Iden Wetherell Ignoring government threats of dire consequences, Zimbabwe’s workers this week stayed at home in response to calls for a peaceful protest against tax increases from trade union leaders who have proved once again that they represent a powerful challenge to President Robert Mugabe’s arthritic regime. The capital Harare and other major centres were […]
A craze for shark-cage diving has its dangers … for sharks, writes Ellen Bartlett The bartender from Miami is standing tall on the port side of the boat, face to the wind, eyes in a happy squint in the glare of the morning sun. “There’s bungee jumping, there’s jumping out of an airplane and there’s […]
FRIDAY, 12.30PM: THE Sri Lankan touring cricket squad, who arrived in the country on Wednesday, are set to thrill the crowds with their brand of entertaining and exciting cricket. True to form, the Lankans promised to play “positive cricket” during the upcoming triangular series against South Africa and Pakistan. Team manager Dulip Mendis said the […]
The NGO sector moves poverty back to centre stage with a daring pre-election roadshow, reports Ferial Haffajee In Bloemfontein, the heart of South Africa, on March 17, the nation’s poor will begin to speak out. They will continue to do so for more than two months, speaking about overcrowded schools, cardboard homes and dwindling social […]
Robert Plummer WRITING SOUTH AFRICA: LITERATURE, APARTHEID, AND DEMOCRACY, 1970-1995 edited by Derek Attridge and Rosemary Jolly (Cambridge University Press, R100) NOVEL HISTORIES: PAST, PRESENT, AND FUTURE IN SOUTH AFRICAN FICTION: by Michael Green (Witwatersrand University Press, R120) Just over a decade ago, in a South Africa drawn in stark chiaroscuro rather than rainbow nuance, […]
Craig Bishop A two-year-old agreement with Danish funders to fund community radio projects jointly has finally been honoured by the South African government. Dr Pallo Jordan, the former minister responsible for broadcasting, agreed in 1995 to match a two-year Danish contribution of over R3-million to develop community radio through an independent fund. The agreement stressed […]
Andrew Worsdale It’s a premium week for movies on television, especially on Friday with Thelma and Louise on SABC3 on Friday March 6 at 9pm. This exhilarating thriller is Ridley Scott’s best movie since Blade Runner. It stars Geena Davis and Susan Sarandon, who set out on a holiday trip. A drunken dance- floor flirtation […]
Janet Smith On show in Pretoria When your eye first catches the glitter and runs over the roughness of the sand, you don’t see the exquisite miniatures occupying spaces that would otherwise reveal emptiness. On more intimate inspection, it becomes evident that there’s performance in every part of Motlhabane Mashiangwako’s The Efforts of Those Who […]
‘Braknaars’ of Sourvomit Sickened by Cape Town’s disrespectful tourists, ever-increasing living costs, its daily whitening and a coloured populace Americanised into clones, Zebulon Dread moved to the unknown The unknown is Afrikaans, white Swellendam, 230-odd kilometres from Cape Town, and its twin, coloured Suurbraak 20km away. There I squat on private land amid the mountainous […]
Southern African sisters got their very own Web address when WomensNet was launched. A project of the Southern African non- governmental organisation network (Sangonet) the website and training scheme has taken less than a year to hit the information superhighway. It was conceived in June last year when interested women got together to plan the […]