Iain Banks writes books about sex and drugs. Iain M Banks is a sci-fi nerd. Are they related? Phil Daoust investigates on the eve of the author’s visit to South Africa What the hell are you doing in a place like this? It’s a question you have to wrestle back down your throat when you […]
Douglas Rushkoff Online So far, only my Melbourne sponsors have let me keep the original title of the talk I’ve been giving around the world this month: Why Futurists Suck. I shouldn’t have been so surprised that 500 concerned Australians would fill the cavernous Malthouse Theatre to participate in a free exchange about our collective […]
Who is . . . Graa Machel?
redistribution’ Derek Hanekom Ann Eveleth’s article “Land reform targets are far, far away” (Monitor, June 5 to 11) ignores the remarkable progress we have made in the past four years and the complexity of land-reform processes. The central argument is that we will never meet “the reconstruction and development programme promise to redistribute 30% of […]
THURSDAY, 11.00AM: THE wildcat strike by Johannesburg International Airport baggage handlers has been called off after worker representatives, Apron Services and The Airports Company of South Africa agreed on Wednesday night that tenders will be invited for the airport’s ramp-handling operations. The strike, which disrupted many flights, started early on Wednesday morning when baggage handlers […]
THURSDAY, 10.00PM: BONGANI MAGUBANE, a 36-year-old deputy school principal from Sahlumbe, KwaZulu-Natal, has died after allegedly being assaulted with a wheel spanner during an argument with police task force members near the Mooi River toll plaza on Monday afternoon. According to his brother, Themba Magubane, Bongani was travelling from Durban to Ladysmith when there was […]
WEDNESDAY, 9.30AM: FORMER Bophuthatswana president Lucas Mangope was on Tuesday found guilty on some 90 charges of fraud and theft totalling R2,8-million, most of which was stolen from his own Bahurutshe-Bo-Manyane tribe. Judge Tom Mullins will deliver judgment on the remaining 89 fraud and theft charges, totalling about R18-million, on Wednesday. Mangope has been found […]
TUESDAY, 9.00AM: FORMER Bophuthatswana president Lucas Mangope, on trial on multiple counts of fraud and theft totalling over R18-million, was told in the Mmabatho High Court on Monday that he has been an unsatisfactory witness who gave “irrelevant, repetitive and extremely evasive evidence”, and who at times told outright lies that did his credibility no […]
MONDAY, 9.00PM: THE official record of Parliament will in future be published in four languages, rather than just in English, it has been proposed. Hansard will be published in English and Afrikaans with immediate effect. From the beginning of next year’s session, it will also be produced in one Nguni language, and one Sotho language, […]
MONDAY, 2.00PM: THE future of Correctional Services Minister Sipo Mzimela is currently under discussion in a meeting between President Nelson Mandela, Deputy President Thabo Mbeki and Home Affairs Minister Mangosuthu Buthelezi. Presidential spokesman Parks Mankahlana said: “The three [Mandela, Mbeki and Buthelezi] are eager that any change in government should happen in the least disruptive […]
MONDAY 10.00AM: NOW that the euphoria around President Nelson Mandela’s secret wedding to Graa Machel has died down, questions are being asked as to the wisdom of the official denials that preceded the Saturday ceremony at Mandela’s Houghton, Johannesburg home. The Mail & Guardian two weeks ago reported that the president was to marry on […]
Wonder Hlongwa Minister of Safety and Security Sydney Mufamadi’s new initiative for Richmond, announced on Tuesday, has already been tried and failed. Mufamadi’s two-pronged approach to halt the murders in the town includes sending an additional 240 policemen there and transferring four policemen. But the four were served with notices three months ago – in […]
Stuart Hess Police investigating a complaint against artist Mark Hipper dropped the probe this week when the country’s chief censor read them the film and publications Act. Police telephoned Dr Nana Makaula, CEO of the Film and Publications Board, to arrange to take a statement following a complaint lodged by the National Council of Child […]
Irwin Manoim A printer is a machine which artfully lines up a bunch of microscopic dots on paper to produce elegant love letters, invoices, poems, bar charts and school projects. Most of these sheets of paper go straight from the print tray to the waste bin, while the author experiments with changing the margins or […]
Tamar Kahn As the rand lurches into the land of Monopoly money, lawyers are among the few people still smiling. Not because they had the foresight to invest in foreign currency, but because they see the bony fingers of bankruptcy collecting record numbers of clients. Bankruptcy has an ominous ring, bringing to mind Dickensian scenes […]
Durban Nick Paul Surfing Just when you think you’re sick of big emotional sporting events, when you’ve had the Comrades, and the July, and the men’s and women’s Wimbledon finals and this year the World Cup and the opening sallies of the Tri-Nations, in great big chunks, along comes the Gunston. If you’re a Durbanite, […]
rots Wally Mbhele An accomplished military intelligence (MI) agent, Nigel Barnett – who infiltrated Mozambique in 1984 and operated there until his dramatic arrest last year – was granted bail despite documentary proof that he was a spy for apartheid South Africa. Barnett’s release by Mozambican prosecuting authorities has raised more questions about why Robert […]
Neil Manthorp in Durham Cricket `Allow me to introduce myself – I’m your wife, Betty.” It was a cartoon on the front page of the Daily Telegraph and, as always, it touched a nerve with an abnormally high percentage of readers – most of whom were of the “class” to imagine it would be more […]
Neasa MacErlean Eight tips on how to deal with grievance proceedings: n Understand that there are two main reasons to trigger the grievance system: a dispute with a colleague or dissatisfaction with a management decision. n Resist going down this formal route just because someone gets on your nerves. You will find it hard to […]
Luke Harding Cg’ose Ntcox’o, an illiterate Botswanan artist, was delighted when British Airways (BA)bought one of her works. She promptly splashed out on seven cows, built herself a shack on the edge of the Kalahari desert, and gave the rest of the money to her many nomadic relatives. Last week, however, Ntcox’o was deeply unhappy […]
Rehana Rossouw Personal History The banging on the door came at 4.30am, as usual. As armed policemen surrounded the house, an officious security policeman marched in waving a detention order in terms of emergency legislation. It was July 8 1988 and security policemen were hunting down organisers of a campaign to celebrate Nelson Mandela’s 70th […]
From a mud hut in Transkei to the Union Buildings in Pretoria is not that far, but it’s been a long road for President Mandela, writes David Beresford Below the village of Mvezo, on the side of a hill overlooking a bend of the Mbashe River in the former Transkei, three circular mounds of earth […]
Charl Blignaut On stage in Johannesburg `There’s one sure way to beat the racist bastards of this world,” conclude Bessie (104) and Sadie (102) Delaney somewhere near the end of their marathon tale of growing up black and surviving a century of civil injustice in the United States, “and that’s to outlive them”. To have […]
Howard Barrell and Mungo Soggot The relatively unknown African National Congress politician appointed as South Africa’s top prosecutor has shrugged off fears that he will follow the dictates of his political masters when he takes up his new job in two weeks’ time. Cape Town lawyer Bulelani Ngcuka, deputy chair of the National Council of […]
Peet Pienaar speaks to fellow-artist Judith Mason Iwent to see Judith Mason on a cold, murky day, and spoke to an artist who seems to have been quietly observing from the sidelines of the art world for quite a while. How would I contextualise her? I know her well, and know that what I know […]
Tangeni Amupadhi Sello Masinyane has been unable to sleep peacefully since July 8. Horrific images keep flashing in his mind; images similar to what happened to James Byrd Jr – a black man killed by Ku Klux Klan followers in Texas last month after being tied to a truck, dragged for kilometres and dismembered. But […]
Angella Johnson VIEW FROM A BROAD Can you imagine having to strip off to interview someone in the buff? That was the prospect awaiting me when I decided to check out the German population’s proclivity for taking their clothes off in public. “You do realise that you will have to participate?” declared my interpreter Felix, […]
Mandy Collins At some stage, hopefully, most of us will progress from owning the most dilapidated car on the block to buying a new or good second-hand car. This usually means trying to understand the world of car finance. The cutting-edge option is time-share. Reportedly, some people have paid R20 000 for a share in […]
Sechaba ka’Nkosi A group of highly trained operatives linked to dirty tricks operations in KwaZulu-Natal in the early 1990s has been directly implicated in the recent upsurge of violence in the Midlands town of Richmond. A report by peace monitors suggests that senior politicians, right-wing farmers, police and military chiefs have regrouped and are exploiting […]
Chris Roper On stage in Cape Town The intersection between art and technology is a fruitful place to observe variance in the way art can be produced and consumed. This intersection normally takes place at the level of art forms such as music, narratives or performances. You certainly wouldn’t expect poetry, the old codger of […]
Phillip Kakaza Dramatist Percy Mtwa was one of the loudest voices in South African theatre in the Eighties. He and Mbongeni Ngema helped to usher in this rich theatrical decade with that famous two-hander, Woza Albert! But the late 1980s saw Mtwa sidelined after his success with Woza Albert! and Bopha! In fact, his principles […]
designer Sir Norman Foster is the architect who’s come closest to establishing a universal style for the age. His latest project, Hong Kong airport, opened last week. Liz Jobey reports Sir Norman Foster rang back. “Sorry, we got cut off as I walked into the Savoy,” he said. “I was on my way to a […]