Adrian Turpin Profile: Sam Rockwell To become a star every actor needs a quirk in his or her private life. A handy hook, preferably unconnected with work, something that allows people to say, “Yeah, that’s the guy who …” For Sam Rockwell, it’s what he does in bed. “My mother, let’s just say, was a […]
David Shapshak Now that Pakistan has shown the world that it could quietly purify enough plutonium for the five nuclear devices it detonated recently – and probably enough for many more – attention is turning to how to divorce nuclear weapons from nuclear power plants. And while conventional nuclear power stations have had a bad […]
Suzy Bell On show in Durban Eduoard Manet would have been proud. Reclining Olympia-like for the opening of her exhibition at Durban’s NSA Gallery was post-modernist babe – and seriously talented artist – Carol- Anne Gainer. With her deep penetrating gaze, this sensual and spiritual young artist successfully claimed her own private space in a […]
The Media Sector of the Johannesburg Stock Exchange has risen by 70% since the October 1997 crash, but growth has only begun. Last week’s announcement that the board of industrial giant Johnnies Industrial Corporation Limited (Johnnic) had voted to implement a strategic re-alignment of Omni Media Corporation Limited (Omnicor) sets the sector on a future […]
unrest Mail & Guardian reporters The army weapon and ammunition heists in Bloemfontein may have been intended to fuel instability in Lesotho. This scenario was flighted by security experts this week as police made their first arrests. Lesotho has been racked by protests since claims by opposition parties that the ruling Lesotho Congress for Democracy […]
The issue of child criminals has become a major source of embarrassment for the government, writes Andy Duffy The Western Cape is poised to scrap special schools for hundreds of child criminals, despite the growing number of children in jail. Provincial education department officials have told staff at several of the 15 reform schools and […]
Christopher Reed in Los Angeles After an acrimonious debate, the San Francisco school board has become the first in the United States to require students to read books by “authors of colour”. The measure caused conflict when proposed by two black members, who initially insisted that seven of the 10 required books on high school […]
Peter Makurube When Allen Kwela lost his beloved Gibson, the whole nation was up in arms. The daily paper Sowetan ran an article appealing to the muggers to return that national treasure. The criminals returned the guitar to the paper’s offices – intact. Kwela had been out drinking and was staggering home when a gang […]
Shopping and Fucking is definitely the most anal play of the year, though whether it is for reasons the playwright intended is debatable. As you enter the Barney Simon Theatre you enviously notice that the actors are going to lounge on a huge, Dali- esque couch, while you have to sit on a backless bench […]
Robyn Alexander, who helped curate an exhibition on the reproductive body, explains the thinking behind the show The Bringing Up Baby exhibition is part of the main programme at the Standard Bank National Arts Festival in Grahamstown. It was first conceived (and, of course, that verb is used deliberately) by its curator Terry Kurgan, during […]
FRIDAY 4.30PM: THE African National Congress has welcomed the conviction of former Civil Co-operation Bureau assassin Ferdi Barnard, but has called his comments likening his cause to that of President Mandela “presumptious”. After being sentenced to two life terms and 63 years for murder, attempted murder and fraud, Barnard said: “When President Mandela got sentenced […]
FRIDAY, 6.30PM: Ethiopian aircraft have bombed the Eritrean capital, Asmara. Two aircraft twice bombed an air force base, hitting workshops and hangars. No injuries were reported. The attack comes a day after Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi told reporters he would accept a peace plan brokered by Rwanda to end the escalating border conflict between […]
As Wall Street pats itself on the back, trouble lurks behind the boom, warn Joel Kotkin and David Friedman With the Asian dragons vanquished, Wall Street soaring to new heights and United States unemployment rates at modern lows, American elites are indulging in an orgy of self- congratulation unmatched since the Roaring Twenties. “France had […]
Shaun de Waal CD of the week In the early Sixties, Ornette Coleman spearheaded a revolution in jazz, and this is the album that gave that new movement its name. Free Jazz is one of a handful of works re- released in deluxe (that is, fiddly sleeve-within- sleeve) packaging to celebrate the 50th birthday of […]
Mukoni T Ratshitanga The African National Congress in the Northern Province this week met one of its allies, the Congress of South African Students (Cosas), in a bid to iron out differences between Cosas and MEC of Education Joe Phaahla. Relations between Phaahla and Cosas hit an all-time low last week when the provincial chair […]
The annual Loerie Awards acknowledge excellence in 18 advertising and marketing categories. But, asks Brenda Atkinson, do the ads actually work? Show me someone who hasn’t been seduced by an advert in their lifetime, and I’ll show you a badly cut pair of Levis. Much as we might hate to admit it, we are critical […]
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 […]
Douglas Rushkoff: ONLINE `They’ll come at night – especially if you’ve got an electric lamp glowing somewhere, a dead giveaway,” warned one member of an online survivalist conference. I had intended to spend the week doing extensive research for a column about the millennium bug (Y2K) – the software and hardware glitch that will prevent […]
and clothes Andy Duffy An independent probe has found that the Student Representative Council (SRC)of the troubled University of the North (Turfloop) spent more than R1,3- million last year on items such as hired cars, catering and clothes. Poor controls had also left the SRC accounts open to fraud – more than half the expenditure […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
Mungo Soggot A Canadian mining company has accused De Beers of trying to hijack its rights to mine a lucrative diamond field in the Northern Province. The company, Southern Era Resources, also believes old-guard government officials have conspired against its bid for a mining permit at the Marsfontein field. De Beers apparently passed over the […]
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 […]
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 […]
Tariq Ali: A SECOND LOOK Summer has returned to Pakistan with a vengeance. In the blistering heat of the plains the people, misinformed and miserable, are celebrating the explosion of their very own nuclear device. India had exploded a Hindu bomb. Pakistan had countered by detonating a Muslim device. Honour had been satisfied and in […]