The Sunday Independent (South Africa) back issues from November 2008:
Laughter is never a drag.(Life)
Nov 02, 2008 ... Okay, so you'd expect South Africa's "most famous white woman" to be holding court in a little sequinned number in the foyer of this major Cape Town hotel, but instead of a glamorously dressed "tannie" I'm greeted by a man in a beanie. Pieter-Dirk Uys is a man who has the unique ...
Life after the genocide; Fourteen years after nearly a million people were slaughtered in Rwanda, the nation is prosperous and peaceful, writes Jeremy Jowell.(Life)
Nov 02, 2008 ... It's a steaming hot day in the Rwandan village of Nyamata, but a cold chill runs through me as I stand in the silent church and listen to Charice Mugabe telling his horrific tale. "I was just nine years old when I watched my entire family being killed inside this church. The ...
Hats, horsesand history; The Morija Arts and Cultural festival has something for all - even dinosaur footprints, writes Genevieve Swart.(Life)
Nov 02, 2008 ... The first thing I notice is the hats. This is not Ascot, so there are no ladies in ostrich feathers, but a crowd of men wearing everything from gumboots and jeans to big patterned blankets. It's race day at the Morija Arts and Cultural Festival, so you might expect the headgear of choice ...
Steamy? No, just pleasant romantic mush.(Life)
Nov 02, 2008 ... About those Nights in Rodanthe: they're about as steamy as a cup of tea. But it's not for a lack of trying. Paul Flanner (Richard Gere) meets Adrienne Willis (Diane Lane), the temporary proprietress at his bed and breakfast, gives her his heart and love letters ensue. Sample: ...
Savour a great whisky experience.(Life)
Nov 02, 2008 ... Tickets for this year's FNB Whisky Live Festival, in association with our sister newspaper The Star and Kaya FM, are now on sale. The festival runs from November 5 to 7 at the Cape Town International Convention Centre and at the Sandton Convention Centre in Johannesburg from ...
Bond does a quantum leap.(Dispatches)
Nov 02, 2008 ... It's the 22nd Bond film and the first to be a sequel, but when Quantum of Solace opens it will be to unprecedented hype. Daniel Craig's first outing as the secret agent in Casino Royale not only produced Bond's highest-ever box office takings, it was also nominated for eight Baftas and ...
Dreams sometimes become reality.(Life)
Nov 02, 2008 ... I was talking to Barack Obama about the simple things in life. At one stage, he moved over to ask what material my bag was made of. We engaged in banter and his intelligence kept me enraptured throughout. I scrambled for pen and paper. "Barack Obama is likely to be the next ...
Ne-Yo tips his hat to the Rat PackThe performer celebrates the Year of the Gentleman with sartorial aplomb, writes Emili Vesilind.(Life)
Nov 02, 2008 ... Gliding across the stage, crooning "come closer" over a driving beat, he manhandles the microphone stand like a modern-day James Brown. Only without the polyester jumpsuit. Ne-Yo, the R&B triple-threat singer, performer and songwriter, is rocking a steel-grey Tom Ford shark skin suit, a ...
Natty men of R&B set fashion trends.(Life)
Nov 02, 2008 ... BYLINE: Emili Vesilind The men of R&B don't always look as dapper as Ne-Yo, but they certainly started out that way. Below, some of the most memorable male looks from the past several decades - from the supremely natty to the utterly cringeworthy. Sharp-dressed men ...
Leaping over low notes.(Life)
Nov 02, 2008 ... The theatrical debut of the monster Disney Channel hit High School Musical raises several urgent questions: will the TV movie franchise translate to the big screen? Will Troy (Zac Efron) stay in New Mexico to play basketball for the local university or go to New York to be the Romeo of ...
Midas touch won't protect reticent Rothschilds from scandal.(Dispatches)
Nov 02, 2008 ... BYLINE: William Langley One by one, they have tried their luck, the historians, biographers and chroniclers of power who would explain the Rothschilds to the rest of us. But they are dealing as much in myth as in fact, and tend to stall on the same core question: how is such a ...
Republicans could soon be an endangered species.(Dispatches)
Nov 02, 2008 ... BYLINE: Anne Applebaum With the election just days away, the United States presidential campaign is getting louder, nastier and more dramatic. And loudest, nastiest and most dramatic of all are those on the Right, who are putting their last and best efforts into proving that ...
Women are transforming Rwanda; They hold the majority in Parliament and they're getting rid of the country's sexist laws.(News)
Nov 02, 2008 ... BYLINE: Stephanie McCrummen Kigali, Rwanda - On a continent that has been dominated by the rule of men, this tiny East African nation is trying something new. Here, women are not only driving the economy - working on construction sites, in factories and as truck and ...
Mphahlele knew that change would take place in his lifetime.(Dispatches)
Nov 02, 2008 ... BYLINE: Maureen Isaacson On July 15 1957, a writer in The Star newspaper who went under the name "The Man on the Reef" described Es'kia Mphahlele's journey from "ragged, barefoot goatherd" to Drum fiction editor and master of arts (MA) graduate from the University of South ...
UN staff fully behind Obama after an era of Republican disdain.(Dispatches)
Nov 02, 2008 ... BYLINE: Colum Lynch There are no "Obama 2008" badges, banners or T-shirts visible at the United Nations headquarters in New York, but it might be difficult to find a sliver of territory in the United States more enthusiastic over the prospect of the Illinois senator winning the ...
Targeting crime at the root; Without robbery and its spiralling effects, South Africa's alarming crime rate would be measurably lower, writes Todd R Clear.(Dispatches)
Nov 02, 2008 ... Alarm about crime in South Africa accompanies a nationwide doubt about the capacity of the government to do anything about it. Police are seen as weak and the judiciary and penal systems are perceived not to work. The recent review of the criminal justice system says what ...
An outstanding writer, humanist and friend.(Dispatches)
Nov 02, 2008 ... Es'kia Mphahlele. Zeke and Nadine have been special friends for more than 50 years. And now he has gone. Zeke and I met when we were very young and I believe neither of us had known a relationship of the immediate nature of ours, before. We were officially branded as ...
Hamba kahle Ntate Zeke Mphahlele.(Dispatches)
Nov 02, 2008 ... Es'kia Zeke Mphahlele died suddenly in hospital this week in Lebowakgomo, Limpopo, at the age of 88. His death has left South Africa bereft of one of its brave fathers and teachers. He is deeply mourned both in South Africa and internationally. The following are tributes from ...
Pulitzer Prize-winning newspaper abandons print to go exclusively online.(Dispatches)
Nov 02, 2008 ... BYLINE: Michael Hiltzik and Tiffany Hsu The century-old Christian Science Monitor said this week it would discontinue its daily print edition next April and move almost exclusively to online publication, becoming the first major newspaper in the United States to abandon a daily ...
Improbable tale of forgiveness.(Dispatches)
Nov 02, 2008 ... Easy Nofemela remembers the evening Amy Biehl died. Coal stoves from township shacks had painted the twilight a sooty grey, signalling a cold winter's night. Guguletu's main road throbbed with cars. And a mob of angry young men was looking for symbols of white rule to destroy. ...
Future looks bleak for education system.(News)
Nov 02, 2008 ... BYLINE: Jonathan Jansen The numbers do not look good. For the approximately 10 million youth in the age bracket 15 to 25 years, every indicator from health to education to employment looks miserable. HIV prevalence stands at 10,3 percent for young men and 16,9 ...
Nuclear reactor has strategic importance.(News)
Nov 02, 2008 ... Muna Lakhani's concern (Letters, October 26) regarding the escalating cost of the pebble bed modular reactor (PBMR) is understandable, his other worries much less so. What has not adequately been communicated to the public is the strategic importance of this project. Not only ...
Send Bush into exile for his ignorance.(News)
Nov 02, 2008 ... As refreshing as it was to see Robert Fisk back in The Sunday Independent ("If only we'd listened to the voices of the past", October 26), I am constrained to inquire if he was serious about asking if President George Bush, a man who saddled his country and others in major unwinnable ...
A tale of two very different Husseins.(News)
Nov 02, 2008 ... In less than a week, the United States will elect a new leader, who is likely to be Barack Obama, whose middle name is Hussein. Since the ignominious defeat of the other Hussein in Baghdad, whose dethronement followed a carefully crafted script drafted in the White House, ...
Ne-Yo tips his hat to the Rat PackThe performer celebrates the Year of the Gentleman with sartorial aplomb, writes Emili Vesilind.(Life)
Nov 02, 2008 ... Gliding across the stage, crooning "come closer" over a driving beat, he manhandles the microphone stand like a modern-day James Brown. Only without the polyester jumpsuit. Ne-Yo, the R&B triple-threat singer, performer and songwriter, is rocking a steel-grey Tom Ford shark-skin suit, a ...
Win a trip to a tented camp in the Kruger.(Life)
Nov 02, 2008 ... In our latest Sunday Independent Travel Club competition one lucky member and a partner will win a two-night getaway for two sharing at Nkambeni Tented Camp in the Kruger National Park. This prize includes bed and breakfast and one night drive for two during your stay. ...
Who's the real victor in Bush/Bin Laden war?(News)
Nov 02, 2008 ... If Osama bin Laden is "a marginalised figure of exaggerated importance (as well as self-importance)" ("One election player has been overlooked: Osama bin Laden", October 26), whose al-Qaeda has "in the seven years after 9/11 ... been unable to launch a single follow-up attack on the US ...
Opposition parties lack conviction.(News)
Nov 02, 2008 ... Some really disappointing revelations are unfolding in South Africa today. And it is not so much the hiatus in the ruling party that is revealing but rather the disappointing and mediocre responses of the opposition parties across the board. Listening to them attempting to deal ...
Press should watch out for spin doctors.(News)
Nov 02, 2008 ... I wonder if your politics team has learnt any lessons from its coverage of the parliamentary vote on the legislation that disbanded the Scorpions? On Sunday October 19, as the legislation was being prepared for discussion, The Sunday Independent boldly predicted: "50 MPs set to ...
Birthday greetings for our beloved Mama Sisulu.(News)
Nov 02, 2008 ... Mama Albertina Sisulu, a fearless fighter and a liberator, turns 90. A disciplined and loyal wife of Walter Sisulu, she represents one of many daughters of the ANC who have contributed immensely to the liberation of black people and women in particular. The Sisulus have been a ...
ANC must not forget special voters.(News)
Nov 02, 2008 ... Americans are voting on November 4 and elderly and disabled citizens in all states have had special votes, which assures the government that everyone possible has voted and that their right to vote has been guaranteed. What is happening in South Africa in 2009? Will we be left ...
From Down Second Avenue by Es'kia Mphahlele.(Dispatches)
Nov 02, 2008 ... "No use trying to put the pieces together. Pieces of my life. They are a jumble. My father's image keeps coming back, only to fade. I can't think of him but as a harsh, brutal and cold person. Like his mother. And that brutal limp of his. The smell of the paraffin from the stove and the ...
Possible cure for multiple sclerosis discovered.(News)
Nov 02, 2008 ... BYLINE: Jeremy Laurance Scientists have made a dramatic leap forward in the treatment of multiple sclerosis with the discovery of a drug that not only halts the disease but can also reverse it. The discovery is being hailed as the biggest advance against the ...
Scientists launch project to post personal DNA on the internet.(News)
Nov 02, 2008 ... Los Angeles - The search is on for more than 100 000 participants to enrol in one of the most extraordinary interactive research programmes ever launched. The call is for participants, whether they be in Dubai or Dubrovnik, to allow their personal genome sequences to be presented on the ...
New commitment to tackle Aids; Secretariat has been moved from health department and is expected to improve efficiency.(News)
Nov 02, 2008 ... BYLINE: Anso Thom Under the new political dispensation, for the first time there has been consensus in tackling HIV/Aids, Mark Heywood, the South African National Aids Council (Sanac) deputy chairman, told business leaders in Cape Town this week. Speaking on the ...
Exactly how much 'education' can a golfer buy with $80m?(Sports)
Nov 02, 2008 ... Can it really be true that 23-year-old Anthony Kim signed an $80-million deal with Nike after his heroics in the Ryder Cup? Half that would be an awful lot of greenbacks. Even a 10th would be more than enough to set someone up for life. The amount of money being paid to high-profile ...
Business fuels the bloody war in Congo.(News)
Nov 02, 2008 ... BYLINE: Johann Hari The deadliest war since Adolf Hitler marched across Europe is starting again - and if you are a Westerner you are almost certainly carrying a blood-soaked chunk of the slaughter in your pocket. When we glance at the holocaust in the Democratic Republic of the ...
Where life depends on cash in hand; Harare's main hospital is a place of death as people struggle to raise funds for treatment.(News)
Nov 02, 2008 ... BYLINE: Special Correspondent and Peta Thornycroft Benson Mambo, a 40-year-old accountant, roamed the corridors of Harare's biggest hospital, occasionally stopping, moaning quietly, and waving his hands in the air when his situation became too much to bear. His ...
Counting his chickens too soon; Obama's latest TV ad would have you believe he's already president, but he should beware the lessons of history.(News)
Nov 02, 2008 ... BYLINE: DAVID JONES The Great Black Hope is coming and his victory parties have already been planned. In baseball parks and school gyms all across the United States, giant TV screens have been erected and stars and stripes bunting strung up. Thousands of invitations ...
Perky Palin packs a punch ofpickled venom.(News)
Nov 02, 2008 ... BYLINE: Andrew Gimson Sarah Palin is the perkiest politician in the United States. As she stepped on stage at her rally in Chillicothe, Ohio, she looked straight out of a 1950s Hollywood comedy: a sassy woman who was not going to do anything outrageously indecent, but was ...
Our politics would lay Obama low.(News)
Nov 02, 2008 ... While South Africa's political enemies have been at each other's throats, the world has been watching in anticipation as Barack Obama bids to become the first black person to make it to the White House. Americans go to the polls on Tuesday with Obama, the leader of the ...
Food prices bite into budgets; Lower-income households, in particular, battle to pay for their daily bread, says report.(News)
Nov 02, 2008 ... BYLINE: Edwin Naidu The spiralling cost of food is having a dire effect on local households, more than half of which earn less than R2 000 a month. Out of this, more than R600 is spent on food and non-alcoholic drinks, according to the South African Food Cost Review. ...
'Spooked' girl hanged herselfin her sleep, family claims.(News)
Nov 02, 2008 ... BYLINE: LUKE SALKELD A teenager may have hanged herself while sleepwalking after becoming "spooked" by stories of a recent suicide in her flat, an inquest heard. Carissa Glenn, 18, told her family she was having repeated nightmares about a woman who had apparently ...
No half measures for Shilowa; 'We want to be in the government in 2009; we're not doing this to be the opposition'.(News)
Nov 02, 2008 ... BYLINE: Fiona Forde "This participatory democracy we have seen in the past two-and-a-half weeks must not end at the convention," Mbhazima Shilowa says. "This is just the beginning of a new South African party that will be rooted in the majority of our people, all of them, black ...
Mbeki poured out his heartbreak in letter to Zuma - I know how he felt.(News)
Nov 02, 2008 ... Once I had, not a farm in Africa, but a boyfriend, a white Anglo-Saxon Protestant sort who had attended a good school, called Peter Pumpkin-Eater. He was called that, not the school, which was Michaelhouse or Bishop's or St John's, or something equally tedious. And ...
Blast! All I wanted was a ciggie.(News)
Nov 02, 2008 ... BYLINE: CHRIS BROOKE Working in the field of energy-saving, it seemed logical for Peter Tidbury to buy a "green" car powered by liquid petroleum gas (LPG). He had the second-hand Peugeot 607 checked over twice by garage mechanics before he got behind the wheel. But, ...
Mayor faces R2m penalty; Trek memorial destroyed without authorisation, say successful high court applicants.(News)
Nov 02, 2008 ... BYLINE: Tshwarelo eseng Mogakane The mayor of Lekwa, in Standerton, Mpumalanga, Queen Radebe-Khumalo, might have to fork out about R2 million to rebuild a Great Trek memorial that she ordered be destroyed, allegedly without authority. The Pretoria high court ruled ...
The day democracy came of age.(News)
Nov 02, 2008 ... A political event taking place in South Africa this weekend has written itself into our history books. Men and women gathered at the Sandton Convention Centre yesterday and today to talk and take decisions that will permanently alter the political landscape in this country. The ...
And in the United States...(News)
Nov 02, 2008 ... Four years ago the American people condemned themselves and the rest of the world to another term of George W Bush and his dangerous band of neoconservatives. On Tuesday these same voters have the opportunity to bring a ray of light to a world on the brink of recession by voting ...
Mpofu wants his job back; Suspended SABC boss says claims of R15 million payout are just rumours.(News)
Nov 02, 2008 ... BYLINE: Edwin Naidu In spite of the rumour mill, Dali Mpofu, the suspended SABC boss, says he is not demanding a R15 million payout to leave the troubled broadcaster and just wants his job back. "Why should I look for a settlement? I am receiving my salary, I have ...
SA's Sachs to hear appeal.(Sports)
Nov 02, 2008 ... New Delhi - South African judge Albie Sachs will hear the appeal of India opener Gautam Gambhir against his one-match suspension for elbowing Australia bowler Shane Watson. Sachs has been appointed by the ICC, which said in a statement Saturday that the details of the hearing would be ...
Baloyi certain Downs can keep PE boys at bay.(Sports)
Nov 02, 2008 ... BYLINE: Jonty Mark Sundowns' mega-rich superstars have been a little slow out of the blocks this season, but they certainly shouldn't need any motivating for a shot at redemption against Bay United in the Absa Premiership this afternoon. United caused the cup upset ...
Botha's boys put big picture in focus; Duminy star shines, but skipper says team a work in progress.(Sports)
Nov 02, 2008 ... BYLINE: Stuart Hess South Africa are seeking a gradual rather than rapid improvement in their play as they build into the new season. So, while there were elements of their 159-run win over Kenya in Bloemfontein on Friday night that need work, they're not going to ...
Going the extra mile.(Sports)
Nov 02, 2008 ... The Charity Mile was held at Turffontein yesterday with sports personalities and celebrities gathering to raise money for, well, charity, through a horse race that was - yes, you guessed it - a mile long. At a pre-event cocktail party at Emperors Palace on Friday night, Jake White, Oscar ...
Unappetising topic over lunch with a cyclist.(Sports)
Nov 02, 2008 ... At the announcement in Paris last week of the route for the 2009 Tour de France, Claudio Corti, the manager of Team Barloworld, the South African-sponsored international squad, was asked by journalists how his team had dealt with the positive doping test that had hit them hard during this ...
A batting legend speaks his mind; It's sad, he says, that so many former giants of SA cricket aren't being used.(Sports)
Nov 02, 2008 ... The hand that once guided a piece of willow onto leather, sending it streaking to the boundaries of the cricketing world, was used expressively to make a point. If, said Graeme Pollock, that long ago era of the 1960s to 1970 was one of South African cricket's finest, graced as ...
Opposition parties open to alliances with Shikota's ANC rebels.(News)
Nov 02, 2008 ... BYLINE: CHRISTELLE TERREBLANCHE What happens now? Is this weekend's national convention the birth of a new kid on the political block, one with the muscle to dent the dominance of the 96-year-old ruling ANC? And by when? "Possibly" and "soon" are the most ...
Applause, cheers for critical Pityana.(News)
Nov 02, 2008 ... BYLINE: Deon de Lange and Christelle Terreblanche Barney Pityana, the vice-chancellor of the University of South Africa, has delivered a blistering critique on the state of politics in South Africa, slamming "bully-boy" tactics, a lack of tolerance, the absence of ideals and an ...
'This is not a time to sing about machine guns'.(News)
Nov 02, 2008 ... BYLINE: ANDISIWE MAKINANA Opposition political parties present at the convention said they welcomed the Shikota breakaway as good for the country's fledgling democracy - but they couldn't resist using the platform for a bit of electioneering for themselves and to get in some ...
Boks get a friendly warning; 'Wales have marked this Test as the one they need to win'.(Sports)
Nov 02, 2008 ... BYLINE: MIKE GREENAWAY Cardiff Sharks fullback Stefan Terblanche is in Cardiff visiting his former teammates at leading Welsh club Ospreys and, when the Springboks arrived in town yesterday, he had words of warning for his fellow-South Africans. "The Welsh guys tell ...
On-fire Mathebula sets up Chiefs' win.(Sports)
Nov 02, 2008 ... BYLINE: Jonty Mark Loftus Versfeld Kaizer Chiefs (2) 3 Schalkwyk 12, Letsholonyane 34, Torrealba 71 AmaZulu (0) 0 In many ways, David Mathebula epitomises the Kaizer Chiefs side of the last few seasons. The Amakhosi midfielder, like his team, is ...
Fired-up Ntini snares six of the best.(Sports)
Nov 02, 2008 ... BYLINE: PATRICK COMPTON Durban Makhaya Ntini continued his rich vein of form in the SuperSport Series when he grabbed 6/85 - his second five-wicket haul in three matches - to put the Warriors firmly in control of their game against the Dolphins at Kingsmead yesterday. ...
Wonder chip keeps alive Westwood's money title hopes.(Sports)
Nov 02, 2008 ... Sotogrande - Lee Westwood put himself in a commanding position to snap up the Order of Merit title after another rain stoppage yesterday threatened to shorten the Volvo Masters with the Englishman sitting only one shot behind joint leaders Soren Kjeldsen and Sergio Garcia. ...
Shikota Express fires up; Rebel party convention draws enthusiastic crowd eager to slam the ruling ANC.(News)
Nov 02, 2008 ... BYLINE: Political Staff A major aim of the proposed South African National Congress party (SANC) will be a sweeping change to the country's electoral system, aimed at keeping "democracy" and the country's constitutional values "safe for all citizens". This emerged ...
Birthday party with Rainbow Nation guest list.(News)
Nov 02, 2008 ... BYLINE: Deon de Lange, Jeremy Gordin, and Andisiwe Makinana The Shikota Express's national convention started late and the organisers frightened journalists by telling them that they would never get into the convention hall. But that was the only bad news. ...