Fiachra Gibbons Hours after picking up the last of five Oscars for his first film, American Beauty – and being declared a “bright shining star” by none other than Steven Spielberg – Sam Mendes was keeping his legendary cool. Even as Hollywood’s most powerful players queued to schmooze him at the post-Oscar parties, Mendes’s mind […]
A celebrity system does exist in South Africa and was very much in evidence at the Klein Karoo Nasionale Kunstefees Kathryn Smith When Giovanni de Medici (Frans Marx) took Alfonsina de Medici (Sandra Prinsloo) from behind in Deon Opperman’s Magspel, and with each thrust itemised the various parts of Florence she will own after their […]
Paul Kirk A United States expert on cheating lie detector tests has been inundated with queries from South Africans eager to dodge the tests widely employed in the local insurance industry. Doug Williams, a former detective sergeant in the Oklahoma City police and a former polygrapher for the US government, actively set out on a […]
democracy John Seiler A SECOND LOOK Putting district councils rather than local councils at the pivot of local development reflects a planner’s fantasy: a predictable, uniform, when necessary controllable, and ultimately lifeless process in which basic change takes place quickly and without the awkwardness of competition among disparate economic, social and cultural interests. Yet this […]
Bennie Visser The notion that the Addo Elephant Park in the Eastern Cape may supersede Kruger National Park as South Africa’s premier reserve is one that very few would take seriously. Yet this is exactly what the powers that be on national level believe to be a very real possibility. They say while Addo will […]
Courts in Gauteng have been running a scheme in which criminals do community service instead of going to jail Khadija Magardie Last year, Shaheed* (16) made a life- changing decision – to leave the gang that had been part of most of his life. But the notorious Westbury Fast Guns gang refused to accept his […]
Peter Dickson Representatives of the 1 300 Volkswagen South Africa (VWSA) workers who were sacked in January have been lobbying for international support, while troops this week patrolled the streets of Uitenhage to keep the peace in the wake of the strike. The employees from VWSA’s Uitenhage plant were axed after they went on strike […]
James Blond You won’t find the familiar “huge” South African rock outfits at Womad 2000. Rather, there are artists that complement the international musical on offer. Probably the most identifiable group to feature is Virgin SA’s angst-motivated Fetish – fresh from their opening visit at The Big Nine outing with Lenny Kravitz and company. From […]
Giles Foden WILD SHORE: LIFE AND DEATH WITH NICARAGUA’S LAST SHARK-HUNTERS by Edward Marriott (Picador) It is commonplace to remark that the boom in travel-writing began in the 1980s, with the emergence of writers such as Bruce Chatwin, Redmond O’Hanlon and Jonathan Raban, and ended with the departure from Granta in 1995 of an editor […]
Robert Kirby CHANNELVISION I used to admire Warren Beatty, both as an accomplished actor and as a Hollywood “celebrity” a cut above the usual run of plastic idols. I now despise him, the reason being no more than his acceptance speech at last week’s Oscars. We’ve most of us seen quite a few televised Oscar […]