Brenda Atkinson Anybody who believes the local art world is without interest or innovation should immediately let the snap and crackle of their modems take them to two local websites worthy of some dedicated surfing. First let your art beat and do other surprising things at Artthrob.co.za. This one-woman online arts mag is the work […]
Donna Block After years of fat margins and record profits, South African banks are now crying poverty. In the wake of the recent volatility in the worlds financial markets, commercial banks have seen their profits squeezed by a plunging rand and the Reserve Banks desperate attempts to stave off international speculators by hiking the repo […]
You can negotiate with your bank to get the best deal on your bond or car financing, writes Belinda Beresford Waking up after the night before, that faint hint of an ache in your forehead is a disagreeable reminder of the pain to come as the hangover hits with full force. Its the same wincing […]
Christopher Reed in Los Angeles The self-proclaimed shaman and best- selling author Carlos Castaneda, who pioneered the New Age movement with stories about a Mexican sorcerer called Don Juan, has died as mysteriously as he lived. His demise in the fashionable Los Angeles district of Brentwood was disclosed by the Los Angeles Times, almost two […]
Christine Gordon With Angola’s peace process at breaking point, the government in Luanda is mobilising its army to block any further advances by opposition movement Unita. No direct fighting has been reported, but the government is preparing for war. Unofficial estimates put Unita’s military capacity at 30 000 armed troops, a militia of 60 000 […]
Neil Manthorp in Cambridge Cricket The arrangement of storms and lulls, peaks and troughs has been clever so far on tour, by and large. Cambridge is a lovely city and the combined universities provide talented but not fierce opposition. Most importantly, Cambridge provides the perfect opportunity to allow the ripples and tremors from the Lords […]
Much speculation at the Dorsbult Bar over how much luggage Winnie Madikizela-Mandela was carrying on that British Airways (BA) flight from London to Johannesburg to have been charged R9 000 for excess baggage on a first-class ticket. If BA stuck by the book she would been carrying nearly 100kg of luggage. But, as every seasoned […]
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 […]
Andrew Muchineripi World Cup Humility has never been a strong point of Philippe Troussier and so it proved again this week in the beautiful French city of Bordeaux as Bafana Bafana bowed out of the World Cup. Perhaps capitulated would be a better word. France proved generous hosts by defeating Denmark in the final round […]
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 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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
Angella Johnson Pity Philippe Troussier. The Frenchman with the poor interpersonal skills has emerged as the national scapegoat for Bafana Bafana’s less- than-sparkling performance in the World Cup. The charges: that as a foreigner he lacks any real understanding of the way football is played in this country; and that he deliberately sabotaged the first […]
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 […]
If youve ever perused the Johannesburg Stock Exchange share pages in search of potential shares and happened on the property section, youll have noticed that there are three separate sectors listed there: property companies, property trusts and property loan stocks. One of the least talked about and underrated of the three is the property loan […]
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 […]
THURSDAY, 1.30PM: ENVIRONMENTALISTS are worried that 17 lions being sold by Mpumalanga game owner Roy Plath may be destined for the “canned lion” industry in Mozambique. “Canned” hunting refers to the practice of confining or drugging lions to make shooting them easier for hunters who do not have the skill, strength or time to track […]
THURSDAY, 11.00AM: THE Ngobeni commission into corruption in the Mpumalanga government on Wednesday produced documentary evidence showing that suspended deputy speaker Cynthia Maropeng deposited legislature cheques worth over half a million rand into her own bank account, after requisitioning the funds for a consultancy. Maropeng was left dumbstruck when commission chairman David Ngobeni produced documents […]
TUESDAY, 6.00PM: AFTER a two-week lull in fighting, Ethiopian troops are mobilising on the common border with Eritrea, possibly preparing for a resumption of the conflict that has marred the area since May 6. The Tigray Peoples’ Liberation Front, the key faction of the ruling Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front, on Monday called on citizens […]
TUESDAY, 4.00PM: FORMER Zimbabwean President Canaan Banana finally took the stand in his defence in the Harare High Court on Monday, and swore that he never sexually assaulted any men. Banana, who faces 11 counts of sodomy, attempted sodomy and indecent assault, told the court he has no explanation for why all nine complainants might […]
MONDAY, 5.00PM: A CAMPAIGN to collect signatures on the Internet opposing the capture of three wild dolphins by the Port Elizabeth Oceanarium has been launched by an organisation called Protect Our Dolphins, based in Port Elizabeth. Besides protesting the restriction of wild animals to a tiny pool, Pod claims the Oceanarium staff are not properly […]
Julie Frederikse has written two new additions to the Maskew Miller Longman series They Fought for Freedom, a set of short, accessible biographies of great South African opponents of apartheid. Though Helen Joseph and David Webster came from two different epochs in the fight against oppression, they shared common characteristics and a unique connection. Joseph […]
theory Robert Kirby argues against the theory that South Africans lured Mozambican president Samora Machel to his death It is believed that between 80% and 90% of aviation accidents are due to human error. Refining the statistic a little further, it was found that out of a total of 28 000 aviation “incident reports” made […]
The truth commission has subpoenaed policeman `Lappies’ Labuschagne about his alleged involvement in the killing of ANC leaders, write Wally Mbhele and Stuart Hess The police detective connected to the arrest of foreign affairs official Robert McBride is allegedly implicated in an attempted assassination in exile of top African National Congress leaders, including Joe Slovo, […]
Andrew Muchineripi World Cup Nothing happened in the first series of group matches to suggest that traditional World Cup giants Argentina, Brazil, Germany and Italy will not be heavily involved come crunch time. Argentina and Germany won without great exertion, Brazil found the going tough because the Scots proved tough, and do not read too […]
Lords Neil Manthorp Cricket Lords is a funny place. The funniest moment of South Africa’s last visit in 1994 involved, almost inevitably, Fanie de Villiers. The Afrikaans school teacher cum part-time amateur car mechanic had reached the pinnacle of the game when he arrived in England and began preparations to represent his country, in a […]
Ground control of computers is child’s play when it comes to the capabilities of satellite constellations, reports Bill O’Neill Microsoft dominates the world of personal computers and, whatever the result of current action by the United States Justice Department, looks set to determine the future of the Internet, too. For Bill Gates, the company’s boss, […]
As a long-time ardent admirer of Govin Reddy may I add my humble voice to his own stridulations in regard to his having missed out on the top SABC sinecure. What is more disturbing is how the SABC board itself is also in the business of missing out, in Mr Reddy’s case, on a critically […]
Andy Duffy The University of the Western Cape (UWC) slapped a court order on its workers this week to snuff out an uprising sparked by its management’s cost-cutting proposals. The Labour Court in Johannesburg issued an urgent interdict against the National Education, Health and Allied Workers’ Union (Nehawu) and its UWC representatives, after dozens of […]