In contrast to the Serious Fraud Office’s spin on the fine it’s dished out to BAE Systems for bribing foreign governments to buy its weaponry – the SFO calls it a “warning” to other companies that will prevent corruption – arms deal watcher Andrew Feinstein calls the affair a travesty of justice in today’s Guardian:
The Serious Fraud Office’s settlement with BAE Systems is a travesty of justice. It is also a slap in the face for the people of the countries BAE has allegedly corrupted, the British taxpayer and the British justice system. BAE has always believed itself above the law. On Friday it proved again that it is. In October, the SFO said it was going to seek the attorney general’s consent to press overseas corruption charges against BAE after negotiations with the firm broke down. The press reported this was because the SFO wanted BAE to pay between £200m and £500m and plead guilty to corruption, while BAE was only willing to pay £20m-£30m and did not want to plead guilty.
As recently as Friday morning, the SFO team was still taking formal witness statements in relation to a multibillion-pound deal in which BAE sold jets to South Africa that its air force didn’t want and are hardly used. Over £100m in bribes was allegedly paid to agents, senior politicians, officials and political parties. The SFO felt it had a strong case.
Then out of the blue the SFO allowed BAE to plead guilty to a minor accounting offence in relation to Tanzania, and settled for £30m. It dropped its charges against individuals. There was no mention why the SFO dropped charges relating to the Czech Republic, Hungary, Romania and South Africa.
Pan Macmillan author Kevin Bloom revisits the silver screen history of Percy Fitzpatrick’s classic work, and looks ahead to the animation that’s set to be released in 2010:
When Jock of the Bushveld was first published in 1907, the public warmed to the story instantly. The narrative had all the ingredients: a runt Staffordshire Terrier who’d been saved from drowning, a good and loving master, a malicious villain, and the untamed African bush as backdrop. The book was reprinted four times before 1907 was out – a remarkable feat even by today’s standards – and it would go on to become a worldwide classic, with over 100 editions printed during the twentieth century and translations into dozens of languages.
‘n Liedjie wat Lize Beekman self op ouderdom 12 geskryf het, is deur die baas van ‘n platemaatskappy gehoor en dit het die titelsnit van Clive Bruce se album geword.
Dit was maar net die eerste hoogtepunt in ‘n indrukwekkende musiekloopbaan. Hierdie en ander gebeure in die talentvolle sanger se lewe word deur Ilza Roggeband in 50 Stemme: Die grootste name in Afrikaanse musiek vertel.
Jy kan ‘n eksklusiewe uittreksel uit Roggeband se boek op Sarie se webtuiste lees. Daar word ook oor die moeilike tye in Beekman se lewe geskryf, soos toe sy gemolesteer is. Lees ook wat Elzabé Zietsman, Amanda Strydom en Pedro Kruger oor haar te sê het.
Haar pad na sukses was ‘n lang een, maar Lize Beekman het deur die jare bewys dat sy een van Afrikaanse musiek se beste liedjieskrywers ooit is
Uittreksel: 50 Stemme – die Grootste name in Afrikaanse musiek deur Ilza Roggeband (vrygestel deur Jonathan Ball). Dis vrylik by alle boekwinkels landswyd beskikbaar teen R230.
Sy is op 22 Julie 1974 in Bellville buite Kaapstad gebore en het al kleintyd begin liedjies opmaak.
“Ek het nuwe woorde vir bestaande liedjies geskryf,” onthou sy. “Ek het byvoorbeeld ‘Ver in die wêreld Kittie’ herskryf met woorde vir my ouma Bessie. Die laaste versie was: ‘En ons is baie lief vir haar, lief vir haar, lief vir haar voorwaar.’ Ouma Bessie het in Februarie 2009 ‘n volle 102 jaar oud geword. Toe ek nog ‘n klein dogtertjie was, het dit al vir haar moeilik begin raak om kerk toe te stap. Ek sou ‘n kassetspelertjie neem en vir haar ‘preke’ opneem. Ek het ‘n stukkie uit die Bybel gelees, vir haar gepreek en dan gesing. En ek het gepréék! Vir haar presies gesê wat die versie beteken wat ek vir haar gelees het.”
People often have a very romanticized idea of writing: a novelist seated behind a sun-lit desk in Tuscany, staring at his beautiful neighbour as she walks through the olive grove… Wake up! In truth the lives of writers can be fairly humdrum, – as evidenced by that of award-winning novelist Michiel Heyns, who has some ideas about what life might be like if he wasn’t a writer. Find out what they are:
Thursday August 20: I leave my home in Somerset West at 8.50 for a reading group in Constantia. Heavy traffic on the N2 delays me, and I reach Constantia at 10.20. I squeeze my Golf in between three Mercs parked in the street. Walking up the drive, I count eight more Mercs, plus two in the garage of the host.
I am here to talk about my novel, Bodies Politic. I count 15 attendees and two copies of my novel. I talk for 40 minutes
Jonathan Ball Uitgewers nooi u vriendlik uit na die bekendstelling van 50 Stemme, ‘n opwindende versameling van die grootste name in Afrikaanse musiek deur Ilza Roggeband.
Wat het Steve Hofmeyr in Gobabis vir Juanita du Plessis gesê?
Waar was Theuns Jordaan toe hy die eerste keer “Loslappie” gehoor het?
Wat is die ooreenkoms tussen “Ou ryperd” en ABBA?
Hoekom moes Carike Keuzenkamp klere by haar buurvrou leen?
Waar het Bles Bridges die eerste keer rose by sy konserte uitgedeel?
Waar was David Kramer toe hy “Stoksielalleen” geskryf het?
Hoekom is liedjies van Cora Marie en Groep Twee deur die SAUK verbied?
Wat dink Koos Kombuis is sy grootste bydrae tot Afrikaanse musiek?
Waar is die een plek waar Mimi Coertse nooit die kans gekry hetom op te tree nie?
By wie het Rina Hugo klere geleen vir ’n internasionale sangkompetisie?
Wat is die storie agter Amanda Strydom se “Ek loop die pad” en Chris Chameleon se “Sterredank”?
Wat het ’n selfoon-luitoon met Nicholis Louw se treffer “Rock daailyfie” te doen?
Hierdie is maar net ’n paar van die interessante vrae wat in 50 Stemme: Die grootste name in Afrikaanse musiek beantwoord word. Die boek bestaan uit 50 hoofstukke – van Amanda tot Valiant, van Die Briels tot Fokofpolisiekar. Daar is onderhoude met van die grootste rolspelers in Afrikaanse musiekasook kostelike staaltjies en pragfoto’s van toeka tot nou.
50 Stemme: Die grootste name in Afrikaanse musiek is ’n boek enig in sy soort en een waarvoor musiekliefhebbers van alle ouderdomme al lank wag.
“Bravo aan Ilza vir haar vernuftigheid om met noukeurige navorsing ’n fyn balans tussen die verskeie genres te bring en met styl die waarheid ágter die waarheid en die skerms in te kloof.” – Tinus Esterhuizen, musiekregisseur: RSG
Die kunstenaars bevat:
Amanda Strydom, André Schwartz, Anneli van Rooyen, Anton Goosen, Bles Bridges, Bok van Blerk, Brasse vannie Kaap, Carike Keuzenkamp, Chris Chameleon, Coenie de Villiers, Cora-Marie, Cutt Glas, Danie Niehaus, David Kramer, Die Briels, Dozi, Eden, Elzabé Zietsman, Fokofpolisiekar, Gé Korsten, Gert Vlok Nel, Gian Groen, Groep Twee, Jan Blohm, Jannie du Toit, Johannes Kerkorrel, Juanita du Plessis, Karen Zoid, Kobus, Koos du Plessis, Koos Kombuis, Kurt Darren, Lance James, Laurika Rauch, Leon Schuster, Lize Beekman, Lucas Maree, Mimi Coertse, Min Shaw, Mynie Grové, Nicholis Louw, Patricia Lewis, Piet Botha, Rina Hugo, Robbie Wessels, Ronéll Erasmus, Sonja Herholdt, Steve Hofmeyr, Theuns Jordaan, Valiant Swart
Nelson Mandela is a devotee of African folktales, as anyone who has listened to the audio-book of his favourite fables from that genre of African literature must know.
Distributed in South Africa by Jonathan Ball publishers, the audio-book contains a wide range of tales that are read by a matching number of narrators. While entertaining their listeners, the narrators invoke empathy for Mandela's wish to preserve Africa's rich oral literature for generations of Africans to come.
Many listeners will probably ponder which of the many folktales is Mandela's favourite.
Crime novelist, film director, children’s author and award winning journalist, Margie Orford was born in London and grew up in Namibia and South Africa. She has studied under J M. Coetzee, and worked in publishing with the African Publishers Network. In 1999 she was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship and while in New York she worked on a groundbreaking archival retrieval project, WOMEN WRITING AFRICA: The Southern Volume. She lives in Cape Town, where we met recently to discuss another of her many projects: Fifteen Men, a collection of writing by South African prisoners, all of whom are serving very long sentences, with whom Margie spent a year leading a creative writing course. This book is the result. We talk here about her experience.
Jonny Steinberg is currently a fellow of the Open Society Institute in New York. In the following podcast he discusses his research and experience of policing in South Africa, engaging with Herb Sturtz:
In 2007, Jonny Steinberg spent several months accompanying police patrols in Johannesburg townships to conduct an ethnographic study of the emerging relationship between democratic South Africa's police officers and its citizens. He argues that a democratic citizenry is policed only to the extent that it consents to be, and that South Africans have yet to give their full consent to being policed. The democratic state is in a sense half-formed, according to Steinberg; there are grey zones in cities where state institutions are sucked into a logic that long precedes democracy.
This talk focused on the controversial police practice of “stop-and-search” and the broader lessons for criminal justice reforms in emerging democracies.
“Zuma’s troubles did not begin in the newsrooms nor in November 1999 when the two dreaded words ‘arms deal’ rolled off the tongue of then PAC MP Patricia de Lille,” writes journo Don Makatile, who covered the recent Journalism Dialogue held under the auspices of the Mail & Guardian and frayintermedia, which saw leading thinkers grapple with the question of the ANC president’s treatment at the hands of the media. (more…)
In contrast to the Serious Fraud Office’s spin on the fine it’s dished out to BAE Systems for bribing foreign governments to buy its weaponry – the SFO calls it a “warning” to other companies that will prevent corruption – arms deal watcher Andrew Feinstein calls the affair a travesty of justice in today’s Guardian:
‘n Liedjie wat Lize Beekman self op ouderdom 12 geskryf het, is deur die baas van ‘n platemaatskappy gehoor en dit het die titelsnit van Clive Bruce se album geword.
Hoekom wou Kurt Darren sy hare blou kleur?
