JAMES SEY explores the enduring appeal of Fifties B-grade science-fiction movies THOSE wonderful and genuinely strange people at Norwood’s Seven Arts cinema have done it again. Following hard on the heels of their Friday night lesbian-vampire-grunge-horror movie slots (what do you mean, you missed them? You fool!) comes a festival of “space- fiction” movies, running […]

Justin Pearce Stellenbosch University vice-rector Christo Viljoen leaves the Independent Broadcasting Authority this week, amid rumblings from within the IBA that he rarely turned up for duty in Johannesburg although he received a full-time salary for seven months. Viljoen, a former chairman of the South African Broadcasting Corporation —he also did that job part-time — […]

give-and-take The Constitution: The Constitutional Assembly has produced its last working draft of the final Constitution before the May 8 deadline. It will be finalised at a bosberaad this weekend, reports Marion Edmunds AFRICAN National Congress MP Willie Hofmeyr’s eyes are large pools of limpid exhaustion as he gazes onto the first page of the […]

Ricardo Dunn The Bloemfontein man who was convicted last month of killing a dog by inserting a firecraker into its rectum has been relieved from his community service sentence at the SPCA. The Bloemfontein SPCA applied to the magistrate’s court to revoke its decision after it received hundreds of letters from the public and potential […]

Since the first working draft of the Constitution was distributed in November last year, submissions have been pouring in to the Constitutional Assembly offering more proposals for the negotiators to work with, some of which have been ignored. These are the suggestions that have not made it into the Bill of Rights: 1) Freedom of […]

The Kenyans dominated the world cross country championships once again, but the organisers were the real winners ATHLETICS: Julian Drew SOUTH AFRICA’S aspirations to host the world’s top sporting events received a significant boost after last Saturday’s world cross country championships in Stellenbosch which many experienced observers considered the best they had ever attended. The […]

With a code of conduct coming into existence, MPs will be compelled to disclose their financial interests. Philippa Garson reports WINNIE Madikizela-Mandela’s mysterious financial circumstances will come under the spotlight when the code of conduct for parliamentarians comes into effect. Her financial position has been the subject of intense speculation following disclosures in court records […]

JAZZ: Gwen Ansell TRUMPETING, roaring and pawing the ground, the trombone is the elephant of the jazz band. In the right hands — and Jonas Gwangwa’s, at the Johannesburg Civic Theatre, are certainly those — it’s also capable of breathtaking delicacy and precision. Instrumental virtuosity is one of the main delights of Gwangwa’s show, which […]

The Davis/Pityana debate: The M&G has received a flood of letters on the issue, some of which appear below Peter du Preez, UCT Psychology Department YES, there are whacky liberals who believe they are without prejudice and prove it by condescending to those they are definitely not prejudiced against. There are also people who call […]

Millions of rands of taxpayers money is being used to defend apartheid’s generals. Anne Eveleth has been counting those costs and identifying the legal teams in the dramatic ‘Malan’ trial. OPENING the Durban Supreme Court trial of former defence minister Magnus Malan and 19 others earlier this month, KwaZulu-Natal Attorney General Tim McNally declared that […]