Amid the genteel theatre-goers and rowdy privileged schoolkids, there are dozens of poverty-stricken children in fixed poses, faces painted white.
Productions at this year’s festival highlight the state of the nation and offer a salve for its adolescent soul, writes Cilnette Pienaar.
Robyn Sassen reviews <i>Bar Flies</i>, now on stage at the National Arts Festival in Grahamstown.
In a society reeling from violence, how appropriate or helpful is it to see violence depicted on stage?
A Grahamstown court will soon decide if a body of government may withdraw advertising from a newspaper simply because the authorities do not like it.
Several productions at this year’s National Arts Festival explore the dramatic potential of the time-space between crime and punishment.
As a jazz musician, the minute you stop learning you’re dead, says Mark Fransman, this year’s Standard Bank Young Artist Award winner.
The <i>Defined by Four Letters</i> exhibition at the National Arts Festival is an expression of the lives and identities of people living with HIV.
A Carlo Mombelli gig can make you wonder if you’ve come to the right place, writes Thorsten Schier from the National Arts Festival in Grahamstown.
Founder of the Joy of Jazz festival Peter Tladi tells
Fikile-Ntsikelelo Moya how it all began
A new executive director will soon take over the reins of the National Arts Festival. Ismail Mahomed will succeed Lynette Marais.
News on mobile: Guy Berger writes about a bid to crack cellphones for future journalism.
A disabled man accused of killing his wife after she taunted him about ”having the best sex of her life with her lover” has been convicted of murder.
A 42-year-old Namibian accused of raping a 10-year-old girl was genetically linked to her rape by a DNA analysis, the Grahamstown High Court heard.
Changes from the top and fresh energy are invigorating the National Arts Festival. Brent Meersman speaks to Tony Lankester, the new chief executive.
Makana Meadery in Grahamstown combines local knowledge and scientific know-how to save energy and reduce its carbon footprint.
An Eastern Cape man was the target of ”devastating” sexual taunts from his wife before he allegedly killed her, the Grahamstown High Court heard on Thursday.
A murderer who was sentenced to life in jail on Tuesday told the Grahamstown High Court he could be nailed ”to the cross so I can die for the sins of others”. Roro Mntwaphi (41) made the remark before Judge Johan Froneman sentenced him and Mbulelo Kula (25) for the murder of Stephanus Williams (60) on May 8 2007.
A Grahamstown High Court judge on Wednesday sentenced a 24-year-old man to two terms of life imprisonment for the rape of two young girls. The man was convicted last November of raping a three-year-old girl at his house on February 4 2004. Then, while on bail of R500, he raped a 13-year-old girl.
A disabled man was jailed for 20 years by the Grahamstown High Court on Wednesday for raping his 13-year-old niece. The 55-year-old man — who cannot be named in order to protect the girl’s identity — appeared before Judge Jeremy Pickering after pleading guilty on Tuesday.
A 27-year-old man accused of killing and robbing a Barkly East petrol attendant claimed on Tuesday that he was forced to commit the murder by two other men. This was heard in the Grahamstown High Court where Katiso Mapeyi and his nephew Ayanda Mapeyi are on trial for the murder and robbery of Johannes Mokoko.
An uncle and his 19-year-old nephew accused of murdering and robbing a petrol station attendant appeared in the Grahamstown High Court on Monday, and pleaded not guilty. The pair are accused of stabbing to death Johannes Mokok (52) at the Barkly East Toyota Service Station, on the evening of October 1 2005.
The state has called for a life sentence for an 18-year-old Eastern Cape youth convicted of raping a 14-year-old mentally ill girl and raping and murdering a girl of 10. Appearing in the Grahamstown High Court on Monday before Judge Cecil Somyalo was Lunga Tata, of Tyoksville, Bathurst.
This is the week when Grahamstown’s Grocott’s Mail newspaper finalises legal papers to protest against an advertising boycott by the local city council. The case concerns the actions of four officials, who will now be diverting scarce municipal resources to defend the impending action.
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/ 26 February 2008
A 47-year-old man was given an effective 20 years in prison by the Grahamstown High Court on Tuesday after he was found guilty of rape and housebreaking. When he convicted Mthethunzima Ndzila Vangeli, of Elliot, of housebreaking with intent to rape, rape and theft, Judge Pieter van der Byl described him as a ”lying and pathetic witness”.
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/ 21 February 2008
A 23-year-old man convicted of raping an elderly woman was sent to jail for 18 years by the Grahamstown High Court on Thursday. Judge Andre Erasmus, who sat with two assessors, told Sicelo Tyatyeka, of Lingelihle, Cradock, that he would have imposed a life sentence had the victim suffered more serious injuries.
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/ 21 February 2008
A 20-year-old man accused of raping a two-year-old girl and charged with three counts of assault was found guilty of all charges in the Grahamstown High Court on Thursday. Judge Johan Froneman rejected the evidence of Thulani Jafta (20), of Madukeni Sada, Cathcart, as ”inherently improbable and contrived”.
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/ 18 February 2008
An Eastern Cape gardener accused of raping an 11-year-old girl was sentenced to 54 months’ imprisonment by a Grahamstown High Court judge on Monday after pleading guilty to a lesser charge of statutory rape. The state initially charged Khulile Ntshabase (24) with raping the girl at a house in Hogsback on August 4 last year.
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/ 13 February 2008
A 29-year-old man is accused of breaking into a Rhodes University residence and raping a woman — while he was out on bail on a previous rape charge. The man appeared in the Grahamstown High Court on Tuesday.
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/ 31 January 2008
An Eastern Cape man accused of three counts of rape and two of attempted rape is to be referred to a doctor specialising in erectile dysfunction. Mcebesi Noji (28) of Nkululeko, Barkly East, has pleaded not guilty to the five charges before judge Elna Revelas.
A Port Elizabeth magistrate’s order that a woman with 203 previous convictions of fraud and one of theft be publicly shamed with a placard around her neck proclaiming her guilt and apologising to her victims has been set aside by the Grahamstown High Court as unconstitutional.
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/ 14 December 2007
A 37-year-old traditional healer who planned a farm attack and robbery was sentenced by the Grahamstown High Court on Friday to 20 years in prison. Judge Jos Jones found that Xolani Dube, of Kwazakhele, Port Elizabeth, had masterminded the attack on a farmhouse near Cookhouse on October 13 2004.