South Africa

Dr. Hoosen Coovadia is a Pediatrician in Durban, South Africa. In his practice, 40 percent of the kids he treats are HIV positive. He'll discuss the rise of HIV in South Africa and other parts of Africa where he has traveled. Coovadia will serve as the Chairman of the next World Aids Conference in the year 2000. He heads the Pediatrics and Child Health Department at the University of Natal Medical School.

Journalist David Goodman. He's written a new book about post-apartheid South Africa, "Fault Lines: Journeys into the New South Africa" (University of California Press). He tells the story of four South Africans whose lives are divided by race and/or class. Goodman has written for The New Yorker, The Nation, Boston Globe, and the Village Voice. Archbishop Desmond Tutu says of his book, "A searingly honest b

Former president of South Africa, F.W. Deklerk. He dismantled apartheid, released Nelson Mandela from prison, and later shared a Nobel Peace Prize with Mandela. Deklerk has a new autobiography, "F.W. DeKlerk: The Last Trek A New Beginning (St. Martin's Press).

World music critic Milo Miles offers a tribute to South African singer "Mahlathini". He died last week at the age of 61. Simon Nkabinde Mahlathini (nicknamed "the Lion of Soweto") was best known for his lead vocals for the group Mahlathini and the Mhaotella Queens after emerging on the international stage with the 1985 sampler The Indestructible Beat of Soweto.

South African journalist and anti-rape activist Charlene Smith. Last year, she was raped, and feared the man who raped her could have given her HIV/AIDS. Smith had a hard time obtaining the drugs that could lessen the potential of her getting HIV. Smith then wrote about her experience and helped spread awareness about rape and HIV in South Africa. Statistics say every 26 seconds, a woman is raped in South Africa-- the country with the fastest growing HIV rate. Smith continues to speak about her experience and is pushing for legal and medical reforms in South Africa.

We talk more about HIV and AIDS in South Africa with journalist Phillip Van Niekerk (fawn-KNEE-kirk). Recently, the president of South Africa, Thabo Mbeki (TAH-boh mm-BEK-eh) has become very involved in the AIDs policy in his country. Mr. Mbeki is focusing on a medical theory that states that the human immunodeficiency virus, or HIV, does not cause AIDS. Many leading scientists have criticized MR. Mbeki for wasting his time on what they see as a discredited theory about AIDS. The International AIDS conference is scheduled to be held in South Africa this summer.

South African journalists Mondli Makhanya talk about race and racism in their country in light of the upcoming U.N. conference on World Racism, which will be held in South Africa. Barrell is editor of Johannesburg Daily Mail & Guardian. Until his appointment as editor last year he was political editor of the M&G. Mondli Makhanya is the Political Editor of the Sunday Times.

We remember newspaper editor and anti-apartheid activist Donald Woods. His relationship with the slain black South African activist Steve Biko was dramatized in the 1987 film, Cry Freedom. He died yesterday in England, where he had lived for over 20 years. Well listen back to a 1987 interview.

South African surgeon, journalist and documentary filmmaker Jonathan Kaplan has treated patients in many war torn locations, including Kurdistan, Mozambique, and Eritrea. He writes about his experiences in his new book, The Dressing Station: A Surgeons Chronicle of War and Medicine (Grove Press). He began his medical career in South Africa, where he first cared for patients wounded by political violence.

South African writer, actress and first-time playwright Pamela Gien. Her off-broadway one-woman show is The Syringa Tree. It's a semi-autobiographical play about the love between two families, one black, one white. She plays 28 different characters in it.

Her new book is A Human Being Died That Night: A South African Story of Forgiveness. It's about Eugene de Kock, the commanding officer of state-sanctioned apartheid death squads. Gobodo-Madikizela served as a psychologist on South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission, and she spent many hours interviewing de Kock in prison, where he is serving a 212-year sentence for crimes against humanity. The book raises questions about the nature of evil and the limits of forgiveness.

Critic Milo Miles reviews the new documentary and soundtrack Amandla! about protest music in black communities of South Africa during the Apartheid years.

Goemaere is head of Doctors Without Borders ( Medecins Sans Frontieres) in South Africa and a leading AIDS activist for South Africa's Treatment Action Campaign. He was recently featured on a Frontline report, "AIDS Treatment for Africa: The South African Struggle," that appeared on PBS.

Kani, a South African, is best known for his apartheid-era, politically charged collaborations with playwright Athol Fugard. His new play — and his first as a solo playwright is Nothing But the Truth. It's a post-apartheid family drama inspired by the death of his brother, a poet who was killed by the South African police in 1985. Nothing But the Truth is currently playing at the Mitzi Newhouse Theatre at Lincoln Center in New York City. (This interview continues into the second half of the show).

Pieter-Dirk Uys (pronounced "Peter Dirk Ace") is known for politically charged performances, touching on AIDS and apartheid. He's described himself as a "middle-aged, fat, bald Afrikaner Jewish drag queen from Cape Town." Writing in The New Yorker, Calvin Trillin called Uys South Africa's leading satirist. He's just won an Obie Award for his one-man show Foreign AIDS, performed at the La MaMa Theater in Manhattan last year. Uys' present show is Elections and Erections, now in London at the Soho Theater.

Her new film Stander is based on the true story of Andre Stander, a young white policeman in Johannesburg, South Africa, who in the 1970s became a notorious bank robber.

A hardened young South African gang leader steals a woman's car -– then finds out her baby is in the back seat. So starts the South African film Tsotsi, which is up for an Academy Award for best foreign film.

Everybody knows jazz is an American invention that mediates between African and European musical conventions. But for decades, African and European improvisers have been forging their own bonds and hybrids, without American mediation. As a case in point, here's a newly issued historical recording by the South African-born bassist Harry Miller: Harry Miller's Isipingo: Which Way Now.

Veteran peace negotiator Padraig O'Malley worked on the conflicts in Northern Ireland and South Africa. Mac Maharaj played a role in the latter nation's anti-apartheid movement. Both took part in recent closed-door negotiations in Finland, aimed at bringing reconciliation among rival factions in Iraq.

A pioneering political leader in the fight against apartheid, for 13 years Suzman was the sole representative in South Africa's all-white Parliament to reject race discrimination. She died Thursday at 91.