THEATRE: Reviewed by: David Le Page OFTEN the oldest of dramas attract the most radical interpretations, the recent production of Medea at the Market being but one example. Phaedra at the Civic Theatre has not attracted a radical interpretation, but it is a production where radical design, at least for South African theatre, does much […]

Eddie Koch THE lesson from this week’s truth commission hearings in Durban is that the effects of the organisation’s work can never be easily predicted. Instead of hearing evidence from mainly ANC- aligned victims — as was widely expected because of an Inkatha boycott — the commission ended up strengthening its non- partisan image and […]

Eddie Koch DURBAN must qualify as South Africa’s capital of paradox. Thousands of residents celebrated a week of political crisis in the city — shootings outside the civic centre by armed marchers, threats to bomb the truth commission hearings and talk of escalating civil war over local government elections next month — by heading to […]

MUSIC The inaugural Splashy Fen fiddling competition strives to boost appreciation for the fiddle, writes ALEX SUDHEIM IT is a beautiful late autumn evening in the foothills of the Drakensberg mountains — the moon at its fullest bathes the valley in alabaster and scented woodsmoke rises from a multitude of campfires. Groups huddle about pots […]

NO matter which way you cut the cake, professional golf in this country has some serious problems to address. And there is the inescapable feeling that it has been coming for a while. It came to a head this week when the South African Professional Golfers Association threatened to withdraw its backing of the Pro […]

Cindy Shiner in Accra NINE West African heads of state met in the Ghanaian capital Accra this week for an emergency summit to try to end the renewed civil war in Liberia. Hopes of success are slim. Officials are trying to rehabilitate an eight- month-old agreement that was supposed to lead to the disarmament of […]

With four teams jammed at the top of the log, working out the permutations on paper is harder than playing it out on the field RUGBY: Jon Swift PERHAPS the greatest thing about sport is its unpredictability: the propensity of competition to turn the form book on its head; the sudden lapse of concentration which […]

Justin Pearce GROWING anti-landmine sentiments in South Africa and abroad have prompted the Department of Foreign Affairs to announce a permanent ban on the export of the mines by South Africa, confirming a moratorium which has been in place for the past two years. A suspension has also been placed on the use of mines […]

The IBA will no longer formulate telecommunications policies, writes Jacquie Golding-Duffy THE announcement early this week by Posts, Telecommunications and Broadcasting Minister Jay Naidoo that his department will take over the task of developing telecommunications policies has met with mixed response. While some in the industry are apprehensive about the Independent Broadcasing Authority (IBA) shedding […]

The Constitution has become a yardstick of the success and strength of the political parties, and will do much to define them in the eyes of the public in the run-up to the 1999 general elections. Marion Edmunds reports WHERE does the Constitutional Assembly leave the African National Congress? “In a league of its own.” […]