David Shpashak So how do you go about getting a new phone? Find out from your service provider what deals they are offering. Because you already have a subscriber identification module (SIM) card and the reconnection fee is absorbed by the networks, you won’t have to pay for either of these otherwise hidden costs of […]
Some call burning flesh a `rite of passage’. Others say it’s an ugly throwback to slavery. But it’s a hot fashion statement, writes Lonnae O’Neal Parker Imagine a carefully fashioned coat-hanger, slow-roasted over the blue-green flame of a Magic Chef range, heading for the fleshy expanse of your upper arm, your chest or the side […]
Adam Habib: CROSSFIRE There have been a number of innovative and controversial contributions in this column and other sections of the Mail & Guardian about our failure to develop a people- centered democratic transition. First we had John Pilger’s analysis indicting the African National Congress government for taking care of the “haves” and forgetting the […]
Wonder Hlongwa The Ministry of Defence is facing a lawsuit after matric pupil Sibongiseni Zondi (19) died, allegedly as a result of being tortured by soldiers patrolling the conflict-ridden Dalton area in the KwaZulu-Natal Midlands. Witnesses say Zondi was called by the soldiers to explain a hand gesture he made to a passing army Casspir. […]
After Jackie Brown and Get Shorty he’s hot in Hollywood and hailed as a literary genius by writers like Amis and Bellow. But few realise that the king of crime fiction thinks most filmed versions of his novels have been junk. Lawrence Donegan reports In the Squad Seven room at 1300 Beaubein beats the dark […]
Phillip Kakaza Rock In black jeans and fuzzy T-shirts, four- piece band Metal Orizon could easily be mistaken for an Afro-pop band. Yet even before you see them perform, the name Metal Orizon gives you a clue as to what these funky Tswana dudes are up to. Unusually for black people, they are into heavy […]
Andy Duffy The charge of patronage politics resurfaced in the Western Cape this week amid claims that the National Party has spent more than R5-million of public money in a crude attempt to buy votes. The NP-led provincial government has doled out much of the cash – extra social services grants to homes for the […]
Tangeni Amupadhi A high court decision to extend the bail of three Afrikaner youths found guilty last week of murdering and assaulting black people has increased racial tension in the divided Upington community. Blacks in the town have criticised the bail extension as further proof of the judiciary’s lenience towards whites. The court heard the […]
Douglas Rushkoff: ONLINE No matter how much we might love to hate Bill Gates, we can’t help but have mixed feelings about the United States Justice Department and the two dozen or so states suing Microsoft for violating anti-trust laws. Fresh from their unsatisfying victory-with- no-spoils over the tobacco industry last season, US attorneys general […]
Andrew Worsdale Very infrequently does a movie stick to the top of my mouth. I’ve become inured to seeing mad-ass Hollywood rubbish, that our dear distributors launch on the stupefied public with as many as 37 prints, to satisfy movie mall “taste”. Happy Together is made by Hong Kong wunderkind Wong Kar-Wai and is released […]
Lizeka Mda Luvundu Junior Secondary School looks very familiar. After about 8km of gravel road out of Willowvale, I drive around the bend and there are the two characterless cream- coloured blocks of classrooms, joined by a shorter one for the staff room and principal’s office to make a U-shape. A new block of five […]
David Shapshak Buying a cellphone is easy. Upgrading to a new phone when your contract expires, isn’t. You can either just go out and buy yourself the latest hot item to hit the shelves, or play the sophisticated marketing game which enticed you to buy your contract in the first place: sign up for another […]
Renting or letting a property doesn’t have to be a trying experience, writes Wally Lambert You’d think we’d be sufficiently warned by the countless horror movies showing innocent-looking tenants turning nasty or happy landlords becoming heartless to think carefully when entering into a lease or rental agreement. But, whether landlord or tenant, the whole rental […]
Sechaba ka’Nkosi The South African Democratic Teachers’ Union (Sadtu) has warned there could be more disruptions in education if the ministry does not review some of its policies. This week, barely hours after the union claimed its most important victory since its inception eight years ago, Sadtu officials said there could be further strikes to […]
Derek Malcolm Not quite the movie of the week This year’s Venice festival kicked off with a new work by an old master. At least some would call Woody Allen that – rather more, as he keeps on saying, in Europe than in the United States. He was not in town for the premiere of […]
Craig Bishop Port Elizabeth business leaders, trade unionists and politicians are uncorking the champagne in anticipation of the go- ahead for development of Africa’s first deep-water port at Coega, about 7km outside the city. But a growing band of environmentalists and social critics are determined to take the fizz out of their celebrations. They are […]
Alex Sudheim On show in Durban As a storyteller, Alson Ntshangase is more of a Dostoevsky than a Wordsworth. His darkly glowing paintings betray the workings of a mind far more interested in the skull beneath than the skin above. “If I start painting a rose I feel I am wasting my paint because I […]
Two men who may be able to help the police investigation into the Bloemfontein arms heist have vanished. Marius Lamprecht, a member of the South African National Defence Force, and Drikus Haasbroek, both from Bloemfontein, were last seen in a white Ford Escort at Witpoortjie. The car has since been found abandoned. A cache of […]
TUESDAY, 8.30AM: TALKS over the looming teacher strike (see below) continued until late night, but indications on Tuesday morning are that the strike will go ahead as planned. Teachers belonging to the South African Democratic Teachers’ Union will attend school each day until 10.00AM before withdrawing. But talks, mediated by negotiator Brian Currin, will continue. […]
MONDAY, 6.30PM: THE strategic Somali town of Baidoa was on Monday once again in the hands of the militias of Hussein Mohamed Aidid, following a weekend of fighting. But the militias’ opponents, the Rahanwein Resistance Army, claim still to control the town’s airport. Baidoa is 150km north of Mogadishu and was the proposed venue for […]
Xolela Mangcu: CROSSFIRE South Africa’s transition to democracy has been framed almost exclusively in political and economic terms. The formal transition to a constitutional democracy has been followed by an even greater focus on economic growth. While all of this is understandable and desirable, relatively little attention has been given to our public values. And […]
Know your Mark Hughes from your Marcuse? With the World Cup less than a week away, even the intellectuals are muscling in on the beautiful game. Peter Lennon reports Predictably French philosophers, sociologists and literary critics are muscling in on the World Cup, peddling their cinq sous worth on the origins, motivation and significance of […]
in Swapo death camp Melissa Jones and Michael Gillard Recurring nightmares of torture have haunted Emma Kambangula for the past nine years. “In one, I am naked and being beaten with bundles of sticks by three men, while two others are restraining my daughter, Freda, who is crying, screaming and trying to run to me,” […]
David Beresford It was one of those definitive moments in South African history, a moment that Eugene de Kock had long been waiting for. His five heavily armed bodyguards had taken up nervous positions around the courtroom. PW Botha was sitting in a well-padded chair, placed next to the dock in vague acknowledgement that he […]
away Ann Eveleth The Government cannot achieve its land reform targets within existing legislative, procedural and resource limitations, according to the findings of a multi-pronged research project conducted by the National Land Committee. Market-based restrictions, misconceived legislation, narrow legal definitions and a lack of co- ordination between different government departments are some of the obstacles […]
trial Dumisani Khumalo Top Zimbabwean politicians and officials are expected to testify in the sodomy trial of former president Canaan Banana, one of the most sensational cases in Zimbabwean criminal history which got under way this week. The witness list includes Vice- President Simon Muzanda; Minister ofEJustice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Emmerson Mnangagwa; two former […]
Despite economic crises, there’s money to be made on the stock exchange, writes Mark Allix Following the plunge of the Thai baht in July last year, the volatility on global stock exchanges is starting to take on biblical proportions – particularly the hellfire-and-brimstone warnings of the Old Testament variety. The 10th Commandment on covetousness and […]
Andrew Muchineripi Soccer Bafana Bafana are just one week away from the greatest challenge of their seven-year existence. Next Friday evening in the Mediterranean port city of Marseille, they face World Cup hosts France. It will be the opening Group C match for the countries and both realise that a victory would leave them well […]
Smoking cigarettes can prevent breast cancer in women carrying rare genes that predispose them to the disease, suggests a highly controversial new study. An international team, co-ordinated by Steven Narod of the Women’s College hospital in Toronto, looked at the relationship between lifestyle and breast cancer in more than 300 women with inherited mutations in […]
Charl Blignaut On stage in Johannesburg From the parking lot already, it is obvious that this is not going to be a regular evening at the theatre. There are large, mounted candles burning outside on the lawn of the Federasie van Afrikaanse Kultuurvereenigings’s Trap der Jeugd national monument building in Cottlesloe, Johannesburg, and there are […]
Andy Duffy Sibusiso Bengu hates the spotlight, and it’s not hard to see why. Pinned down last week on prime-time TV, the minister of education resorted to pathos to get himself off the hook. “It isn’t my fault,” Bengu pleaded, after being confronted with yet more evidence that education is going down the tube. It’s […]
Sechaba ka’Nkosi A new wave of violence is threatening to uproot a fragile peace that has held together for more than four years in the East Rand squatter camp of Phola Park. The recent outbreak has been characterised by assassinations and taxi ambushes in the area, resulting in more than 20 deaths and scores of […]