stretched beyond their limit. However, […]

Chris Louw STRICTER government control of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) is foreseen in the reconstruction and development programme (RDP) white paper, published this week. Support of the NGOs will in future shift towards community and mass organisations. A form of accreditation for NGOs to monitor their accountability is in the pipeline. They will also be expected […]

Weekly Mail Reporter THE office of PWV premier Tokyo Sexwale has reacted angrily to the Weekly Mail & Guardian’s story last week stating that the premier’s wife owned several flats in Johannesburg through a close corporation. Sexwale’s representative, Ronnie Mamoepa, charged that the article was ”full of innuendos and contains factual inaccuracies”. He denied Sexwale […]

ROCK: Elizabeth Williams WITH the hippie era now the focus of one-generation-on nostalgia, it was to be expected that someone would tackle Janis Joplin. Like contempories Jim Morrison and Cas Elliot, she epitomised the late Sixties — the Summer of Love, flower power and drugs — and their deaths marked the end of the era. […]

Myra Alperson reports on the formation of a new grant- making group A NEW acronym has recently entered the local business vocabulary: Saga, the Southern Africa Grantmakers Association. If you think this doesn’t quite sound like a business activity, it’s in part because Saga represents what many in corporate South Africa still won’t admit is […]

A major symposium at this year’s South African International Film Festival will bring leading African filmmakers into contact with their local counterparts. William Pretorius reports HISTORY will be made at the “Across the Continent” symposium when, for the first time ever, filmmakers from all over Africa get together in South Africa. Hosted by the South […]

STREETBALL: Mapula Sibanda IT was more than passing ball at Bruma Lake when the first of the four Nandos countrywide Streetball Challenge tournaments kicked off last Sunday. It was also a day of fun and festivities for the whole family. Parents acting as coaches for the day shouted and cheered for their young ones, as […]

Arts Alive visiting pianist Jon Jang unites West and East in his music. He spoke to Gwen Ansell DUKE ELLINGTON, as usual, got there first with his Far East Suite in the mid-1960s. Since then, enough jazz musicians have looked East to staff a big band, from John Coltrane to John Zorn. United States West […]

RUGBY: Jon Swift THE thing you have to admire most about South African coach Kitch Christie is that in his own quietly determined way he gets what he wants. Evidence enough of this is Ray Mordt’s inclusion as his deputy — no matter what title the former union test great and rugby league star carries […]