On this day: A love story for the ages, Running Up That Hill, the last Apartheid laws abolished and slaughter at Boipatong
On this day: June 17
1631 Mumtaz Mahal dies during childbirth. Her husband, Mughal emperor Shah Jahan I, goes on to spend more than 20 years building her tomb – a symbol of great love – the Taj Mahal.
1837 Chemist and inventor Charles Goodyear obtains his first rubber patent.
1855 A heavy French/British bombardment of Sevastopol, in Crimea, kills more than 2 000.
1877 The Nez Perce Indians defeat the US Cavalry at White Bird Canyon in Idaho.
1885 The Statue of Liberty – gift from the people of France – arrives in New York City.
1928 Aviator Amelia Earhart leaves Newfoundland to become the first woman to cross the Atlantic (as a passenger).
1938 Japan finally declares war on China, a year after having invaded the country.
1939 The last public guillotining – that of a murderer – takes place in France.
1940 The liner RMS Lancastria is sunk by the Luftwaffe near Saint-Nazaire, France.
1954 Rocky 'Raging Bull' Marciano beats heavyweight boxing champion Ezzard Charles over 15 rounds. Marciano is the only person to hold the heavyweight title undefeated, with a boxing record of 49 fights, 49 wins and 43 KOs. He dies at 45 in a 1969 plane crash.
1958 Things Fall Apart by Nigerian Chinua Achebe, the most widely read book in African literature, is published.
1982 President Galtieri resigns after leading Argentina to defeat in the Falkland Islands.
1991 The last apartheid laws are abolished.
1992 The slaughter by Inkatha followers at Boipatong leaves 42 people dead.
2019 Former Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi dies after collapsing in a court.
2021 China launches its Shenzhou-12 spacecraft, with three astronauts arriving at its space station, Tiangong, 6.5 hours later.
2022 Running Up That Hill single by Kate Bush goes to #1 on the UK chart; originally released in 1985, the song was featured in sci-fi TV show Stranger Things, its record 44-year climb to the top also makes Bush, 63) the oldest female artist to score a No 1.
2024 The Philippines accuses the Chinese coastguard of 'a brazen act of aggression' after a confrontation in the contested Spratly Islands escalating the tension in the area.
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The Star
15 hours ago
- The Star
Calvin Ratladi's 'Breakfast with Mugabe' delivers a bold, haunting portrait at The Market Theatre
After a powerful debut at the 2025 National Arts Festival, Calvin Ratladi's Breakfast with Mugabe is set to make its way to the Market Theatre - bringing with it a bold, unflinching meditation on power, memory, and the ghosts that haunt leadership. The production, which drew strong responses during its Makhanda run from July 3 to 6 as part of the festival - South Africa's longest-running and most prestigious celebration of the arts - marked a significant moment for Ratladi, this year's Standard Bank Young Artist for Theatre. Based on the award-winning script by British playwright Fraser Grace, the production reimagines President Robert Mugabe not as the distant figure we've come to know through headlines and political discourse, but as a haunted man, navigating memory, grief, and the ghosts of power. In Grace's fictionalised account, loosely inspired by reports that Mugabe once sought psychiatric help for his declining mental health, we find Zimbabwe's former president in conversation with a white psychiatrist. What begins as a clinical session soon unravels into a layered exploration of trauma, nationalism, identity, and the burdens of leadership. Breakfast with Mugabe has been hailed as a 'modern-day Macbeth,' but in Ratladi's hands, the play becomes something even more personal and political. 'Never in my deepest existence did I imagine I would direct this play,' Ratladi admits. 'I read it in 2016 while I was still an undergrad. I loved the script, but it was not the kind of work I gravitate towards.' Yet something lingered. Over the years, he noticed how the themes of land dispossession, power, African culture, spirituality and ancestry echoed his own artistic concerns. The connection deepened, not just with Mugabe the leader, but with Mugabe the man. 'I was interested in who this man really was. Not the version fed to us by the media and propaganda. I wanted to know the colour of his underwear, the small decisions in his household that somehow held global consequences. These things aren't just personal, they're ancestral, psychological, spiritual.' To ground the production in authenticity, Ratladi brought on a cultural dramaturg from Zimbabwe, Professor Samuel Ravengai, an academic intimately familiar with the country's spiritual and political terrain. The dramaturg helped guide certain choices in the staging, allowing Ratladi to merge intuitive direction with lived cultural insight. 'Every moment in the show was decided,' he says. 'Sometimes I followed their advice fully, sometimes partially. But I always listened.' His cast, too, reflects this commitment to truth. Themba Ndaba brings gravitas to the role of Robert Mugabe, while Gontse Ntshegang embodies Grace Mugabe with a commanding, complex presence. Craig Jackson rounds out the principal cast as Andrew Peric, the probing psychiatrist whose sessions with Mugabe drive the psychological tension of the piece. One surprise addition was the actor cast as the president's bodyguard, Farai Chigudu, who flew in from Zimbabwe to audition. 'I asked him three times to come in, and he never once mentioned he was flying from Zimbabwe,' Ratladi recalls. 'Now he's here, in South Africa, making his theatre debut.' The production process was as intense as the script itself. With just four weeks to mount the piece, Ratladi and his team worked at an unrelenting pace, driven by what he describes as a divine plan. 'This felt like God's work. Everything aligned, cast, collaborators, and timing. Things I dreamed about years ago just started falling into place.' But why should people come see Breakfast with Mugabe? For Ratladi, the answer lies in what the play dares to confront. 'In African leadership, vulnerability is still a taboo,' he says. 'And I think this play opens up that conversation. It shows how the political and the personal are deeply intertwined, how a moment of discomfort in a leader's household can spill over and shape the fate of an entire nation.' Ratladi refers to the piece as being 'full of flaws, fear, brilliance, and brokenness.' At its heart, it's about human beings, not headlines. 'I had to guide the actors to play real people. That meant stripping away performance masks and finding emotional truth. I hope audiences leave unsettled, in the best way, questioning the cost of silence, the weight of history, and what it means to protect the myths of one's life.' Ratladi insists that Breakfast with Mugabe is far more than a biographical study; it's a meditation on the aftershocks of colonialism, the psychological toll of liberation, and the fragile humanity obscured by political power. His interpretation is steeped in African cosmology and cultural specificity, yet it echoes with a universality that resonates far beyond the continent. 'Every day I walked into rehearsal, it felt like coming home,' he says. 'Not work. Home. And we understood the politics of this continent, but also where we are now, and how this story might speak to the global moment.' He adds that the production has changed him. 'One thing this work has taught me is to trust slowness. To listen. I've learned that the most powerful moments are found in the quiet corners of a scene, in the breath before the line. It's reaffirmed my commitment to telling African stories with complexity, without simplifying our realities to fit Western expectations.' Breakfast with Mugabe will make its highly anticipated debut at The Market Theatre, where it will run from July 16 to August 10.
The Citizen
2 days ago
- The Citizen
48 hours in pictures, 6 July 2025
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The South African
3 days ago
- The South African
Brad Pitt reveals why Tom Cruise passed on Ford v Ferrari
Brad Pitt revealed why he and Tom Cruise pulled out of starring in the acclaimed racing film Ford v Ferrari . The two Hollywood icons were originally set to star in the film about the legendary 1966 24 Hours of Le Mans race. However, the project fell through over a simple yet very Tom Cruise-like reason: he wouldn't be driving enough on screen. In a recent interview with The National , Pitt explained that both he and Cruise were eager to take the wheel in the film. Cruise wanted to play Carroll Shelby, the visionary car designer. Brad Pitt aimed for the role of Ken Miles, the daring British driver. However, Cruise discovered that Shelby's character wouldn't be behind the wheel much. This didn't sit well with the star, known for performing his own high-risk stunts. 'Tom and I, for a while there, were on Ford v Ferrari with Joe [Kosinski] to direct. This was about 10 years before the guys who actually made it — and made it a great movie,' Pitt said. 'What it came down to is that we both wanted to drive. He wanted to play Shelby, and I wanted to play Ken Miles. And when Tom Cruise realised that Carroll Shelby would not be driving much in the movie, it didn't come through', according to The Hollywood Reporter The roles eventually went to Christian Bale as Ken Miles and Matt Damon as Carroll Shelby. They were cast under the direction of James Mangold. Brad Pitt's revelation gives a new perspective on what might have been a thrilling collaboration. Pitt, who recently starred in the Formula One drama F1: The Movie , also spoke about the possibility of a sequel. He admitted he would love to get back behind the wheel but acknowledged the story's focus would likely remain on the younger character Joshua Pierce, played by Damson Idris. 'Where does Sonny [Pitt's character] fit in? I'm not sure. Sonny's probably out on the Bonneville Salt Flats, setting speed records or something like that,' he said. Brad Pitt also expressed enthusiasm about potentially working with Cruise again on a follow-up to Cruise's 1990 NASCAR film Days of Thunder . 'I'd love to,' Pitt said, 'but I'm not going to hang my ass off aeroplanes and stuff like that'. This is a nod to Cruise's famously daring stunts. As Pitt put it, 'F1 is still the focus. It needs to be on Joshua Pierce and the rest of the team fighting for a championship.' But for now, fans can only imagine what might have been if Cruise had taken the wheel in Ford v Ferrari . Let us know by leaving a comment below, or send a WhatsApp to 060 011 021 1. Subscribe to The South African website's newsletters and follow us on WhatsApp, Facebook, X and Bluesky for the latest news.
