Suren Pillay : A SECOND LOOK Academic seminars have a reputation, not completely unfounded, for being staid, boring affairs in which crusty old professors, and younger wannabees, share and debate jargon with mild civility and polite banter. But recently I attended one that had the tension of a dramatic performance, and the raunchiness of a […]
The stakes are high as businesses do battle for Johnnic, a showpiece empowerment company, writes Jenny Cargill It is almost like old times watching the current wrangling within the National Empowerment Consortium (NEC) over New Africa Investments Limited’s (Nail) bid to merge with Johnnic. The 18-month run-up to the NEC’s purchase of the controlling interest […]
WEDNESDAY, 5.00PM THE African National Congress internal report on corruption, mismanagement and spying allegations against Gauteng Premier Mathole Motshekga has cleared him on all counts. ANC secretary-general Kgalema Motlanthe told a press conference on Wednesday afternoon that the commission found there was nothing in the evidence placed before it to substantiate allegations of dishonest or […]
THURSDAY, 8.30AM: SIPHIWE NYANDA, former chief of staff of Umkhonto weSizwe, is to take over as chief of the SA Defence Force in June, following the resignation of General Georg Meiring. Nyanda, who will be promoted to full general, faces the mammoth task of uniting white and black soldiers who, until 1994, were bitter foes. […]
WEDNESDAY, 1.30PM: ENROLMENTS at South African tertiary institutions have dropped some 21% this year compared to last year, with former “bush universities” worst hit, while student numbers at traditionally white universities actually rose over the same period. The University of Zululand registered a 21% fall in registration, the University of the North an 18% drop, […]
TUESDAY, 12.00NOON: THE Cabinet is set to discuss a series of proposed “legacy projects” intended to redress the portrayal of South Africa’s history, with a Freedom Park as the flagship project. The Freedom Park will focus on the themes of democracy, nation-building and the liberation struggle, and will house monuments, museums and galleries to the […]
The Durban Designer Emporium’s first exhibition installation was a facelift for fashion and performance art, writes Suzy Bell `Durban’s sub-culture needs to be tickled, then scratched,” hissed the chick with a live goldfish swishing about her liquid handbag. The blood still hasn’t quite drained from the flush of it all, but the gouges, at least, […]
Brett Pyper The newmusic@rhodes series does not aim to present a Who’s Who of South African art music. Instead, it focuses on one specific vein within the work of composers from divergent traditions: music that somehow reflects the encounter of African and Western musical values in South Africa. This approach de-emphasises the substantial South African […]
Njongonkulu Ndungane: UBUNTU Last week I was privileged to attend the launch of a new liberation movement: the Jubilee 2000 Africa Campaign. This movement’s main objective is the liberation of Africa from the chains of debt. The movement calls for Africa to begin the new millennium with a clean slate, free from debt, as a […]
The South African petroleum industry was thrown into confusion in March 1997 when Minister of Minerals and Energy Penuell Maduna threatened to “re-regulate the entire industry”. He accused multinationals operating in South Africa of maintaining a stranglehold on the domestic industry without contributing to black empowerment or the economy as a whole. Recently, black empowerment […]