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, […]
middle class Black accession to the South African economy has come fast in the past four years. The value of the deals shifting ownership into black hands is quadrupling every year. And black business has shown a talent for the game. For example: it took Afrikaner capital 10 times longer to achieve the level of […]
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 […]
genius He is serving a life sentence for the murder of his mother, but he is quite unlike any other inmate. His tale leads from Mexico to Nazi Germany and Hollywood. And he’s a chess grandmaster. Julian Borger follows the bizarre trail of Claude Bloodgood The prisons of Virginia are strung out like dark farmhouses […]
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 […]
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 […]
We are encouraged by the interest shown in our water projects. Particularly welcome are the concerns outlined by Charlene Smith (“Too poor to pay for services”, Monitor, March 26 to April 1) which focus on the difficult bit: keeping infrastructure working. If Smith had talked to us, we would have provided a clearer perspective. First, […]
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 […]
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 […]
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. […]
When Germaine Greer was in her twenties, she acted in a short film about the fatal, destructive power of female emotions. Dressed in bridal white, her face a pan-stick parody of women’s magazine femininity, she plays a woman pushed to the edge of madness by a heartless, intransigent man who, in spite of her entreaties, […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
Barry Eksteen, representative for the Department of Correctional Services, responds: “Prisoners often report subjectively on their experience of prison life. In this case the allegations are generalised and without facts such as dates, names and times. I therefore prefer not to comment on his alleged experiences. However, the department has taken cognisance of them and […]
Nato’s attacks on Serbia have been condemned by our government as an attack on the authority of the United Nations and as such a breach of international law. If that is the case, we can only assume international law has developed since South Africa sent its troops into Lesotho without a UN mandate. Our intention […]
DAY ONE (Thursday) Dagga Makes The World Go Round `Follow!” yells the bored, overweight prison guard as he slams shut the outer door of Pretoria Local’s first floor. “Follow! Follow! Follow!” He moves down the line counting the 25 “new ones” that are hastily kneeling in twos on the floor along the outer wall of […]
There is dissension in the ranks regarding pension fund surplus distribution, reports Michael Metelits The retirement industry, like apparently every other industry on Earth from commodities to fast food, runs on investments. Large pension funds are middlemen, selling the average retirement policyholder peace of mind and buying the cash to pay for it with huge […]
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 […]
Ian Black in London, Stephen Bates in Brussels and Ian Traynor in Bonn Nato’s war with the Serbs was poised to escalate into a new, intensified phase after a mediation mission to Belgrade by Russia failed to achieve a breakthrough when Western leaders rejected out of hand a six-point peace plan. As thousands of ethnic […]
Melinda Wittstock The force will soon be with us – that mystical other-worldly power to convince otherwise sensible earthlings to trade billions of hard-earned dollars for hats, toys, T-shirts, games and myriad other paraphernalia linked to Star Wars. By early May The Phantom Menace, the first episode in the much-anticipated Star Wars prequel trilogy, will […]
An organised madness has driven Rwanda’s Hutu militias to butchery over the past five years, including the massacre of 800 000 in 100 days in 1994. In search of the truth behind one atrocity, Philip Gourevitch journeys from the heart of Africa to a plush suburb in Texas In the province of Kibungo, in eastern […]
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 […]
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 […]
THE Volkstaat Council has formally disbanded, SABC radio news reported. The council was established after the 1994 election to investigate the application of the constitutional clause acknowledging territorial self-determination of groups sharing common language and culture. Although the council has formally disbanded as a government body, it will continue to exist as a privately funded […]
THE Constitutional Court ruled on Wednesday that prisoners must be allowed to vote in the June 2 general election. In its ruling in an application brought by two prisoners, the court held thast it is unconstitutional to deny prisoners the vote and ordered the Independent Electoral Commission to register convicts and awaiting-trialists who were behind […]
CAPE TOWN unveiled plans on Wednesday to welcome in the new millennium in style, but warned potential revellers to book their place for a sunny New Year soon. Cape Town mayor Nomaindia Mfeketo said the city plans a six-month programme of arts and cultural events starting in September as well as a huge New Year’s […]
AMANDA Coetzer began her defence of her Family Circle Cup tennis title in brisk winds with a 6-3, 7-5 win over Russian qualifier Elena Makarova at Hilton Head Island, South Carolina. “I felt like I had to be really, really careful with some shots and I had to really commit my footwork, the South African […]