Chris Gordon The Angolan ambassador to the United Nations, Franca van Dunem, has accused Unita of preparing for war. The crisis, occasioned by the rebel movement’s repeated failure to meet UN deadlines for completing peace protocols, came to a head this week with the government warning of a major increase in hostilities. A meeting between […]
Krisjan Lemmer Krisjan Lemmer has decided to introduce an annual “Zuma Award” for the public official making the most innovative appeal to racism to cover up government incompetence. The prize is an all-expenses-paid weekend in George with the Groot Krokodil as host. The award is named after the Minister of Health in tribute to her […]
Stepping from the relentless glare of a Johannesburg summer morning into the cool darkness of the Wits Theatre is not unlike entering a secret, parallel universe. One minute you’re dodging a stream of sausage-factory suits hurtling along the pavement to work, the next you’re watching a man in a loincloth sweep his arms over a […]
Ferial Haffajee The Green Paper on broadcasting will start a shake-up of the industry which will change it fundamentally. We summarise the comments from lobbyists who have suggested everything from the scrapping of an SABC Channel and television licences to the total rejection of the Green Paper. Freedom of Expression Institute (FXI): The FXI says […]
Before you fly off to foreign shores, consider the cost of leaving home, warns Belinda Beresford With accountants taking overseas exams while doing their South African articles, and medical students reportedly planning to leave en masse, the sound of the packing of bags has become background noise to many South Africans. While many people don’t […]
Vatmaar, the Afrikaans novel by a man in his 70s which won the M-Net and the CNAprizes, recently elicited a heated auction among German publishers. The rights to a German translation were finally sold to Luchterhand, a literary house with a good reputation, for a high five-figure sum. Vatmaar has already been published Meulenhoff in […]
Belinda Beresford There’s something sensual about the feel of a fat wad of crisp new banknotes. The rippled paper is a small piece of attempted perfection which took a month to forge and contains dozens of security devices. All South African paper money is printed by the South African Bank Note Company (SABN), although the […]
FRIDAY, 6.30PM: AT stumps, South Africa were on 262/7 after 90 overs. FRIDAY, 5.30PM: SOUTH Africa were stuck with their backs against the wall on 157/5 at tea on the first day of the third Test against Pakistan at St George’s Park in Port Elizabeth on Friday. Pakistani paceman Waqar Younis was the reason for […]
Mukoni T Ratshitanga More than 200 striking farm workers, including 26 mothers and their babies, were arrested in the Northern Province for allegedly violated a high court ruling preventing them from intimidating colleagues. Their lawyer, Phillip Sebola, said the workers included three pregnant women, five of their visitors and 33 parents who had left children […]
Charl Blignaut: On stage in Johannesburg There’s a very cool moment in Ilse van Hemert’s Mallemeulwals when Sandra Prinsloo, playing a glamorous and world-weary leading lady in turn-of-the-century France, gazes lazily into space and proclaims, “Love does not exist.” It’s a point she gets to prove just moments later as she plunges into bed with […]