Litnet

"And yet, of the 122 Nobel laureates in literature from 1901 to date, only 15, or 12%, are playwrights. Many, many more are the writers of fiction and novels. And at literary festival after literary festival here in South Africa, there are novelists galore and only occasionally the odd playwright."

"Grab a mug of coffee and settle down in your most comfortable chair, blanket on your knees and cat on your lap. I’m now going to tell you the unbelievable story of Athol Fugard and the Serpent Players – theatre against apartheid."

"This inquest was graced with about 20 lawyers, all presumably paid by the State. Their weekly costs must add up to more than the total compensation paid to the widows."

"Nothing this inquiry can do can bring back these remarkable men, and to put a price on their deaths seems insulting in the extreme. But it was done previously."

"Only Pinter, winner of the Nobel Prize, can match this all-round skill set – but Pinter operated in London, with possibly 50 theatres in walking distance from his home. Fugard operated from Port Elizabeth."

"No, he is not a rock star lawyer, as are some of those mentioned at the top of this note, but he is instead a humbler man who limited his financial ambitions to work rather with the needy and the under-resourced. He did great work here, at no great profit. The best of South Africa is built on such people making such sacrifices."

John Kani: "This white man is here to suck their brains out!" Athol Fugard, the Grand Man of South African Literature, will turn 92 on Tuesday, 11 June 2024. Rory Riordan is writing a biography of the man who earned the title of "the foremost active playwright in the English-speaking world".

"This note will address these developments in terms of 'Winners' and 'Losers', and of course we must begin with the first of the election’s big stories, the travails of the ANC."

Rory Riordan explains why all of us should demand that the blue team formally work with the green, black and gold team to move South Africa forward.

"Their concerns about diminishing state debt are well motivated and should be taken seriously, and their manifesto includes much of interest and many good ideas. But the last bolts need tightening, the final budget needs better costing, and they should give us, even if in appendices, much more detail about their thinking."

"Thus, these many commitments are not commitments to study and then decide on action; they are clearly phrased as actions that have been decided on, and must now be seen through. We know where we are with the EFF."

"With his having written Manifesto, his patriotism and determination to make South Africa a better place are indisputable. And his willingness to abandon an obviously successful career to see through his ideals is very unusual in a country now dedicated to 'What’s in it for me?'."

"Bradley Cooper has made a grand movie – such a pity it’s the wrong one."

"Maybe it’s good that much of it is now consolidated into one volume – but we’ve heard it so often and for so long that it is hardly now exciting."

"Stop dreaming, take on the issues in front of you, DA, and get back to talking with the ANC. There are a number of South Africa’s biggest cities that are in real trouble (I know, I live in one), and only a determined effort by both the ANC and the DA working together can pull them right."