John Grobler The South West African People’s Organisation (Swapo) leadership is expected to propose amending the Namibian Constitution this month to give President Sam Nujoma a third term of office. The Constitution restricts the president to two terms, but at the Swapo extraordinary congress, set to take place at the end of August, party stalwarts […]
OWN CORRESPONDENT, Harare | Friday 10.00PM. THE Zimbabwean government on Friday gazetted sweeping new regulations to control rallies and marches, intended to increase the state’s control over political expression. In future, organisers will have to seek police permission in writing a week prior to events, specifying their purpose, and the business and details of proposed […]
Steve Gordon : A Second Look The Gift to the Nation concerts last weekend disappointed not so much in what they were, but in what they were not. Boasting South Africa’s biggest-ever artist billing, we squandered the opportunity to assert and affirm our nation, our voice, our identity. Mega-concerts are notoriously difficult to organise, and […]
Neasa MacErlean Embarking on an new career doesn’t have to be a harrowing experience. Here are a few pointers on making a smooth change: * Understand that you can probably make a dramatic switch if you are completely determined – but few people are brave enough to try. Most sacked executives end up in the […]
The continuing battle over alleged electoral fraud could plunge the region into turmoil, writes William Boot Opposition parties in Lesotho this week expressed “great shock” at a “serious rumour alleging a possible resolution by some people in high places or quarters to banish from Lesotho His Majesty the King and declare a state of emergency”. […]
Richmond There tends to be a false assumption that firm or tough government is conservative government and, as such, inimical to the liberal principles enshrined in our Bill of Rights. For that reason, perhaps, those who take pride in the foundations of the new South Africa contained in our Constitution would see a declaration of […]
Greig Coetzee’s plays have shown alternative sides of the male psyche. Denise rack Louw probed him about his characters `For me, writing is a passion. At times it can also be a pain in the ass; but, like eating and sleeping it’s something I simply have to do,” says Greig Coetzee, author and executor of […]
Angella Johnson View From a Broad I don’t get it. Shirley MacLaine was an Egyptian princess in one of her past lives. Other people became Napoleon, or some other historical great. But me: I got to be some illiterate, forest-dwelling nobody living in the England of 1066. I was a peasant called Phil (mmm, doesn’t […]
Tangeni Amupadhi The official police watchdog has obtained an affidavit from a person who claims to have seen two police officers coaching witnesses to finger people’s poet Mzwakhe Mbuli at an identity parade. At least two witnesses were shown photographs of Mbuli by policemen investigating a bank robbery in Waverley, north of Pretoria, last October, […]
Tangeni Amupadhi Dan Mabote, accused of raping, abducting and then killing seven-year-old Mamokgethi Malebana, may soon get his just reward. But family and friends of Mamokgethi say people who aided her killing, albeit inadvertently, will get off scot-free. “I blame the people who granted him bail,” says Mamokgethi’s mother, Joyce Malebana. “I want something to […]
George Steiner EXPLAINING HITLER by Ron Rosenbaum (Macmillan) It may well be that I am not the right reviewer for this book. Ron Rosenbaum places me and my novel, The Portage to San Christobal of AH, among the principal players in his dark tale. Explaining Hitler, a highly personal study of those who have sought […]
Roger Pratt This weekend Soul Trading, a new Johannesburg-based outfit trading in rare and exotic goods, will be holding the first in a series of weekend bazaars showcasing select ranges of handicrafts from around the world. This first show covers an eclectic range, from Moroccan lanterns to tooled Tuareg leather, Balinese wood, rattan and basketware […]
Death was the uninvited guest at a wedding in Richmond this week, turning joy into grief. Sechaba ka’Nkosi reports Doyi Shezi came home to Esimozomeni in Richmond last week to prepare for his second-youngest daughter’s wedding. On Saturday, he performed all the traditional marriage rituals at his homestead and handed his daughter Nonhlanhla to her […]
Andrew Worsdale Djibril Diop Mambety, Senegal’s major visionary film-maker, died last week after a long fight against throat cancer. Mambety was, without doubt, Africa’s most fanciful film-maker – the only man who treated African stories with the lateral cinematic vision they crave. Starting his movie-making in 1968 with Contras-City, dubbed the first African comedy, the […]
Suzy Bell delves into the delicious world of Durban bus and taxi art A goddess, adorned with flowers, pink silk sari and a jewel-encrusted gold crown, flashes past in rush hour traffic. It is Durban and its bustling Beatrice Street. An African gentleman carrying a maroon briefcase and wearing amabeshu (traditional Zulu animal hide worn […]
Brenda Atkinson : On show in Johannesburg Jeremy Wafer and Sue Williamson, both established and widely respected artists in South Africa and abroad, make an odd couple within the same exhibition space. Currently exhibiting at Johannesburg’s Goodman Gallery, the two tackle their subjects and materials with vastly different conceptual approaches and to disjunctive formal effect. […]
Alex Dodd – Milan, Marseille, New York, Rotterdam A short, hard-hitting film about xenophobia in the heart of Johannesburg by local film- maker Zola Maseko has been playing to thunderous applause around the world. This is the first time a film by a black South African director has achieved such widespread international acclaim. The Foreigner […]
OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Friday 11.00AM. THE 1998 Castle Premiership soccer season starts on Friday night, and the first weekend will see some interesting match-ups. The weekend schedule is: Friday: Cape Town Spurs vs Mamelodi Sundowns in Cape Town. Saturday: Moroka Swallows vs Seven Stars at the George Gogh Stadium in Johannesburg. Manning Rangers vs […]
Keith Henderson : Live in Johannesburg The queue for the Springbok Nude Girls outside the Roxy Rhythm Bar, Melville, was the kind which makes you feel it would be a lot easier to turn around and go home. There was probably at least one thing on television last Saturday that you could’ve fooled yourself into […]
Richard Hall Joseph Conrad described one of his villains as a “papier-mch Mephistopheles”. That was the image of Tiny Rowland, who has died aged 80. His secretive nature and mocking smile seemed to fit perfectly with Edward Heath’s descriptive tag: “An unpleasant and unacceptable face of capitalism”. Despite his Old Etonian airs, Rowland was born […]
TRISH MURPHY, Johannesburg | Friday 4.30PM. THE Angolan government is preparing for a full-scale offensive against Unita rebels, sources in Luanda and elsewhere in Angola report. Although Luanda denies it is preparing for war, it is also reported to be recruiting, as is Unita. Angolan president Eduardo Dos Santos this week was in France, and […]
Roger Cohen in Abuja `Look, the human rights here in Nigeria are terrible,” Theodore Luttwak says, “but the opportunities are just fantastic … where else in the world do you have so much money?” Good question. Abuja, Nigeria’s capital- under-construction, is full of the whiff of oil money, and not just at the exclusive golf […]
Gill Moodie The battle for your brain has arrived in South Africa as an international campaign over health fears linked to cellphone use begins to target local consumers. Leading the way in convincing local users that cellphone calls may be frying your brain is Johannesburg-based Radiation Cellutions, the local importers of Microshield, a British product […]
Ed Vulliamy in Washington : Basketball After six Naitional Basketball Association (NBA) championships – the latest won in an epic final series against Utah Jazz last month – Americans are accustomed to gravity-defying acrobatics from the Chicago Bulls. But not of this kind. Last Thursday afternoon, the Bulls managed a contortion which beats almost any […]
John Ezard Climactic warming has destroyed part of the gigantic Larsen B ice shelf in Antarctica. Final disintegration and melting of the 19 500km2 shelf is now predicted within two years. The crack-up, disclosed by a satellite photograph taken on March 23, confirmed and sharpened nearly a decade of anxiety about trends in a region […]
Adam Haupt If you’re one of those people who thinks that Steve Newman and Tony Cox are the only acoustic guitar virtuosos around, you’ve been lied to. It’s no sordid conspiracy, though. It’s just that Leslie Jovan sees himself as a community worker and not a musician. To him music is a vehicle for other […]
OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Friday 11.00AM. STATE herald Fred Brownell said on Thursday that former South African Rugby Football Union boss Louis Luyt cannot claim the Springbok emblem to be his own. Luyt earlier charged that the emblem belongs to him, saying: “It was designed by me, it belongs to me.” Brownell said that a […]
OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Friday 11.00PM. THE Free State Cheetahs stormed home to beat Border 36-18 in a Bankfin Currie Cup rugby clash in Bloemfontein on Friday night after leading 18-12 at the break. The inclusion of three Springbok players — Werner Swanepoel, Willie Meyer and Naka Drotske — in the Free State side made […]
Jackie Bennion When Internet darling Yahoo! announced its second-quarter earnings earlier this month, it not only sent Wall Street into a frenzy; it also made the founders of the Web search site, Jerry Yang and David Filo, the latest additions to the Billionaire Boys Club. Two weeks ago, Broadcast.com went public with the biggest opening […]
Looking at Ralph Steadman’s caustic caricatures you’d be forgiven for thinking that he is one of the world’s angriest men But, deep down, he tells Sally Vincent, that’s all because he’s only really angry with one thing: himself. Something terrible has happened. The air is full of inaudible squeaks of post-holocaust bats’ ghosts. I had […]
Douglas Rushkoff : online Gathered together beneath the chandeliers of the Beverly Hilton’s main ballroom earlier this year, Hollywood’s best and brightest (dressed, anyway) had paid about $1 500 each to rub elbows with the interactive media-makers who would soon, they feared, replace them. Meanwhile, a demonstration floor crowded with technology from Compaq and other […]
Denise Rack Louw Musicians of the Rainbow Nation will be strumming their stuff in Portugal on August 3 for South Africa’s national day at Lisbon Expo `98 – the last world exposition of the 20th century. The expo, which runs until September 30, is expected to attract 16 million visitors from around the world. About […]