Angella Johnson VIEW FROM A BROAD `When I cool the base, rock this place,” chanted the female singer over the mega sound system. I watched entranced as gum-chewing young men wearing headphones and outsize clothes studiously fiddled with vinyl records on industrial-size players. The Foundation club in Rosebank was certainly rocking. Soon it would be […]

Moulded into the plastic soles of my father’s bedroom slippers were the words: “Man-made Materials.” As a child, I pondered that phrase for years. What, exactly, is a man-made material? Where did “man” get the stuff he “made” it from? And if he got it from somewhere and merely melted it down with something else, […]

A new theory suggests kids learn their behaviour from their peer group, not their parents. But should we let home life off the hook, asks John Diamond The Jesuits, it turns out, were too optimistic by half. Give them your boy until he is seven by all means, but the best they’ll be able to […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Friday 8.15pm. THE xenophobic mob-murder of three foreigners on a train on Thursday night is not the first attack of its kind, and is likely to spark further killing, experts warned on Friday. Centre for Policy Studies director Steven Friedman said recent studies have revealed a strong resentment towards aliens, especially […]

There’s much more to Swaziland than jackpots and birdies, as Alex Sudheim found at the Siyavuka festival last weekend It really was high time that Swaziland celebrated itself with a national arts festival. The country turns 30 this weekend, and over three centuries as a distinct and separate people preceded their formal recognition as an […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Luanda | Thursday 3.30pm. SUPPORTERS of Jonas Savimbi, leader of Angola’s Unita rebel movement, have blamed the new split in the movement as the result of government maneouvring, and say it “will achieve nothing”. Five influential Unita leaders, including Jorge Valentim, suspended hotels and tourism minister, and the suspended defence, interior and assistance […]

Own CORRESPONDENT, Durban | Thursday 10.30PM. ZIMBABWEAN President Robert Mugabe snatched the limelight on the final day of the Non-Aligned Movement’s 12th summit in Durban on Thursday, announcing that peace in the Democratic Republic of Congo is imminent and that a meeting of all warring parties will be held within three days. His statement followed […]

JUSTIN ARENSTEIN, Nelspruit | Thursday 6.30PM. MPUMALANGA’S provincial government is facing yet another corruption scandal following an urgent request for the Heath special investigative unit to probe a suspected R19,3-million salary scam. The request from Mpumalanga’s portfolio committee on public accounts was ratified by the legislature on Thursday after uncooperative officials managed to stall a […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Thursday 9.00pm. PAN Africanist Congress of Azania official Jabulani “Ace” Khumalo said on Thursday that the PAC will seize white-owned farms without compensation to resettle black South Africans if it is elected to government next year. Khumalo said in a statement that, when in power, it will limit the amount of […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Thursday 9.30am. THE five-year Browde Commission of inquiry into the 1992 collapse of the Tollgate group of companies fingers former Tollgate chairman Julian Askin for playing a major role in bringing the group to its knees. The report, released on Wednesday, says the main cause of the “Tollgate debacle” was the […]