Will new regulations help or worsen the working conditions of security guards? Nawaal Deane Lionel Sheperd* starts work at six in the evening, six days a week, and finishes 12 hours later. A security guard in a shop in a Johannesburg suburb, he observes the customers and keeps an eye out for firearms. There is […]
Laurie Copans About 350 computer hackers from around the world fought off security interrogations, attempts to silence them and an all-round bad image to complete the first hacker convention in Israel last Thursday. The two-day Tel Aviv gathering, which included “hack these sites” and “spot the feds” competitions, was the first such gathering since hackers […]
Womad, the North Sea Jazz Festival and the Sama awards last week overloaded the aural senses of the nation Nicky Blumenfeld The term “pink noise” best describes the momentous series of events which took place in our land of plenty last weekend. It refers to the sound produced when combining all the frequencies of the […]
Which African books have had the most powerful influence on you or your society? The Zimbabwe International Book Fair (ZIBF), which takes place in Harare later this year, has invited nominations for a list of Africa’s 100 best books. The idea is to celebrate African writing, publishing and research. The top titles will be announced […]
Matthew Krouse 1 Mugg & Bean (Cape Town, Johannesburg): The Martians have landed, and have seemingly established these emporiums in every shopping centre in the land. Biggest branches are at Cape Town’s V&A Waterfront and in Killarney Mall, Johannesburg. Owned by Ben Filmalter of the Linga Longa chain of five significant restaurants, including Leipoldt’s in […]
Paul Edmunds REVIEW OFTHEWEEK In a country where we fawn over tourists and shun refugees, an examination of our attitudes to home, borders, journeys and displacement is never, for want of a better expression, going to be a black and white affair. Kwere Kwere: Journeys into Strangeness, an exhibition curated by young Johannesburg-based academic Rory […]
Greg Bowes CD OFTHEWEEK Mos Def’s last full-length (with Talib Kweli as Black Star) was acclaimed as one of the most groundbreaking hip-hop albums of recent years. Although his latest, Black on Both Sides (Rawkus), is perhaps aimed more squarely at commercial success, it’s just as essential. You may already know the radio favourite Ms […]
Barry Streek The government has moved to regulate one of South Africa’s most exploitative labour sectors – the security business – with stringent new rules governing working conditions of the estimated 350 000 security guards that make up the controversial industry. According to the new regulations published in the Government Gazette in terms of the […]
April 13 is World Book Day in South Africa. To mark the occasion, Exclusive Books invites all book-lovers to join them and Project Literacy in raising funds to help functionally illiterate adults (almost half the adult population of South Africa, it is believed) acquire reading skills. World Book Day bookmarks are on sale at branches […]
A student’s project has started a revolution in digital distribution Edward Hellmore Shawn Fanning may look like a typical 19- year-old American science student in a T- shirt and a University of Michigan baseball hat, and until last summer – when he unleashed his first ever attempt at writing computer code – he was. But […]