Ronald Suresh Roberts SHTETL: A HISTORY OF A SMALL TOWN AND AN EXTINGUISHED WORLD by Eva Hoffman (Chatto &Windus, R135) ECHOES OF A NATIVE LAND by Serge Schmemann (Little, Brown, R160) In her poetic autobiography Lost in Translation: Life in a New Language (1989), Eva Hoffman tells of her Jewish familys flight from wartime Poland […]
Tangeni Amupadhi The Truth and Reconciliation Commission has decided that people responsible for human rights atrocities in African National Congress detention camps will not have to testify publicly about their deeds. Dumisa Ntsebeza, head of the commission’s investigative unit, said this week public hearings on Quatro and other camps will not fit into the commission’s […]
Alex Dodd Despite the fact that we finally had an official presence at the Cannes Film Festival this year, there still didnt seem to have been the films to back it up not a single South African film was selected for the official competition. Meanwhile, with little pomp or ceremony, two local films have been […]
Andrew Worsdale Interview: John Landis Last month I was very privileged to have a phone interview with one of my favourite comedy directors of all time John Landis. Youve got to love the man who made Kentucky Fried Movie, An American Werewolf in London and The Blues Brothers. His follow-up to that car-smashing, head- banging,rhythmnblues […]
Alex Dodd When celebrated American playwright August Wilson first saw Athol Fugards Sizwe Bansi is Dead way back in 1976 at the Pittsburgh Public Theatre he was blown away. I thought This is great. I wonder if I could do something like this, he says. Two Pulitzer prizes later he still cites Fugard as a […]
Bruno Peltier During the first press conference he has given in his own country for six years, the Swedish film and theatre director Ingmar Bergman seemed relaxed. He had quit his island retreat in the Baltic to announce that he is working on a screenplay. It is clearly a project close to his heart. Bergman, […]
Adam Haupt On show in Cape Town Schisstrrer Saves the Planet! takes its audience into the Willoughby world of schizophrenia. The show is framed by Guy Willoughbys familiar character, Major Schisstirrer. The retired and decidedly demented South African Defence Force character arrives to pitch his right-wing security plan, Bloed Rivier. This time he proposes the […]
Phillip Kakaza Zimbabwean master drummer Jethro Shasha, well-known on the South African music scene, died at the age 46 last Sunday, having suffered for many years from diabetes. He played with many top musicians, including Malian Salif Keita. He was due to do a live recording with pianist Paul Hamner this weekend. Touched by Shashas […]
A black commercial farmer in the Free State claims to have been sabotaged by some of his white counterparts, writes Ann Eveleth The vultures started descending on Isaac Khumalo’s Vredefort farm soon after he took the plunge into commercial agriculture in December 1995. Thirty-one-year-old Khumalo, the Free State vice-chair of the Emerging Red Meat Producers […]
Mukoni T Ratshitanga A senior Gauteng transport department official is facing 10 charges of misconduct after an internal probe found he held a taxi permit despite his position as the province’s chief negotiator with taxi associations. In April, the former MEC for transport ordered that Lennox Magwaza be suspended pending the outcome of the investigation, […]
fossils Ellen Barlett James Kitching is really retired now, he says his days in the field are over. As he says it, he looks across the room, toward his wife. They exchange glances in the accommodating way of the long- married, then she sighs. One gets the feeling neither believes it. Moments later – talking […]
Suzy Bell On show in Durban IF there are at least two reasons for deciding not to emigrate to New Zealand, they are Durban actors Bheki Mkhwane and Ellis Pearson. But while us fickle Durbanites flocked to see the Americans (Jim Rose Circus) in their hundreds at the Playhouse Opera last week, this smaller, less […]
Sechaba ka’Nkosi The central committee of the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) believes the federation has been sidelined politically and has little say in major policy decisions taken by the African National Congress. At a meeting in Johannesburg this week, Cosatu leaders carefully avoided a public showdown with the government and senior ANC […]
Charl Blignaut On show in Johannesburg Should you happen to walk all the way to the back of the large, depressingly cold main entrance level of the Civic Theatre in Johannesburg; and then should you stumble down a couple of stairs and take a turn to the right; there you will come upon a tiny […]
Roy Collins World Cup As the Nigerians jump to the instructions of coach Bora Milutinovic in the shadow of their magnificent temporary home, the Chateau de Belinglise at Elincourt-Sainte Marguerite, 64km north of Paris, it is clear that one player is working in splendid isolation. The Nigerians being less happy campers than the Dutch or […]
Lauren Shantall On show in Cape Town Absolut Vodka is conquering new territory, pith helmet firmly in place. The boozy struggle for Africa has begun, as the companys marketing machine seeks the next slick promo in its infinite series of witty takes on that bountiful bottle. Weve had Absolut Stockholm, Absolut Vienna, Absolut London, Absolut […]
Benny Malatji: RIGHT TO REPLY I find it annoying to read every week about your paper’s distortions of the situation on the campus of the University of the North, Turfloop. I refer here to a string of Andy Duffy’s articles (“Student council turns Turfloop turmoil into profit”, May 29 to June 4; “SRC blows R1,3m […]
Gregory Mills French President Jacques Chirac’s visit to South Africa this week occurs at a moment of transformation in France’s relationship with Africa. It also comes at a particularly bad time for Africa, with a number of states moving in status from “transition” to “upheaval”. Just four years ago, Paris’s compulsion to remain engaged with […]
Ed Vulliamy Baseball Before he pitched his first ball from the mound at Yankee Stadium earlier this month, Orlando Hernandez paused and looked around at the crowd with an expression that mixed disbelief, joy, awe and a little pain. It was the end of a rainbow, and of a six- month journey, for the Cuban. […]
Richard Tomlinson outlines a truly African scenario for Johannesburg in the 21st century Mayivuke, an inner-city vision and development strategy for Johannesburg, was launched with fanfare and great expectations a year ago. But its vision was vague and unrealistic, probably because it was not underpinned by an examination of economic and social trends. Business leaders […]
If all goes to plan, controversial Aids drug Virodene could soon get the go-ahead, reports Andy Duffy A team of top medical experts, funded from the public purse, has been helping prepare the controversial Aids drug Virodene for clearance for human trials. The group, established by the Medicines Control Council (MCC), is working closely with […]
Andy Capostagno Tennis There is only one thing better than winning Wimbledon and thats winning it again, said the late Arthur Ashe. The 1975 mens champion just about summed up most peoples feelings about the All England Championships. For while Wimbledon is full of cant and class distinctions it is also full of people, and […]
Dan Glaister Three yars ago it seemed that British pop music was back to its best. Oasis and Blur were fighting it out for the number one spot, Pulp and Suede were in the wings, and the Britpop sound was set to conquer America. But today it is a different picture. Record sales are in […]
Adam Levin tunes into aRt, SABC3s long- awaited arts and culture programme, for a touch of spine-chilling cultural diversity You wanted democratic processes. Well you got em. Mid-last year, when budget cuts snatched The Works and Arts Unlimited off the air, Auckland Park embarked on the unprecedented saga of selecting an external production house to […]
Tony Twine A tailpiece to a news bulletin a few years ago reported that a young child had lost his first milk tooth and had been instructed on how to liquidate his asset via the tooth fairy market. Much to his delight, the tooth disappeared overnight, to be replaced by a shining R5 coin it […]
Alex Duval Smith in Casamance A quarter of a million West Africans fleeing on foot from fighting in Guinea-Bissau without food or water are heading north into another civil war where they face landmines, hostile Senegalese troops and swamps. As this human emergency advances on Casamance – the region of Senegal where a 16-year independence […]
A new movie has put Julie Christie back in the spotlight she loathes. She tells Ian Hamilton about her amnesia In her latest film, Afterglow, which was released in South Africa this week, Julie Christie plays a character called Phyllis Mann, a one-time Hollywood film actress. Middle-aged and locked into a dire marriage to the […]
suicide Tangeni Amupadhi The bank robbery trial against Mzwakhe Mbuli got off to an inauspicious start this week when one of the officers who arrested the poet committed suicide and the probe into police actions surrounding Mbuli’s arrest continued. Prosecutor Johann Kok said this week he would not hold off until the Independent Complaints Directorate […]
Stuart Millar He is probably the best-selling poet of all time after William Shakespeare and Lao Tzu. His books have sold more than 10-million copies in English alone. Even now, he is revered as a guru and an inspiration of the New Age movement. But now, 75 years after the publication of his most famous […]
Phillip Kakaza Puffing cigarettes, gulping tots of whisky and uttering words of wisdom in preparation for some smooth, mellow music to be rendered by a four-piece band called Basadi was the order of a chilly evening at Kippies. But the waiting was rather too long in a gloomy venue that breathes cold air up your […]
Shaun de Waal BEELTENIS VERBODE by Hennie Aucamp (Human &Rousseau, R79,95) In this book, Hennie Aucamp, one of the leading prose-writers in Afrikaans, collects his reviews, done mostly for the magazine De Kat, of what he calls following the Dutch egodokumente. By that he means biographies, autobiographies, memoirs, collections of letters. Almost all the subjects […]
clues The Karoo is the richest repository of therapsid fossils, the group that gave rise to early mammals, writes Ellen Bartlett To the average motorist passing through it, generally at an unconscionably high rate of speed, the Karoo is that barren bit of infinity that must be crossed to get to Cape Town or Johannesburg: […]