Pennywhistle master Big Voice Jack Lerole played on the streets of Alexandra township in the Fifties. Today he’s a star in New York. Peter Makurube takes a cruise down memory lane `Midway through the Dave Matthews Band’s sellout show at Giants Stadium [New Jersey],” writes Leita Tayler of Newsday, “the group brought a South African […]
Ferial Haffajee The old-style politics of the Western Cape have not deterred black business in the province from taking a step into the new economy. Brimstone, a leading empowerment company, will launch on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) next month. It is led by a cadre of comrades in business including former struggle bookkeeper Mustaq […]
Adam Haupt Live in Cape Town FUCT is one of those grotte which conservatives might avoid and which diligent cops give a good run through on a night out on the town. Watching our men in blue on the go to the sounds of really great drum ‘n’ bass and mostly commercial hip hop is […]
Michael White and Liz McGregor What should have been a triumphant valedictory tour for Nelson Mandela before he steps down as president of South Africa has been marred by European Union failure, under Tony Blair’s presidency, to deliver on open trade promises made when apartheid collapsed. Mandela joined the EU heads of government for lunch […]
Alex Dodd has been appointed editor of the Mail & Guardian’s Friday section. A BJourn graduate, she began her career as a trainee at the M&G, and later become a reporter focusing on arts and profiles. She then worked for the Rapid Phase Group, where she co-conceptualised and scripted a 60-part radio soap opera on […]
Sydney Mathibe Famous and “strong” witch doctors can prosper. Ngaka Mahlakwane, who practises on the East Rand, charges R5 for bone- throwing, while Dr Zungu, well known in Vosloorus, charges R20 for the same service. These are some of the more common fees: l “Strengthening” a home: R400 to R1 000 a year. l Curing […]
Pallo Jordan CROSSFIRE Jeff Greenfield, an American journalist, relates his grandmother’s response to the Rosenberg “atomic bomb spies” trial. As someone who had grown up in Tsarist Russia, where the framing of Jews on trumped- up charges was a byword for the authorities, Greenfield’s granny always believed that the Rosenbergs had been framed and were […]
Brenda Atkinson The idea of the New South Africa surely kicked the butts of the makers and purveyors of popular culture: Madiba had barely had time to warm the presidential leather when our TV screens and magazines began spawning ads that warmed our hearts with visions of how we could be. Quicker than you can […]
Mduduzi Dlamini CD of the week Boom Shaka have come a long way since the release of their debut single, It’s About Time, late in 1993, and the subsequent album of that name. The follow-up, It’s Our Game (No Need to Claim), was luke warmly received. Now we have their third album, Words of Wisdom, […]
Andy Duffy The University of the Western Cape (UWC) slapped a court order on its workers this week to snuff out an uprising sparked by its management’s cost-cutting proposals. The Labour Court in Johannesburg issued an urgent interdict against the National Education, Health and Allied Workers’ Union (Nehawu) and its UWC representatives, after dozens of […]