The Film Resource Unit has acquired a historical black film portfolio. Ngaire Blankenberg looks at the portrayal of African-Americans in film Melvin van Peeble’s 1971 film Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song is dedicated to “all the Brothers and Sisters who have had enough of the Man”. Ninety minutes later the film closes with the words “WATCH […]
Riaan Wolmarans It was quite a sight. Trails of dusty cars continually arriving, day and night, until about 13 000 revellers had made their way into the bush. Tents as far as the eye could see. Stalls selling everything from breakfast muesli to hippy beads and CDs. The 1998 Oppikoppi music festival was bigger than […]
Shaun Harris Taking Stock Besides the more obvious attractions of the Namib desert, spectacular wildlife and Windhoek Lager, neighbouring Namibia also has a few interesting investment attractions. However, you just have to know where to look for them. Visitors not familiar with the country soon learn that the line between gonzo and reality becomes extremely […]
Marianne Merten Western Cape detectives have arrested African National Congress provincial secretary Mcebisi Skwatsha in connection with a suspected political murder in September 1997. ANC councillor in the KTC squatter camp Gladstone Ntamo and Guguletu community policing forum head Danile Landingwe have also been arrested. Skwatsha and Ntamo handed themselves over to the Claremont police […]
The end of apartheid was supposed to bring freedom. But many farm workers are still at the mercy of farmers who abuse, assault and even murder them, writes Chris McGreal Pieter Henning moaned that he was being treated much too harshly as he was dispatched to prison for 30 years after beating, strangling and decapitating […]
Morice Maunya Financial services giant Absa Group Limited has made a deal with the Tanzanian government for acquisition of majority shares in the country’s largest state-owned commercial bank. The two sides – represented by Absa’s executive director, Jean Brown, and the chair of the Tanzanian privatisation agency, John Rubambe – signed a memorandum of understanding […]
Howard Barrell Over a Barrel A talent for compromise is usually considered a political virtue. Since so much politics is about putting and holding together disparate interests in the pursuit of common goals, it is no surprise that this should be so. >From time to time, however, there arise issues on which a government should […]
Mark Milner It has taken the markets a while to get the message. Latterly, however, the penny appears to have dropped with a vengeance. The days of post-97 meltdown policies in Europe and the United States are drawing to a close. US Federal Reserve chair Alan Greenspan’s Humphrey Hawkins testimony and the latest auguries from […]
investigation Piers Pigou A Second Look Barney Pityana’s call for a halt to investigations and prosecutions of those who committed gross human rights violations during the pre-1994 era coincides with the end of one of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s (TRC) longest amnesty hearings, regarding the massacre at Boipatong in June 1992. The TRC Act […]
violence Chris McGreal Troops were sent into Kano, Nigeria’s main city in the north, and a dusk-to-dawn curfew was imposed on Monday in an attempt to stop ethnic clashes that have left dozens dead, provoked by similar violence in the south-west. Governors of both regions have appealed for an end to the murderous conflict between […]