THURSDAY, 4.00PM THE United Nations will host a pan-African forum in Addis Ababa from Friday, at which senior officials from 15 African states will meet their counterparts from 18 donor countries to discuss development issues. UN secretary-general Kofi Annan will deliver the keynote address to the forum, held under the umbrella of the Organisation of […]

Maria McCloy on iMumbo Jumbo iMUMBO JUMBO is leaving festival-goers awestruck. Last year, Brett Bailey’s Zombie was one of the few innovative things happening at the festival. This year Bailey has enough of a budget to pay people, and they are on the main programme – and he says he is surprised at how popular […]

David Macfarlane TRANSGRESSING BOUNDARIES: NEW DIRECTIONS IN THE STUDY OF CULTURE IN AFRICA edited by Brenda Cooper and Andrew Steyn (University of Cape Town Press, R74,94) THIS scintillating collection of essays derives from a conference organised in 1993 by the Centre for African Studies at the University of Cape Town. The “boundaries” of the title […]

As the Australian Film Festival gets under way in Johannesburg and Cape Town, we look at the peculiarities of their cinema Howard Feinstein WHO can forget the over-the-top talking heads and flashy gestures in Baz Luhrmann’s Strictly Ballroom? The loud anti-heroine and her siblings in PJ Hogan’s Muriel’s Wedding? Or the bizarre sisters and the […]

Madeleine Wackernagel THE clever mining houses have been doing it for some time – going north, that is, in search of more golden pastures. Pre-1994, South Africans were not always welcome visitors, or investors. That is all set to change as the mining crisis at home drives ever-more local companies into the rest of Africa, […]

FENCING:Julian Drew ALTHOUGH there will be more than 60 countries taking part in the Fencing World Championships in Cape Town next week, the medals are likely to be divided between only a few nations. The traditional fencing powers of France, Italy and Hungary, along with Russia – who have won more medals than any other […]

This weekend ANC heavyweights visit Richmond to win support in the coming council by-elections. Wonder Hlongwa reports P0LICE and army forces will be on guard in Richmond, KwaZulu-Natal, this weekend when the African National Congress launches its campaign for local council by-elections. The elections should have been held in May, but were postponed because of […]

FRIDAY, 11.00AM STOCKBROKER Gerrit Steenkanmp, a former director of two broking firms, on Thursday pleaded guilty before a SA Institute of Stockbrokers disciplinary inquiry of fraud involving the misappropriation of R5-million in client funds between August 1994 and April this year. The institute expelled Steenkamp from its ranks and he may now face criminal and […]

FRIDAY, 4.30PM NAMIBIA’S president Sam Nujoma has faced widespread criticism in Windhoek for a television speech on Wednesday night which announced a ban on all public gatherings held without permission from the police. Nujoma made the announcement after several weeks of demonstrations around the country by former guerrillas who fought for Swapo during the war […]

CLASSICAL:Coenraad Visser WHILE the first season of the National Symphony Orchestra of the SABC was marked by some outstanding conductors, the second belonged to some magnificent soloists. Two of the world’s leading string players dazzled Johannesburg audiences. Cellist Torleif Thedeen, on his third visit to this country, gave a passionate account of Dvork’s masterly cello […]