Tony Paterson in Berlin Gnter Grass, regarded by some as the enfant terrible, by others as one of the few giants of post-war German literature, heard that he had won the Nobel Prize for Literature on the radio at his home in Lbeck last week just as he was on his way to the dentist. […]
Michael Vlismas Golf With one golf team event having already made history for all the wrong reasons this year, three South African golfers will be hoping to ensure themselves a more respectable place in the record books this week. David Frost, Ernie Els and Retief Goosen will attempt to lead their country to an unprecedented […]
Barbara Ludman HARRY POTTER AND THE PRISONER OF AZKABAN by JK Rowling (Bloomsbury) The newest Harry Potter hit the shelves this month, drawing South Africa into the Pottermania that has been sweeping American and British bookshops for the past couple of months. A few weeks ago, if you’d told a school librarian you had a […]
Ivor Powell There’s a passage in Des-mond Tutu’s just- published memoir of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, No Future without Forgiveness, that sums up the dilemma and the moral enormity of the truth commission. Tutu is in Rwanda, and he has just delivered a sermon warning against Tutsi retribution for the atrocities committed by the […]
Mcebisi Ndletyana The Department of Transport is unusual in several ways. Although it was late to establish transformation structures, it has made more progress than other departments. Acting to transform the public service, the government has established institutional mechanisms for this purpose. Among these are transformation units (TUs). Although directors general are responsible for transformation […]
The boom of Los Angeles’s skin flicks is putting Hollywood in the shade, writes Edward Helmore As Hollywood cuts production and frets over the economics of movie-making, one niche of the entertainment business headquartered over the hills in the San Fernando Valley is enjoying hot’n’heavy boom times. According to figures released recently by the Los […]
Donald McRae Even the heaving trains pulling away from Twickenham seemed to belong to Jonny Wilkinson. Two hours after he had broken the record for the most points scored in an international by an England player, the carriages were swaying in drunken tribute to the baby-faced kicker. The girls, for once on a Twickers train, […]
The Rugby World Cup might make the world die of boredom, fear Andy Colquhoun in Edinburgh For rugby, this is the best of times and the worst of times. Over the next few weeks an image of rude health will be projected across the sports pages as the Rugby World Cup perambulates towards its momentous […]
profitability Who is the trailblazer in e-commerce? Don’t look to Bill Gates, says Polly Sprenger, but to a stripper … One of the simplest truisms summarising the human condition is “sex sells”. But, “sex drives innovation”? That’s an idea without such a popular following, but no less true. >From the early days of photography to […]
Housing in the Western Cape still reflects the stark contrasts of apartheid and economic divisions. Marianne Merten reports Daily life in Cape Town is a tale of three cities. Every morning, township commuters queue for the long trek into town, while residents of coloured areas squeeze into taxis for a high-speed chase to the central […]
Mungo Soggot For a man who cut his judicial teeth in one of apartheid’s most notoriously corrupt enclaves, the former homeland of the Ciskei, Judge Willem Heath is an unlikely champion of clean governance. But his experience in the homeland – where he notched up a series of independent-minded judgments against the repressive regime – […]
Alex Clark JAMES MIRANDA BARRY by Patricia Duncker (Serpent’s Tail) Patricia Duncker has nipped and tucked at history and bent it to her own purposes in this peculiar tale of cross-dressing in the 19th century. Drawing on the real historical figure of Dr James Miranda Barry, who has already been the subject of factual analysis […]
Q & A Bheki Mkhwane rose from the ranks of a kierie-wielding security guard to being a successful playwright, director, actor, composer and choreographer. His collaboration with Greig Coetzee, Solomon’s Pride, won last year’s KwaZulu- Natal Vita Award for best production. What is the most boring thing on TV? The soap opera Generations. The theme […]
Anthony Minnaar Corruption is often compared to a cancer as it is truly “an enemy from within”. A generic definition of corruption could be an act of wrongdoing which typically involves unethical behaviour and illegality, and usually benefits accrue to either of the parties involved. This definition embraces practices such as bribery, fraud, embezzlement, wrongfully […]
attraction Stephen Gray The scene is the modest veranda of the state president’s residence, Church Street West, Pretoria. The barrel-chested curmudgeon is one day older than 74, a relic of the Great Trek. He is in his fourth term as head of the Zuid-Afrikaansche Republiek (ZAR). Thanks to British exploitation of gold, his small country […]
Ann Eveleth Hazardous skin-lightening creams banned seven years ago in South Africa are still widely available on the streets of Yeoville, Hillbrow and central Johannesburg. South Africa restricted the sale of products containing the bleaching agent hydroquinone to pharmacies in 1992, 17 years after South African medical research determined that the chemical causes severe disfigurement […]
Denise Rack Louw Lifestyle The Design Museum, which opened on September 23 at the Foundry in Greenpoint, Cape Town, allows aficionados of 20th- century design to view some world-class “greats” from the dazzling repertoire of the modernist movement. On show are the kind of pieces that have graced acclaimed exhibitions at the Museum of Modern […]
Shaun de Waal SIR VIDIA’S SHADOW by Paul Theroux (Penguin) Paul Theroux’s story of his three-decade friendship with VS (Vidia) Naipaul, which ended in acrimony, is now out in paperback. The two first met in Uganda, and Theroux, then a young aspirant writer, found something of a mentor in Naipaul – a role the senior […]
Shaun de Waal Not the movie of the week Instinct is one of those big-budget films that are so fake and empty that one mourns the lavishing of all that money on such an unworthy project. How many interesting low-budget independent movies could have been made for that amount? Besides, I’m sure the gorillas of […]
Cameron Duodu LETTER FROM THE NORTH Those who have been gladdened by the news that Monsanto, the giant company that is developing genetically modified foods, has dropped its “Terminator Seed” programme, may be rejoicing too soon. Terminator Seeds, as you may have read, are seeds of crops like rice, maize, wheat and cotton that have […]
Belinda Beresford, David Le Page and Mungo Soggot Why do half the roads in Africa break up within two years? It’s a sweeping generalisation, but the answer, according to George Moody-Stuart, author of Grand Corruption, is the ubiquitous vice of graft. Contractors pay government officials to get contracts, subcontractors pay to get to the head […]
Peter Dickson Albany farmers, who first clashed with the native Xhosa population over control of land in 1779, still appear to maintain a siege mentality 220 years on. Police report that criminal attacks on farms have reached an all-time high, and East Cape Agricultural Research Project (Ecarp) paralegal adviser Mzukisi Mali says the Eastern Cape, […]
David Le Page South African innovation has achieved global recognition once again – the Blaster flame-thrower car defence system of Charl Fourie and Michelle Wong has been awarded the annual Ig Nobel Peace Prize. Wong said this week that Blaster was honoured to have received the prize, but unfortunately did not have time to attend […]
Shaun Harris TAKING STOCK Buying property and the costs associated with a mortgage bond is a touchy subject. For many people buying a home is their biggest investment, and the process of securing home loan finance can be traumatic. When something goes wrong – sharp interest rate hikes, or personal financial circumstances forcing a homeowner […]
John Matshikiza WITH THE LID OFF Bukavu, on the shores of Lake Kivu in Congo, is an idyllic tourist destination. But because of the war, which drags on despite the Lusaka peace accords, its charms are not availed of by many people. The locals don’t use the soft waters of the lake for much more […]
WL Webb If there is a reading posterity, there is no doubt about the place in it of Gnter Grass’s best work. With Gabriel Garca Mrquez and some of his contemporaries in Eastern Europe, Grass has surely been one of the great shapers of literary consciousness in the latter half of the 20th century. >From […]
PAUL KIRK, Johannesburg | Friday 1.30pm SOUTH Africa may be facing facing the worst outbreak of malaria since 1932 after carrier mosquitos lived through the long hot winter. Making the possibility of an epidemic more probable is the fact that the malaria parasite is now resistant to many of the drugs used to treat it. […]
Aaron Nicodemus The string of deadly bus accidents recently has placed an international spotlight on the safety of South African buses. Over the past two weeks accidents have killed 79 people and injured more than 250. In the most recent accident on October 4, a bus full of worshippers on their way home to the […]
Marianne Merten Okiep, an almost forgotten bleak former mining town in the Northern Cape. Every afternoon, music pounds from the cement- floored community hall as dozens of youngsters learn dance and movement – anything from jazz to kwaito. It’s a lifeline for youngsters such as Ilse Carroll (18) living in this desolate town, where streets […]
Mungo Soggot The Office of the Public Protector, one of the state’s main watchdogs against corruption and maladministration, has had a limited impact since its inception after the 1994 election. It has not exposed any significant instance of impropriety, and has at times allowed itself to be sidetracked by investigations of questionable importance. The office […]
THE official driver of Public Service and Administration Minister of Geraldine Fraser-Moleketi was found guilty of negligent driving in the Johannesburg Magistrates Court on Wednesday. Constable Johan Gert van Sevenster, (27) was reversing a BMW out of a parking bay in Raleigh Street, Yeoville, when he collided into a minibus taxi on August 26 last […]
Destitution, soccer and violence are the themes of this year’s Young Directors’ Festival, writes Thebe Mabanga Picture this: three guys are employed as delivery truck attendants. They watch the world go by from the back of a Coca-Cola truck. Their favourite destination is the Sandton Health & Racquet Club, for here, while the yuppies are […]