Yearly Archives: 1999

This week’s Mail & Guardian comes with a new set of features designed to make Africa’s best read even better. l Writer, movie director and semi- retired actor John Matshikiza kicks off a new column, With the Lid Off. Those with long memories will remember this was the title of the regular column his father, […]

THE DAVID GLEASON COLUMN My word, some bunk has been written in recent weeks about the so-called sins of insider trading, ever since the new Act (no 135 of 1998) became effective – and by commentators who should know better. It seems everyone is in agreement with the general premise that once the phrase “insider […]

More and more South African artists are climbing on the video bandwagon, but Conrad Welz has been at the forefront of the genre for many years, writes Lauren Shantall `It’s about a sensory mind fuck,” says pioneering South African video artist Konrad Welz of his work. No doubt his uncompromising stance played some role in […]

bloodshed Chris McGreal The KwaZulu-Natal town of Richmond is bracing itself for another bout of bloodshed this weekend with the funerals of assassinated United Democratic Movement secretary general and warlord Sifiso Nkabinde and those killed in a revenge attack on an African National Congress family attending a funeral vigil. Nkabinde’s right-hand man and probable successor […]

Impinging, as it does, on the font of the new South Africa, the row between Judge Johann Kriegler and the government over the organisation of the next general election is obviously a matter of major concern to the country. But we cannot help but fear that it is symptomatic of an even wider and more […]

As the West Indies wind up their humiliating cricket tour of South Africa, they have very little hope of regaining their lost grandeur of the Eighties, argues Cameron Duodo No one will feel as devastated by the 5-0 whitewash of the West Indies by South Africa more than Windies captain Brian Lara. Lara ran into […]

David Shapshak and Joyce Barrett The Cape Town Olympic bid team knew an International Olympic Committee (IOC) member was “available to the highest bidder”, but it did not make use of this information to influence the bid. Caught up in the biggest corruption scandal of the IOC’s 105-year history, disgraced Swaziland IOC member David Sibandze […]

Belinda Beresford Perhaps it’s the scars of a wild youth, the aftermath of a delinquent spouse or the legacy of mismanagement of your money. But a bad credit record can have unpleasant repercussions, including failure to get a bond, credit card, store card, cellphone – all the trappings of a relatively affluent South African. It’s […]

The collapse of Tollgate, the Cape- based conglomerate of which Julian Askin was chair and principal shareholder, and the subsequent examination into its failure have produced one of the most torrid, unpleasant and seamy corporate chapters in South Africa’s history. Formerly a South African resident, Askin mixed a career as a journalist with occasional stockbroking. […]

George Hazeldon believes his proposed self-sufficient community will solve South Africa’s crime problem … for some. Chris McGreal went behind the electric fence George Hazeldon likens his vision to Mont St Michel, the ancient French monastery and fortress. Detractors dismiss the British property developer’s scheme as a fool’s paradise. Either way, the contracts are rolling […]