disruptions’ Heidi Clark Community leader Freddie Brown says the 350 “squatters” who have made their home under the tall pine trees on a hill in Wilderness have lived in the area since the 1920s and feel they have a right to be there. The setting is idyllic, but for the fact that they are forced […]
James Ambrose Brown Just when we thought we could safely forget the findings of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC)and the perpetrators could merge into their murky backgrounds … Just when we thought that words must fail to keep it all before our consciences, comes a fresh insight. You might say that it needed an […]
Howard Barrell Over a Barrel Since this story is about the currency markets, let’s engage in a bit of speculation: you are the leader of a middle-income country of little importance to any but the people who live in it. South Africa would be a good example You are trying to transform your country. Your […]
Forget the business guru in a dark suit: today’s corporate motivators are trainers, modelled on the world of sport, writes Ian Wylie Sometimes they fall out, sometimes they get fired, but no one wins the soccer World Cup or Wimbledon without a coach. Every good athlete has a coach, helping them to break through barriers […]
I’d hate to think what would have happened to artist Steven Cohen if he’d waltzed around this year’s national arts festival with his banner decorated with the words: “Give us your children. What we can’t fuck, we eat.” No doubt Deputy Minister of Home Affairs Lindiwe Sisulu would have had him for breakfast. Conversely, had […]
Andy Duffy Shepherd Mdladlana is duty-bound to say he will serve wherever the African National Congress deploys him. But the Ministry of Labour? Tito Mboweni, a flamboyant, popularist politician was always going to be a hard act to follow – more so for Mdladlana, who until now has preferred operating out of the limelight. Mboweni, […]
Benjamin Pogrund HESHEL’S KINGDOM: A FAMILY, A PEOPLE, A DIVIDED FATE by Dan Jacobson. (Hamish Hamilton) By dying early, Heshel Melamed gave his children, grandchildren and great- grandchildren the most precious patrimony of all – life. Had his existence continued in the small town of Varniai in Lithuania the family tree would have been terminated […]
Coenraad Visser Love and land. Love that is stolen; land that is stolen. Thirty-five years later, love that is returned; land that is returned. “A promise made, broken, and then restored.” That, according to Michael Williams, librettist and producer, is the simple theme of Roelof Temmingh’s new opera, Buchuland, which opens at the State Theatre […]
Saliem Fakir discusses the pros and cons of the proposed environmental management legislation The National Environmental Management Bill, released recently by the Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism, is a significant contribution to the evolution of environmental management. It may well have shortcomings, particularly given the time frame in which it was drafted, but its […]
Beninese diva Angelique Kidjo has taken African pop global. Her new album crosses all boundaries, writes Phillip Kakaza Even under the best circumstances the chances of becoming an international star in the world of entertainment are slim. But for a woman to launch a musical career from the highly religious African country of Benin – […]
cube farms `So the other day this 404 and his lilo walked head on into the new chainsaw consultant right in front of the cube farm on the second floor. You should’ve seen the idea hamsters prairie dog.” Confused? To translate, consult our lingo dictionary below, and keep up to date with office gossip. n […]
David Shapshak Satire – apart, of course, from chicken – is Nando’s speciality. Its advertising has always piggy-backed on current issues and ridiculed or satirised them. Humour, you see, is their secret ingredient. It has arguably sold them more chickens than their famous Portuguese sauces. Remember the just-recognisable grey- haired global leader with a predilection […]
crackers Nic Turner The word hacker is enough to strike fear into anyone’s heart, but the South African Tiger Team Initiative (Satti) is trying to change that. They are at pains to make a distinction between enthusiast programmers – hackers – and their criminal counterparts – crackers. To help spread the word, Satti organised Zacon, […]
Andy Duffy A senior commander in the government’s fight against HIV and Aids is to step down. Rose Smart, the former nurse who revived the HIV/Aids and STD (sexually transmitted diseases) Directorate following the Sarafina II scandal, wants to leave in November when her contract expires. “It is a 12-hour day, seven-days-a-week job. I don’t […]
Andy Duffy The Muslim Judicial Council (MJC), which represents the majority of Muslims in the Western Cape, has called on the People Against Gangterism and Drugs (Pagad) to suspend all activities. The council, previously slated for not taking a firm and public lead against Pagad’s vigilante tactics, says the group’s militant approach has spun out […]
Mukoni T Ratshitanga A University of Zululand employee is facing 82 internal fraud charges ranging over two years. The university “charge sheet” alleges that Anna Platt, an assistant buyer in the stores department, defrauded the university of R1,5-million between February 1995 and June 1997. Platt allegedly made out false orders for curtains and mattress covers […]
Philippe Dagen On show in France The 200th anniversary of the birth of the French painter Eugne Delacroix (1798-1863) is being celebrated by a series of exhibitions in France, each devoted to a different aspect of his work. The bicentenary exhibitions set a challenge: since Delacroix is being served up in pieces, why not try […]
European stock exchanges as we know them are about to be completely transformed thanks to London and Frankfurt. Europe’s two largest markets last week announced they would end decades of heated rivalry and form an alliance to develop a pan-European market in the hope that soon all European exchanges would take part. While some people […]
Tangeni Amupadhi Nine-year-old Mita Molete came home from school crying a few weeks ago. She pleaded with her mother not to let her go on a school tour to Durban. Molete, whose scalp was hacked with a panga during the 1992 Boipatong massacre on the Vaal Triangle, has developed a fear of Zulus. “She does […]
Iden Wetherell When the Democratic Republic of Congo’s President Laurent Kabila paid a flying visit to Harare last week, he told reporters he was there for routine consultations with President Robert Mugabe. But the presence of Zimbabwe’s defence chiefs suggested a more pressing purpose. Mugabe is chair of the Southern African Development Community’s (SADC) organ […]
Tangeni Amupadhi reports on the Groot Marico farmwatch system Oom Leon du Plessis stops mending a fence on his Nooitgedacht farm in the Groot Marico to tell about the night he was robbed and almost killed. It is almost noon and time to stop work, have a sip of mampoer and take a rest after […]
Andy Capostagno Golf The Scots have a saying: “If there’s nae wind there’s nae golf.” Think about that when the cream of the world’s players are struggling through the links of Royal Birkdale this week. You will hear many seasoned professionals complain that it makes the game a lottery. Nick Price said during practice: “It […]
Stuart Hess Jackson se pad (Jackson’s road) is not known to many South Africans. But for one of the oldest peoples of Southern Africa, the San bushmen, it is the scene of one of the darkest moments in their history. Jackson se pad is the name given to a road in southern Angola on which […]
John Fordham Panthalassa was the name given to the ocean surrounding the primordial, unbroken continent. If Bill Laswell, the gifted producer and sometime free- jazz bass player, hears Miles Davis’s 1970s music as an “ocean of sound”, he’s gone to considerable lengths to reinforce the point on the remarkable Panthalassa: The Music of Miles Davis […]
Douglas Rushkoff Online When I started writing columns about the Internet I thought of myself as something of a midwife. We were birthing a new culture, and had experienced some complications in our labour. My purpose was to hold on to our collective hand, help us remember to breathe, and tell us how precious the […]
Stephen Gray recently attended a conference in Botswana in honour of South African writer Bessie Head, who settled there Gaborone, June 17-18 Few remember the first round of this event. In April 1976, when she was still alive and with only half her work done, Bessie Head was invited here to the University of Botswana. […]
Belinda Beresford South African businesses are following international trends of using business coaches and mentors to develop their employees, recognising that individual tutors have advantages over group training in improving skills. An added dimension in South Africa is the drive for affirmative action programmes to develop black employees. Globalisation and greater competition, which have led […]
Peter Makurube Pretoria’s anomaly has always been that it is the headquarters of apartheid and jazz. On one side of the city they chilled out to Bles Bridges and other nostalgic musicians. On the other side the spirit of Malombo won the hearts and minds of the people. Gradually,after all these years, Pretoria is learning […]
Anthony Egan SOWETO: A HISTORY by Philip Bonner and Lauren Segal (Maskew Miller Longman) THE SOWETO UPRISINGS: COUNTER-MEMORIES OF JUNE 1976 by Sifiso Mxolisi Ndlovu (Ravan) The city to the south-west of Johannesburg , Soweto, has had a short but significant history. It started largely as a settlement for migrant workers to the Witwatersrand, a […]
Swapna Prabhakaran Like most of Richmond’s remaining residents, Mabel Nxumalo is a portrait of strength. She has a solid, hard- worn look about her and though there is a deep grief in her eyes, there are no tears. A week ago her sister, two of her sons and her daughter-in-law were shot dead. They were […]
Robert Kirby: Loose Cannon With what in the way of a gaudy extravaganza is South Africa planning to celebrate the arrival of the new millennium? There are only about 530 days left before the delight of living in the 20th century will become a thing of the past. As one of those who feels he […]
Nicholas Glass made it his mission to find out more about Eyes Wide Shut, Stanley Kubrick’s top-secret new film- in-progress A Lear jet left Luton for Los Angeles on June 3, carrying the Cruise family back to Los Angeles. Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman like England, where photographers mostly leave them alone. But they must […]