Gail Smith With everyone clamouring for the attention and income of the youth market (the black is silent), The Kwaito Storm is an event-in-waiting. Set to take place on Saturday night, October 31, at Johannesburg’s Electric Workshop, it promises to bring together some of the hippest, most happening of the blackoisie, kwaito’s latest and greatest, […]

Ann Eveleth: IN THE ACT The public health system must have heaved a sigh of relief when the Cape High Court turned down a challenge to Minister of Health Nkosazana Zuma’s Medical Schemes Bill. Cleared of the legal hurdle created by Business South Africa’s attempt to shift the debate into the National Economic Development and […]

Thomas Olver THE MOMENT by Stefanus Stephanus Nel (Mortem Post) The realm of “experimental writing” is littered with the burnt-out corpses of many a poor volume of poetry or stories. So it is gratifying to discover new colour (albeit it black and white) in the local literary landscape. Stefanus Stephanus Nel’s booklet is such a […]

Things are changing at Nasa. In October it saw the launch of a spacecraft with an engine that thunders with all the force of a small piece of paper resting on your hand. But, according to researchers working on the mission, the almost imperceptible thrust of this ion drive could be the key to the […]

Ferial Haffajee Minister of Finance Trevor Manuel will unveil the 1999 state spending plan on November 2, removing the surprise factor from next year’s budget. The event will mark the change from annual to multi-year planning, and is one of the significant post-apartheid changes made by the Department of Finance. Monday’s announcement of a medium-term […]

Justin Arenstein Mpumalanga’s government battened down the hatches this week and refused to release any information about its dealings with a shadowy business network reported to be channelling funds into the African National Congress’s 1999 election coffers. The network was reportedly set up in 1996 under the control of three holding companies and relied heavily […]

Howard Barrell: OVER A BARREL If we do begin to make dramatic inroads into unemployment in South Africa in the near future, we can probably be sure of one thing: the presidential Jobs Summit this week will have had very little to do with it. For, as one postponement of the get- together followed another […]

As the Japanese Grand Prix looms, two teams will be aching to celebrate victory -in their own separate ways. Maurice Hamilton reports If Michael Schumacher brings the world drivers’ championship to Ferrari this weekend, the town of Maranello in northern Italy will go berserk – even in the early hours of Sunday when the results […]

Loose cannon: Robert Kirby It is never quite possible to store up enough cynicism for use as a protective membrane between oneself and advertising. Membrane be damned, these days you need armour-plating to keep the witness of the creative directors, the visualisers and the rest of the snake-oil salesmen from getting through to you. It […]

Angella Johnson: VIEW FROM A BROAD I have found the Rainbow Nation. It has taken more than two years, but yes, I can unequivocally proclaim that President Nelson Mandela’s multiracial dream is alive and kicking under the bustling new Sundome Casino on the outskirts of Johannesburg. You see, in the gambling world all are equal, […]