Singer, writer, performer and enfant terrible Natanil in the 15-minute interview. By Charl Blignaut We meet Natanil at his preferred Johannesburg destination, the Hyde Park shopping centre. He is allowing himself a brief rest between bouts of shopping. Natanil: [To photographer Ruth Motau] Ag no please, I’m really not photographable on Mondays. I’ve got no […]

Scientists are more united than ever about the ill effects of greenhouse gases, writes Paul Brown Only Nero fiddled while Rome burned. Today, as the whole Earth begins to heat up and the climate changes before our eyes, world leaders are reaching for their fiddles in droves. Politicians admit that they can see the flames […]

government Mukoni T Ratshitanga Following another scandal in the Free State government, police are investigating two charges after a jealous husband assaulted his wife in the office of the senior government official he suspected of having an affair with her. Thandi Molosioa, a deputy director employed at the Department of Public Works in Bloemfontein, denied […]

John Nobel Wilford New pictures from the Hubble space telescope have given astronomers striking views of stellar birth triggered by the collision of two galaxies – and a glimpse of what could be in store for the Milky Way in about five billion years. The Earth-orbiting telescope has produced the most detailed pictures yet of […]

Mungo Soggot The Truth and Reconciliation Commission will be in the unnerving position next week of having to delve into the exploits of one of its commissioners at hearings into the legal profession under apartheid. Chris de Jager, a Pretoria advocate, and now a member of the commission’s amnesty committee, voted against allowing blacks to […]

Peter Makurube Steve Biko, the action man of black consciousness, inspired a whole generation of strong, intelligent people who are now giving much to the development of the country. Playwright Matsemela Manaka is one of them, a tireless worker in the townships, where the brain-drain has left a huge gap in the community. He toils […]

The Spice Girls will do a brief spot at the Two Nations concert in Johannesburg on November 1. Kathy Acker wondered about their brand of femininism Fifty-second Street. West Side, New York City. Hell’s Kitchen – one of those areas into which no one would once have walked unless loaded. Guns or drugs or both. […]

Sonja Springs : Ice-skating They haven’t hired a hit man in the Nancy- Tonya fashion as yet, but if looks could kill the two Olympic skating champions Oksana Grishuk and Oksana Baiul would have buried each other by now – at least 10 feet under. Their mutual animosity has reached the stage where Grishuk says […]

Marion Edmunds The South African navy’s affirmative action drive is faltering, partly because black recruits resist going to sea, reject naval traditions and would prefer desk jobs in Gauteng to be close to their families. In a report to the parliamentary integration oversight committee, which monitors the transformation of the South African National Defence Force […]

Madeleine Wackernagel : TAKING STOCK The state telecommunications monopoly could be forgiven for feeling victimised: in the space of only one week it is rapped over the knuckles for not following the correct procedures on a tariff hike and loses its bid to have sole control over the Internet. Never the most popular parastatal – […]