Delegates rejected the idea of a Khoisan people at a conference in Windhoek John Grobler San teachers and linguists from Namibia, Botswana and South Africa have agreed to produce a standard orthography for their language groups. At a meeting in Windhoek last week they devised a plan for the new system that will divide San […]
Cyril A Hromnk Crossfire Commenting on the closure of the Kung (Bushman) diorama in the South African Museum (“Unmaking the San”, April 6 to 12), Pippa Skotnes writes: “The challenge is not to get rid of the diorama, but to alter it … to find ways to displace and replace the stereotype it perpetuates.” She […]
Highlights from the Department of Finance briefing presented to Cabinet ministers in August 1999: l “The South African government is fully exposed to the depreciation of the rand against foreign currencies, which account for about 75% of the total purchase amount. There is no effective means of hedging the currency risk inherent in the procurements.” […]
John Stremlau a second look Twenty years after the first nuclear explosion Albert Einstein issued his famous lament about politics falling behind physics. “The unleashed power of the atom,” he warned, “has changed everything save our modes of thinking and we thus drift toward unparalleled catastrophes.” Africa’s contributions to the nuclear age were poignant but […]
Several years ago we asked the same question:Is Thabo Mbeki fit to rule? At the time, it elicited a furious response from African National Congress representatives and a coterie of others keen to ingratiate themselves with the heir apparent to Nelson Mandela. It was deemed an unfitting question, insulting, arrogant and predictably racist. Today we […]
Eastern Cape Branches in the provinces are unsure whether Makhenkesi Stofile will be available for the position of African National Congress chair at the next provincial congress. Stofile had indicated in the local media last year that he would not be available. Should he stand, the feeling is that Stofile, who replaced Raymond Mhlaba as […]
Bruce Whitfield looks at some of the first quarter’s biggest disappointments The first quarter of this year saw a range of financial, industrial and technology shares take a pounding on the JSE Securities Exchange. There was not a single resources stock among the bottom feeders this time. The worst-performing share in the first quarter was […]
Leadership battles are emerging in the ruling party. Jaspreet Kindra reports Former African National Congress Youth League leader James Nkambule, who is in the witness protection programme, told the Mail & Guardian this week that former Mpumalanga premier Matthews Phosa was aspiring to stand for the position of the party president next year. Nkambule, who […]
Mail & Guardian reporters The Cabinet signed off South Africa’s R50-billion arms deal despite being warned of serious repercussions the buying splurge could have on the country’s economy. In August 1999, the Department of Finance stopped just short of advising the Cabinet not to proceed with the package on the scale proposed because of the […]
Shaun de Waal CD OFTHEWEEK Clint Mansell’s score for the film Requiem for a Dream (Nonesuch) contributed in no small measure to the devastating impact of that nerveshredding tale of addiction. It works very well, even separated from the movie, employing a mode somewhere between Philip Glass and Bernard Hermann, with some very original twists. […]
Thebe Mabanga LIVINGSTONE’S TRIBE: A JOURNEY FROM ZANZIBAR TO THE CAPE by Stephen Taylor (Flamingo) One of the many striking observations that Stephen Taylor makes in this book is about Africabased correspondents for the predominantly Western media. “As a tribe,” he says, “journalists in Africa dwell amidst the sweetest landscapes, live off the finest pasture […]
Melvyn Minnaar Drive over the famously precipitous Swartberg Pass and, instead of carrying on to the beautiful village of Prince Albert, take the R328 north,?back towards Klaarstroom. Old people call this Die Gang (The Passage), a?beautiful, fertile valley along the steep mountains. This is where some of the finest wine grapes may come from in […]
What would the South African tourist industry be selling today if it didn’t have the relics of apartheid to offer? Matthew Krouse Marketing brutality is good for tourism. The revenue a country can take from promoting understanding of its darkest hours can certainly rival what it can cream off its sex industry and its natural […]
Peter van der Merwe John Platter South African Wine Guide 2001 edited by Phillip van Zyl (Andrew McDowall) Wines and Vineyards of South Africa by Wendy Toerien (Struik) The Sunday Telegraph Good Wine Guide 2001 by Robert Joseph (Dorling Kindersley) Wine snobbery is a puzzling phenomenon, to say the least. Let’s face it, few can […]
Piers Pigou CROSSFIRE Although last week’s decision by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s (TRC) amnesty committee to grant Robert McBride and five others amnesty for the bombing of the Why Not and Magoos beachfront bars in Durban on June 14 1986, which resulted in three dead and more than 70 injured, was perhaps predictable, it […]
Matthew Krouse review OFTHEWEEK As a prelude to Sweat on Somerset, upon entering the Barney Simon Theatre in Johannesburg one encounters two makebelieve hookers lounging about in the audience, ready to make small talk with the patrons. This is an obvious effort to authenticate the upfront experience of steamers when they first step into any […]
Andrew Muchineripi soccer If ever there was a tournament that is Bafana Bafana’s bte noire, it is the Confederation of Southern African Football Association (Cosafa) Cup. Not once has our national team reached the final of this tournament, let alone win it and the R500 000 or more that goes to the conquering country. As […]
Tracy McVeigh Body Language It could be something in the cocoa or too much titillation on Coronation Street: Britain’s pensioners are shedding their cardigans and getting down to it. But the men and women who began the sexual revolution as twentysomethings in the late 1950s are not only finding new passion and partners in their […]
Johannesburg architects Jeremy Rose and Phill Mashabane recently won the Robben Island architectural competition Yvette Gresl In postapartheid South Africa Robben Island has taken on a dual significance. It is a contradictory symbol of extreme political subjugation and, in the words of Ahmed Kathrada, the “triumph of the human spirit”. Nelson Mandela, as a symbol […]
Nawaal Deane In a desperate attempt to get rid of the worst outbreak of algae in 20 years, Hartebeespoort Dam residents have come up with an innovative solution: a floating bulldozer. In February a few residents ó tired of the stench and the complaints ó formed the Water Action Group in an attempt to clean […]
Mail & Guardian reporter South Africa’s wine industry has taken another step towards transformation and global competitiveness with the conclusion of a 21month review and the adoption of recommendations ranging from affirmative action and quality?control to logistical support.? This process comes in the wake of longstanding accusations that established growers and exporters’ monopolies are favoured […]
Riaan Wolmarans 206, 206 Louis Botha Avenue, Orange Grove. Special K is on the list for Friday April 27, and 206 is closed on Saturday April 28. Tuesdays:The Garage Zero, Kid Fonque and others play drum’n’bass, hiphop, twostep and deep house. Website: www.206live.co.za. Tel: 728 5333. Amazon, Banbury Cross shopping centre, corner of Hans Strijdom […]
Thuli Nhlapo Angry residents of Msawawa informal settlement near Kya Sands this week expressed their disappointment in the justice system and vowed to take the law into their own hands. This follows a shocking incident two weeks ago where Douglasdale police allegedly set a suspected rapist free, claiming he jumped through a window. “The women […]
Melvyn Minnaar In the past those who fancied themselves in the frontline of the vintage would have been sipping brandnew “nouveau” wines with their autumn braais right now. Bubbling with fresh fruit and nifty modern winemaking methods ?this fad of getting new wine out under the new vintage label has mercifully?faded around here. In a […]
Ntuthuko Maphumulo horse racing The sport of kings has given 21-year-old Monnapula Denicious Smith the sort of opportunity most youngsters just dream of. He is to be the first black apprentice jockey to leave South Africa to compete in the ninth annual Macau apprentice jockeys’ race meeting on the island near Hong Kong on May […]
Alex Sudheim Bargo, 15 Mitchell Crescent, Greyville racecourse. Durban’s nattiest nightclub provides a seamless combination of live music and clubstyle DJ action this week, kicking off on Thursday April 26 with a concert featuring, for the first time in Durban, Cape Town electronica legends Moodphase 5ive, Krushed & Sorted, Felix Laband and DJ Honey B. […]
Alex Sudheim Art Engine Studio, Lost World nursery, Ramsgate. This exciting new art space on the South Coast of KwaZuluNatal opens its inaugural exhibition on Friday April 27. The Children’s Story is a remarkable and inspiring exhibition of 100 images created by children in the ghetto of Terezin in World War II Prague. Appropriately opening […]
While England run free, Romania struggle against all odds to keep rugby alive Eddie Butler The last time I saw Florica Murariu was one lunchtime in Bucharest. He was on television. Not that he was doing anything. One of the finest forwards of his generation, one of the key players in the Romanian side that […]
The institution won’t adopt the World Commission on Dams’s guidelines on resettlement and indigenous peoples David Le Page What appears to be a small, undeclared spat between the World Commission on Dams (WCD) and the World Bank could dramatically affect the future of millions of people. The World Bank is backing down from fully adopting […]
Marianne Merten Since 1996 several wine estates have introduced black empowerment by, for example, allocating shares to farm workers. But research has found these schemes often flounder because the newly empowered workers lack business skills. Another key shortfall is?the lack of visible shortterm benefits for weekly wage earners who have?to wait for a return on […]
Michelle Matthews 8Tease Fever, Eikestad mall, Stellenbosch. On April 30 (yes, there’s another public holiday on Tuesday) Nick E Louder, Richard Carter, Carsens and Dexter club each other with their DJ bags over who plays the best commercial dance music Cape Town or Stellenbosch? Ringside seats cost R20. Adrenalin, 38 Neptune Street, Paarden Island. There […]
Michelle Matthews Alliance Franaise, 155 Loop Street. Steve Daly, a twotime Emmy Awardwinning documentary producer for CNN, presents images from Nepal and Tibet. Until April 31. Tel: 423 5699. Arts Association of Bellville, Library Centre, Carel van Aswegen Street, Bellville. Cristina Bryer holds a ceramics exhibition, called Sacred Geometry, in the Vestibule Gallery. The association […]