The mussel, a shellfish long known as a gourmet treat for the rich, has gained new significance for a community living in poverty on the KwaZulu-Natal North Coast. For the people of Sokhulu, mussels are not a luxury, but a necessity – a valuable regular source of protein which keeps starvation at bay. Before 1996, […]
forgiveness There was something awfully satisfying about that klap Gideon Nieuwoudt got on the back of his head this week. For those who missed the story as told by the South African Press Association, Nieuwoudt – a former security policeman particularly notorious in the Eastern Cape – had gone to the Port Elizabeth home of […]
Fumane Diseko hit the streets to find out if sisters have felt the changes of the past four years Sam Canham (30), unemployed, from Durban `If a woman has been divorced, she should not pay taxes because they are the bread winners in the family and, at the end of the day, they have nothing […]
Arnold Kemp in Paris Tour de France It was 9.30pm when the police came for Rodolfo Massi, entering his hotel by a back door. They searched his room and found corticoids in a case. They gave him time to shower and eat before taking him to the police station. Then they drove him north from […]
Mark Coetzee On show in Cape Town The art forms traditionally relegated to women and the manner in which these are produced have undergone radical change over the last decade. Judy Chicago with her The Dinner Party once and for all destroyed a categorization based on production associated to gender, and highlighted that the visual […]
Iden Wetherell An understanding of diplomacy, it would seem, is not a requirement for South Africa’s diplomats serving abroad. One based in Harare has made such a nuisance of himself, he faces the rare penalty of being sent home for good. Jabu Buthelezi is, in fact, an employee of the Department of Home Affairs. But […]
Ann Eveleth Recruited into the United Democratic Front in 1989 and booted out of the African National Congress eight years later, United Democratic Movement general secretary Sifiso Nkabinde is a classic case study of the theory that it’s better to have someone inside your tent pissing out than outside pissing in. It took a virtual […]
The Internet feels to many of its more spiritually-minded proponents like a hardwiring of human consciousness. If and when poor people and developing nations get access to these technologies, we will all have the means, at least electronically, to access one another’s information, opinions, and feelings. Although it will certainly occur more subtly than in […]
Max du Preez has never been in therapy, but he’s on the box again with a new current affairs programme. Alex Dodd reports `I’ve never seriously considered therapy,” says Max du Preez, who has spent his last two years making damn sure that the public got to see exactly what went on at the truth […]
Angella Johnson VIEW FROM A BROAD They call themselves Tupac – after the murdered American gangsta rap singer Tupak Shakur – and are the latest gang to terrorise Soweto’s womenfolk, whom they abduct and rape with apparent impunity. “Some of them are HIV-positive and they do these things in order to deliberately pass on the […]
Jonathan Miller reports on how the Internet has become a seething mass of fraud and disinformation Last month, media around the world picked up on the story that a teenage couple in the United States were preparing to lose their virginity live on the Internet. A special website had even been established to broadcast this […]
Suzanne Wilton and Sasha Nagy Canadian fugitive Patrick Steven Ryan’s ties to extreme right-wing groups in South Africa have become part of a Calgary police investigation into his role in the violent armed robbery of an armoured car last March. Ryan, whose connections to white- supremacist groups are also part of the investigation, visited South […]
Brenda Atkinson On show in Johannesburg The venue that hosts Holdings: Refiguring the Archive is the vast, arched, high-ceilinged former engineering block at Wits University. The spacious room in which the show is installed has 1970s-brown formica floors, odd built intrusions into space and the comfortable sepia of use. It’s an appropriate space for an […]
Andy Capostagno Rugby August 1 1998 was a big day for South African rugby, but will it be bigger or more important than August 7? On August 1 the contractual agreement between the South African Rugby Football Union (Sarfu) and the squad which won the World Cup in 1995 came to an end. On Friday, […]
the `magic bullet’ The first thing to know about Viagra, the little blue erection pill, is that every man alive can recall at least one occasion when they’d have really liked to pop one. The second thing to know is that if you don’t believe the first thing, you soon will. Viagra is expected to […]
herStoriA and Quality Life magazines have announced the winners of their story competition. Lise Day of George took first place with her story Malgas Point, Henrietta Rose-Innes of Cape Town came second with Conservation, and Graeme Friedman of Johannesburg came third with The Finger of God. The winning stories are published in this month’s edition […]
interdict’ Ferial Haffajee All that Thembi Zikhali needed to enforce her interdict was proof that it existed. Because it is a court order, police are compelled to enforce it. “Police have no discretion,” says lawyer Joanne Fedler of the legal advocacy trust, Tshwaranang. The domestic violence Bill, a watershed piece of draft legislation, could curb […]
Wonder Hlongwa Estranged Inkatha Freedom Party leader Sipho Mzimela may rejoin the African National Congress, according to political colleagues who say he has been seeking advice about where his political future lies. Mzimela would not comment this week, except to confirm that he is still an IFP MP and a member of the party. He […]
Suzy Bell Local music For someone who candidly admits to never listening to the radio, to CDs or to watching television, it’s with total integrity that Madala Kunene can announce: “I’m not influenced by anyone.” It is Kunene’s poetic dreams that inspire him. Take his song Abangoma, from his heavenly album Madala Kon’Ko Man. Kunene […]
Bobby Peek The survival of the constitutional right to a healthy environment depends on the outcome of an unprecedented battle raging through almost every ministry and department of the government. The executive branch is debating the fate of the draft National Environmental Management Bill. Will the Bill vindicate the constitutional right to “an environment that […]
The two most senior African National Congress officials in the Free State have been shunned by their supporters on the eve of the party’s preparations to elect new provincial leadership. ANC Premier Ivy Matsepe-Casaburri and the provincial chair, Zingile Dingale, appear to be facing the chop. None of the 10 Free State ANC regional branches […]
for Savimbi Tangeni Amupadhi A former Civil Co-operation Bureau (CCB) agent named as the ring-leader in the theft of arms from military bases is now said to be organising mercenaries for Unita. Johan Niemoller, said to be the leader of Die Volk, whose members allegedly stole weapons from two military bases in the Free State, […]
Mail & Guardian reporter Conflict is once again engulfing Central Africa, killing the dream of regeneration and renaissance that came with the euphoria that accompanied the fall of the Zairean despot Mobutu Sese Seko more than a year ago. Then, it was believed that the series of interlocking wars, from Sudan in the north-east to […]
As one of South Africa’s major outsider artists faces the loss of his unique Clarens homestead, Matthew Krouse and Alex Dodd journey to the source of a town’s painful conflict A Kafkaesque man in a black suit and tie flees across a surreal red landscape populated by creatures that could come from land or sea, […]
Gill Moodie The government has taken the first steps towards unravelling the mess that is its information technology (IT) – and the good news for taxpayers is that government services are likely to become cheaper and faster as a result. The master plan, unveiled recently by the Department of Public Service and Administration, kicks off […]
Paul Theroux often makes enemies of those he writes about. Now he has written about VSNaipaul, once his close friend. Tim Adams reports Paul Theroux has had more than one existence. “You have as many lives as you want,” he says. “But you have to take them. You have to be up to it. The […]
Phillip Kakaza CD of the week In the past four years the Blood and Fire label has established itself as the cutting edge label in reggae reissues. It introduced a whole generation of producers and DJs who took advantage of the new musical venture. Jamaican vocal singles were released with instrumentals – sometimes just rhythm […]
All Africa Three South African entries have been selected among the 23 films chosen by film awards advisor Lionel Ngakane to compete in this year’s 11th M-Net All Africa Film Awards. The three local films – Chikin Biznis: The Whole Story; Kaalgat Tussen die Daisies and The Sexy Girls – were selected together with the […]
Chris Gordon Unita is continuing to recapture small areas in the Angolan countryside on a daily basis, sowing terror to reach their objectives. Diplomats in Luanda believe Unita leader Jonas Savimbi now wants the Lusaka protocols renegotiated, with a better deal for Unita. Savimbi described the protocols as being the destruction of Unita. They should […]
Sechaba ka’Nkosi Remember Musa Myeni? He was the Inkatha Freedom Party firebrand who once threatened to unleash 150 000 Zulu impis on Gauteng to deal with township residents. That was during the violence in the early 1990s between IFP-aligned hostel dwellers and youths on the Reef. Seven years later, he has substituted his political ideology […]
Anton Marshall On stage in Cape Town It’s a long drive out to the Old Barn. Nice angle for a story, I think, to talk about the proverbial long road for theatre in South Africa. Particularly for this group called the Barnstormers. I’ve never seen that name at any of the major theatre venues before, […]
Tensions are running high in Lesotho as an ongoing vote recount reveals evidence of election fraud, writes William Boot Long-simmering dissatisfaction over Lesotho’s May 23 elections finally reached boiling point this week, and it is clear the political temperature is not going to come down until the issue is resolved. Supporters of opposition parties marched […]