Chris Roper tunes in to Channel, an exhibition giving exposure to South African video art Video art occupies a slightly ghettoised place in the world of art. Not many people can name its exponents, and some galleries and museums are ambivalent about its status. The Channel exhibition, currently running at the Association for Visual Arts […]
Loose cannon:Robert Kirby Carl Jung called it synchronicity, the acausal relationship between events. Two completely unrelated things I read last week seemed suddenly to fit that bill. The one was a book by Ilya Zbarsky and Samuel Hutchinson, called Lenin’s Embalmers, and the other was Minister Jay Naidoo’s lengthy Right to Reply, published in denial […]
Following the withdrawal of charges against Robert McBride, lawyers for the foreign affairs official have spoken out about those who framed him. Wally Mbhele reports More than a year after the dramatic arrest of Department of Foreign Affairs official Robert McBride on trumped-up charges of gun-running, his defence team this week finally had an opportunity […]
Howard Barrell:OVER A BARREL At a lunch for a visiting Western diplomat I attended with a few MPs a couple of months ago, that hot political potato, the government’s growth, employment and redistribution strategy (Gear), came under discussion. A minute or so into the conversation, it became clear that our guest was lost. He was […]
Howard Barrell The Angolan rebel movement Unita has taken delivery of up to six Russian-built MiG fighter aircraft for use in its intensified civil war with the government in Luanda, according to security sources in Southern Africa. The aircraft are understood to have come from Ukraine, formerly part of the defunct Soviet Union, and Angolan […]
Charlene Smith The law is being “cheapened” – not only by lawyers who charge extortionate rates, but by a public misled by poor journalistic understanding of legal debates, Judge Mohammed Navsa told a graduation ceremony at the University of the Witwatersrand on Tuesday night. Navsa, a Johannesburg High Court judge and head of the Legal […]
At a recent seminar on journalism in Africa, I was asked about the Mail & Guardian’s uncomfortable relationship with the office of Deputy President Thabo Mbeki. Was there something uniquely African about the apparent intolerance of criticism at the highest levels of our government? Not at all, I shot back. The experience of our sister […]
Andrew Worsdale Movies of the week Soviet cinema has an incredible legacy. After all, Sergei Eisenstein’s 1925 Battleship Potemkin, which chronicled the Kronstadt naval mutiny that sparked off the Russian Revolution, is probably the most studied film in cinema history. Eisenstein invented the notion of montage creating dialectics within a sequence, like the famous Odessa […]
Alex Dodd Now here’s something worth downing a couple of Red Bulls for. A jazz gig with one of the hottest line-ups imaginable that will, unlike any other official jazz circuit gig to date, go on through the night. Jazz till dawn in a pleasure resort – a night to make Kippie smile. Headlined Jazz […]
Nato air attacks on Serbian military targets continue in what is clearly a paradoxical exercise: the emphasis on air intervention has worsened Serbian attacks on Kosovar military and civilians, bringing the prospect of Nato ground intervention to establish control – peacemaking – imminent; and the expanded Serbian repression has increased Kosovar support for independence, a […]
Matthew Krouse Down the tube When did we become a nation obsessed with yacking? Presently there are no fewer than nine chat shows on TV, four of which get repeated, consuming about 15 hours of viewing time a week. The American ones all look the same – wide stages bulging with interesting furniture, portable screens […]
The phone has been ringing right off the hook since last week’s report about our new beginning in the northern suburbs. This would have been gratifying if it wasn’t for the fact that most callers have been obsessed, not with what we’ve managed to do about our safety, but with two burning questions: did we […]
Parents biting their nails over declining standards in public schools but not rich enough to send their children to private schools have found a way out – home schooling. By all accounts, as many as 8 000 people around the country are now teaching their children at home and more families are joining their cause […]
Andy Colquhoun Rugby The Stormers should have been given a ticker- tape parade down Adderley Street when they arrived back in Cape Town earlier this week. Wins Down Under by South African sides occur only as frequently as Fiji fail to win the Hong Kong Sevens – which is to say almost never. The storm […]
Emeka Nwandiko Time is running out for people’s poet Mzwakhe Mbuli if he is to try avoid a minimum 10-year sentence by naming senior African National Congress leaders who he claims framed him. Mbuli and two co-accused were found guilty in the Pretoria Magistrate’s Court this week of armed robbery and possession of a hand […]
Stephen Bierley Tennis Richard Williams has no doubts: “Either Venus or Serena will win a Grand Slam this year. And after that there will be no stopping them.” The nearest Venus Williams has come to capturing one of the four great titles in tennis was in 1997 when, at the first try, she reached the […]
An ex-punk composer has teamed up with a Soweto choir for a collaboration that’s proving fruitful on the independent gospel scene, writes Andrew Kaye It is perhaps with a slight sense of ironic cruelty, that, within a few short minutes, the gods of music deigned to impart the gift of genius (in the form of […]
The public protector’s decision to assist a highly paid academic who was suspended and sacked for financial impropriety and abuse of power is one of the low points of the watchdog’s first stint in office. Selby Baqwa spent 13 months intervening in the disciplinary probe of the academic, the former vice-chancellor of the Vaal Technikon, […]
you shall reap I wish to respond to Farid Esack’s condemnation of Judge John Foxcroft’s ruling against Allan Boesak (“Used and discarded like a condom”, March 26 to April 1). As a religious teacher and gender commissioner whose primary concern should be with establishing the rule of law and morality in a country where crime […]
Progressive policies are needed to make the Klein Karoo festival more inclusive, writes Lauren Shantall It’s the only place where Bles Bridges performs solo inside Joshua Doore. Bheki Mkhwane and Ellis Pearson take their energetic physical theatre to the streets amid placards bearing questions like “Waar’s Ons Volkstaat?” brandished by black performance artists. It’s a […]
Madam Speaker, I beg to move that this House unreservedly condemns the five-year suspended sentence imposed on Nicholas Steyn for the slaying of six-month-old Angelina Zwane on his Benoni farm. Madam Speaker, it is conventional wisdom, in parliamentary democracies, that the executive and the legislature do not normally “interfere” with the judiciary. The executive formulates […]
are greatest threat to Africa’s wildlife The Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism said last week it will investigate a funding scandal involving the police’s endangered species protection unit. The unit’s commander, Pieter Lategan, takes on his critics A Zambian representative at a conference of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (Cites) once […]
EASY PEASY by Lesley Glaister (Bloomsbury) Easy Peasy takes its title from a children’s chant, but taunts in this narrative move from the playful to the spiteful and eventually to outright cruelty. The victim is a 10-year-old deaf boy, Vassily. The action alternates between the past of childhood and the present when the adult Griselda […]
Acclaimed South African comedienne Irini Stephanou gets to the heart of leading Greek tragedienne, Lydia Koniordou Lydia Koniordou has been hailed as the greatest contemporary tragedienne in Greece. In the ancient theatre of Epidaurus in Greece, she has commanded audiences of 13 000 people. Her reputation is based solely on her work in the theatre. […]
No sooner has humankind identified one kind of discrimination as an evil to be abjured than it comes up with some subtle way of defining new tribes and the untouchables to be excluded from it. The Internet has now become a battleground between forces too intent on their own interests to work for inclusiveness. The […]
Evidence wa ka Ngobeni The Kruger National Park has called on tourists to help back up its contention that there are still plenty of healthy lions in the reserve – despite the impact of bovine tuberculosis (TB). The call follows reports that TB is wiping out Kruger Park lions, which are a prime attraction for […]
Chris Mann VISIONS: HOW SCIENCE WILL REVOLUTIONIZE THE 21ST CENTURY AND BEYOND by Michio Kaku (Oxford University Press) Science has exploded in this century. The Templeton Foundation estimates that a billion dollars a day is now spent on scientific research. Is science worth it? Different thinkers from Aristotle onwards have held different positions about its […]
Neil Manthorp in Wellington Cricket Hansie Cronje and Bob Woolmer both emphasised that the tour of New Zealand had been a great success before the final three one-dayers were even played – winning the Test series was the priority. “We approached the West Indies series with a different attitude, and that was to expect to […]
Deon Potgieter Boxing Underrated due to his quiet, demure manner, Cassius “Mister Shy Guy” Baloyi, the current World Boxing Union (WBU) featherweight champion, is looking to break into the big league. An impressive defence against the tough Nigerian-born title challenger Said Lawal in London on Friday night (April 2) could be just the ticket for […]
Jerome Burne and Sarah Ryle Cellular phone users – the scourge of cinemas and restaurants – may be unable to help themselves. A study has found that radiation from cellphones stimulates a morphine-like chemical in the brain, making them addictive. The cellphone “high” is triggered by endorphins released in the brain when microwave radiation from […]
THE KwaZulu-Natal north coast town of Ballito officially handed over its water and waste water services to a private company. In terms of a deal between Siza Water Company and the Ballito municipality, the company will manage the town’s water and waste water for the next 30 years.
THE Mpumalanga Pumas beat the Namibia Kudus 52-32 in an Vodacom Cup rugby match in Windhoek on Wednesday, after leading 33-8 at half-time. Both teams attacked relentlessly at every possible opportunity, but it was Witbank team who took full points by scoring their fourth try within 21 minutes and finishing with eight. Fullback Kallie Benade […]