Yearly Archives: 1999

Barry Streek The South African Law Commission has recommended that community-based dispute resolution structures, normally known as “community courts” be recognised and supported by law. In a discussion paper on community dispute resolution structures, the commission says these structures serve a useful purpose in meeting the needs of the majority of South Africans for accessible […]

Barry Streek The Film and Publication Board took some “very, very difficult” decisions last year as it cleared a backlog of some 6 000 videos, many of them porn movies, to decide whether adults should be allowed to buy them, says its CEO Dr Nana Makaula. It had to decide, for instance, whether adult choice […]

Barbara Ludman HONEY, MUD, MAGGOTS AND OTHER MEDICAL MARVELS by Robert and Michele Root- Bernstein (Macmillan) Gout reached epidemic proportions in 18th-century England among those wealthy enough to over-indulge in port. But it wasn’t the port itself that was poisoning them; it was the lead it was picking up from the casks it was stored […]

The Wilgespruit Fellowship Centre, where today’s politicians learned their negotiating skills, is once again involved in finding peaceful alternatives to violence. Jacqui Pile reports While new gun legislation has met with fierce resistance, there is one way of disposing of illegal and excess weapons which is both novel and unlikely to inspire so much antagonism. […]

Howard Barrell and Barry Streek South Africa’s reduced R21,3-billion international arms deal represents an uneasy compromise between government ministers who have been arguing over the size of the deal for the past year. The ministries of defence and of trade and industry, enthusiastic supporters of the deal, came under heavy pressure from Minister of Finance […]

A Centre for Development and Enterprise report proposes a major reconfiguration of our political landscape, argues Jeremy Cronin ‘Caesar, Napoleon I, Napoleon III, Cromwell … compile a catalogue of the historical events which have culminated in a great ‘heroic personality’,” Antonio Gramsci noted to himself, as he languished in an Italian fascist prison. “Caesarism,” he […]

CD of the week Prior to making Civilised? (Gallo), Squeal had completely ceased to exist as a band – an inevitable conclusion to a year of personnel changes, falling gig attendance and personal turmoil. All that remains of the original Long Pigs is the song-writing core of David Birch (guitar, vocals) and Brett Barnes (bass, […]

Mungo Soggot The Department of Public Enterprises is going to extreme lengths to shore up a crumbling deal with a private company to run the ailing state diamond company, Alexkor. The Minister of Public Enterprises is Jeff Radebe, and his wife, Bridget, chairs the private company involved, Nabera. For several months, Nabera has been in […]

Andy Capostagno Springbok preparations It is sad to think that the Currie Cup final has become irrelevant. Once the showpiece of the season and, at least during the isolation years, the pinnacle of many players’ careers, it now just marks the time between the end of the South African season and the beginning of a […]

Town’ Barry Streek Western Cape New National Party MEC for Social Services and Poverty Relief Peter Marais has again stirred up things, this time by saying “the market would not solve the poverty crisis in South Africa and government would have to play a more pronounced role”. Ignoring official NNP policy on the role of […]