Litnet

"With Lammy’s help, Sir Keir could wean Pretoria off its corrosive dependency relationship with Vladimir Putin. The Labour Party’s win could have very positive implications for the new Government of National Unity in South Africa."

Artscape will also be inviting participants to play their part towards ending GBV by coming to Artscape at any time during the month of August to sign their #Step-Up for Change Pledge.

"This, then, is to invite you to get to know us – beyond the sweetheart entities that your predecessors have created and imposed on us as our representatives, beyond the gatkruipers dependent on state patronage for their lifestyles – to listen and to hear us before making big pronouncements about us or for us."

"This presents you with an important entry point at the outset of your new assignment, demystifying the notion that only new infrastructure can solve the problems of limited access."

"The bulk of the festival was held in Mark Street, a picturesque street with old nagmaalhuisies that have been bought up and restored. At the end of the street sits the Victoria Hotel, a stately venue with warm interiors to welcome travellers and conference-goers."

This month, the AVBOB Poetry Project asked the award-winning South African poet Caitlin Stobie to reflect on what aspiring poets can do to channel more surprising, richly imagined words. Read the three creative writing tips Caitlin shared and notice how your experience of writing is transformed when you apply them to your own practice.

"Colonel Jan Breytenbach, who has died peacefully in bed in his nineties, was arguably South Africa’s finest soldier in the latter half of the 20th century."

"Gaza has become the centre of the universe, the same way Soweto was the centre of the universe." A book discussion and video interview with Haidar Eid, author and professor in postcolonial studies and postmodern literature at al-Aqsa University, Gaza City.

Commando is more than a historical document; it is a literary masterpiece that transcends time. With prose that captures both the brutality and the beauty of war, Reitz weaves a narrative that resonates with authenticity and passion. As relevant today as when it was first penned, Commando has become a South African classic and stands as a testament to the indomitable human spirit in the face of adversity.

Sanjana Thakur: "Writing stories is a way for me to accept that Mumbai is a city I will long for even when I am in it; it is a way to remake ‘place’ in my mind. I feel that the Commonwealth Short Story Prize offers that chance up to all of us: to be a writer who is from ‘somewhere’, to write from inside a legacy of colonialism and migration. I am so incredibly grateful to the prize for recognising that stories are not written in a vacuum." 

"The topic of adoption by same-sex couples is a very important theme in the novel. Some of the questions posed and the fears experienced by the protagonist and his husband, I could relate to, like the vulnerability and also the sense of being scrutinised."

"As with other cases in the 'new' South Africa, where the state failed, the private sector moved in to repair damages. Today, an integrated support structure provides services to white and black farmers, and a number of joint venture projects continue the land reform programme."

"I find this fast-becoming-popular genre of interrogating history through filtered personal and family experience to be a very pleasing literary direction in our country. You’ll not see me complain if we eventually replace the political novel with it, because not only does it gently provide us with a platform to reckon with our (national) past, but it gives us tools for higher consciousness to map up our personal lives also, which is what literature is supposed to do."

"My guess is that the growing radicalism from the left will gain momentum, especially if things don’t get better. As it is now, they too are at sixes and sevens and have no workable solutions. Anger at the failures of the ANC and the betrayal of the revolutionary mandate is their only political fund. They will probably take the coming few years to unite, organise and consolidate before coming to take yet another bite out of the sinking leviathan."

Lights, camera, action! The Luitingh Alexander Musical Theatre Academy (LAMTA) is excited to present their much anticipated blockbuster dance production, Hollywood. The show is set to light up the stage from 19 to 29 June 2024 at Theatre on the Bay in Camps Bay.

Miela’s box is a 50 minute radio drama in English and Kaaps. The show will air on Cape Flats Radio, a product of the Cape Flats Stories, and Radio Eersteriver on Sunday 30 June 2024 at 8pm.

Amazwi, museum of literature, is proud to be part of the National Arts Festival 2024.

"Put differently, Zuma revived Buthelezi’s pre-1994 messaging in 2023 with a blend of false pro-black advocacy, myopic rule-by-chiefs nonsense, and promises to wannabe politicians and tenderpreneurs of a return to rent-seeking practices reminiscent of the Gupta era."

"Teachers who have used Sharkey in their classes will feel very comfortable moving on to Marked. It is a solid classroom reader. It has enough flesh on the bone to tick all the boxes of the curriculum, while offering the children a fast-paced, enjoyable read."

“We believe in the future of Afrikaans film and television, in the importance of a wide variety of voices, and in the power of stories to change people’s lives.” These are the thoughts of Waldimar Pelser, director of M-Net Premium Channels, on the 12th kykNET Silwerskerm Festival, held from 28 to 31 August this year at the Bay Hotel and Theatre on the Bay in Camps Bay.