JOHANNESBURG BRIEFING

OHANNESBURG BRIEFING
March 2007

News this month

The battle goes on

In response to what South Africa's public sees as rising crime levels, hundreds of thousands of people joined a text-message campaign in January calling for government action. Many complain that the criminal-justice system is ineffective, and that government officials are unaware of the problem because they enjoy the protection of bodyguards and extra security at home. Several high-profile attacks—including the murder of David Rattray, a famous historian of the Zulu war (see obituary), and the shooting of Alan Mackenzie, a project manager for Business Against Crime, in Cape Town—have heightened fears. In early February police arrested several young men on charges of raping and then murdering a 14-year-old schoolgirl in Soweto, Johannesburg's largest township.

Thabo Mbeki, South Africa's president, tried to spin the crime issue as one of “perception”, provoking public protest. Though crime has declined over the past decade, official statistics still paint a grim picture: in the year to March 2006, an average of 50 murders, 150 rapes and 35 car hijackings were reported each day, and armed robberies appear to be on the rise. Mr Mbeki changed his tune in his annual state-of-the-nation speech on February 9th, when he acknowledged his government's crime-fighting shortcomings and promised to do more.

See our tips on crime and safety in Johannesburg.

Farewell, Mama Tambo

South Africa lost a veteran of the struggle against apartheid when Adelaide Tambo succumbed to a heart attack in her Johannesburg home on January 31st, at the age of 77. Her death followed that of her husband, Oliver Tambo, an apartheid-era president of the African National Congress (ANC), in 1993; in 2006, Johannesburg's airport was renamed in his honour.

Mrs Tambo, affectionately known as “Mama Tambo”, joined the ANC as a teenager and became a respected activist and party leader. She spent three decades in exile in London, returning to South Africa only after the ANC was legalised in 1990. In 1994 she became an ANC member of parliament in the first post-apartheid elections, serving for five years. Mrs Tambo was widely admired for her strength, compassion and resolve. Among thousands of mourners at her funeral near Johannesburg on February 10th were Mr Mbeki and Nelson Mandela, the country's first post-apartheid president.

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Singing praises

February was a good month for South African music. At the annual Grammy awards ceremony in Los Angeles on February 11th, the Soweto Gospel Choir won an award for “best traditional world music”. Since it began almost five years ago, the choir has delighted audiences and collected awards from around the world. Its 26 members, all of whom hail from churches and communities in their namesake Johannesburg township, have created a unique fusion of traditional and contemporary styles, performing in six of South Africa's 11 official languages.

Ladysmith Black Mambazo, another world-famous South African ensemble, was also nominated in two Grammy categories. Alas, they went home empty-handed (though they already have two Grammys to their name). But the choir's success has given another boost to South Africa's artistic image, a year after its big win at the Academy Awards, when “Tsotsi”, a movie set in Johannesburg, won the Oscar for best foreign-language film.

Sweet sounds

South African fans of classical music have reason to be cheerful: on April 1st, the Johannesburg Philharmonic Orchestra (JPO) will become the country's third state-funded orchestra (Durban and Cape Town also have ensembles). This will end years of worry over its future and mean full-time employment for the orchestra's 43 musicians, many of whom have needed second jobs.

The orchestra, which was created in 2000 after the demise of the National Symphony Orchestra, had been living from hand to mouth. Last year the JPO successfully approached South Africa's culture minister, Pallo Jordan, for funding. Key to its campaign was the support of Cyril Ramaphosa, one of the country's best-known businessmen, who became the JPO's patron last August.

See the JPO's website.

Catch if you can
March 2007

Pieter-Dirk Uys: “Eish!”

Until March 17th 2007

Pieter-Dirk Uys is one of South Africa's most famous comics and satirists. With his new one-man show, he returns to the Market Theatre, where he staged many of his iconoclastic works, dodging censorship during apartheid. Now he targets the country's current leaders and issues, skewering black economic empowerment, the succession battle within the ruling African National Congress and Jacob Zuma, the scandal-prone former deputy president. “If P.W. Botha's government wrote me my best material during the 1980s,” says Mr Uys, “Thabo Mbeki's democratic comrades have become the best scriptwriters I could wish for.” Also expect him to revive some of his older favourites, such as his famous Evita Bezuidenhout character, a white Afrikaner socialite.

Market Theatre, 56 Wolhuter St, Newtown. Tel: +27 (0)11 832 1641 ext. 111 (box office). See the theatre's website or book online here. See also Mr Uys's website.