Wonder Hlongwa The investigative task unit head, Bushy Engelbrecht, this week applied to have part of Sifiso Nkabinde’s trial held in camera. Engelbrecht said six witnesses fear that if their identities become known in the course of testifying against Nkabinde in an open court, their lives will be in danger. The former African National Congress […]

Lizeka Mda : City Limits A lifetime ago, couples would sit in Pioneer Park and smooch over a lunch of fish and chips, while mothers kept a beady eye on children mesmerised by a statue of leaping springboks. Ten years ago the park, wedged behind the Rissik Street post office and Joubert Street, still vaguely […]

Robert Kirby: Loose Cannon Question 3: a) What event was this British woman talking about in 1997 when she said: “A kind of floral fascism was at work … in a country ruled by grief police?” b) Around the same time a BBC camera chose to zoom in on a greeting card reading “God created […]

fiction Jeremy Cronin: Crossfire During the past months there has been kite- flying around the idea of a merger between the African National Congress and the Inkatha Freedom Party. Peter Mokaba, in the flurry of interventions he made prior to the ANC annual conference in December, punted the idea. The IFP’s Mangosuthu Buthelezi slapped down […]

Battle lines are drawn over the Employment Equity Bill, write Marion Edmunds and Mungo Soggot All sides of the political spectrum dug in this week for what threatens to be the biggest parliamentary battle between now and the next elections: the government’s drive to take on white economic privilege. The Employment Equity Bill, due to […]

FRIDAY, 12.00NOON: SOUTH Africa’s Wayne Ferreira continued his revival at the Dubai Open on Thursday with a tense and hard-fought second-round victory over powerful New Zealander Brett Steven. World No 50 Steven got the match off to a cracking start, conceding only three points on serve and breaking Ferreira twice in the first set. But […]

Chris Roper When Arno Carstens, the dynamically imperious lead singer of The Springbok Nude Girls, leans into his microphone and tells his adoring fans, “Let’s make this the year we say `Fuck South African music – and enjoy it!’” you know you’re witnessing a sea- change in local music as well as an erotic double […]

On the way to interview Joe Theron, publisher of Hustler and the largest porn- video distributor in the country, my taxi driver opined: “For this pornography thing, I’m a bit concerned about the area of morals. I think I can tell my child these things myself. My parents told me babies came from aeroplanes but […]

Sechaba ka’Nkosi Embattled Gauteng MEC for Safety and Security Jessie Duarte came out this week with guns blazing in a bid to clear her name from what she calls a “smear campaign” against her. In an exclusive four-hour interview with the Mail & Guardian at her Johannesburg home, Duarte said while she was willing to […]

Dr Nina Simone is not a woman to mess with. Her first love was classical piano, but she was forced into jazz and soul. Forty years on, her music is as potent a political weapon as ever. Michael Bracewell spoke to the diva Back in 1987, when the regenerated town centres of boom-economy Britain could […]