Barry Streek BIG MEN LITTLE PEOPLE: ENCOUNTERS IN AFRICA by Alec Russell (Macmillan) Despite its somewhat obvious title, which is over-emphasised by a picture of a pleading Jonas Savimbi on the cover, Alec Russell, who was the Daily Telegraph’s Johannesburg correspondent, has written an interesting book, based on his reporting experiences in Africa. For him, […]

Perhaps the best way to describe Thabo Mbeki’s term of office to date is as a “back-room presidency”. With the tacit assistance of an invisible official opposition it is threatening to make a nonsense of our democracy. The signs have been there for some time where President Mbeki is concerned. The centralisation of political power. […]

Sheridan Griswold IF YOU CAN WALK, YOU CAN DANCE by Marion Molteno (Shola Books) Marion Molteno’s first novel in 1993, AShield of Coolest Air, is a captivating story about Somali refugees in London. Her second novel, whose title is taken from a Zimbabwean saying, won the 1999 Commonwealth Africa Writers’ award. In it she excels […]

Shaun Harris Events at the Festival of Living Treasure at St Lucia and Shongweni will be the launching pad for a home-grown employment creation programme that could bring ongoing economic empowerment to some of the poorer communities in KwaZulu-Natal. The Wildlife and Environment Society of South Africa (Wessa) will use the festival as the marketing […]

Will the current fixation on Mediterranean cuisine be replaced by something from deeper south? Probably not. The myth that Africans love their red meat swimming in an ocean of oil has not done much to promote local flavours in a world that is obsessed with cholesterol cutting. And the myth that Africans like their vegetables […]

Fiona Macleod Aaron Mmako (39) used to sell his sculptures for a pittance on the side of the road. He knows how hard it is to flag down a tourist, and how easy it is to sell a lovingly crafted piece for a song because it is the only cash he will see for a […]

terror Marianne Merten August 8 1996: Hard Livings gang boss Rashaad Staggie is lynched during a People against Gansterism and Drugs (Pagad) demonstration in the presence of police, media and emergency workers. An inquest into the death, launched when the Cape High Court trial of Pagad member Ozeer Booley collapsed last year, has been repeatedly […]

Aaron Nicodemus Most government hospitals are bustling, noisy places. The wail of infants punctuates the low murmur of waiting-room voices. Patients are wheeled on squeaky trolleys from room to room. Machines beep. The hallways of rural Derdepoort Community hospital on the North-West province/ Botswana border, though, are eerily quiet. This modern and superbly equipped hospital, […]

Bob Woolmer FROM THE PAVILION ‘The answer is blowing in the wind”, so goes the chorus of a famous song, something that the Eastern Province band will no doubt have in their repertoire as the South African juggernaut and the English tourists do battle at the wind-swept St George’s Park stadium. We all know Port […]

Marianne Merten This is not the first time that the National Intelligence Agency (NIA) and police intelligence services have been linked to the string of explosions – with the last two high-profile restaurant bombings, 576 blasts – that have rocked the Cape since 1996: l In October the Mail & Guardian revealed that NIA informer […]