Visiting Johannesburg this week, renowned composer Kevin Volans spoke to GWEN ANSELL about music past and present, African and European SERIOUS music in the late 20th century is an esoteric and fragmented world in which performers and composers find survival a struggle. Audiences tend to be rigid adherents of one school or another, and fairly […]

A senior official in the safety and security secretariat stands charged with child molestation, reports Philippa Garson A top official in the safety and security secretariat has been suspended, pending the outcome of a court case against him involving charges of indecent assault against two female minors. Etienne Dirk Marais, chief director of liaison and […]

Roelf Meyer, newly appointed secretary general of the NP, in The Mark Gevisser Profile DRIVING to Pretoria to meet the New Face of the National Party on Monday morning, I heard FW de Klerk giving an interview about his party’s new direction on SAfm’s AM Live show. He affably said how happy he was to […]

ATHLETICS: Julian Drew AT the Old Mutual South African Cross Country Trials on Saturday the cream of South Africas middle-distance running talent will do battle over the same Stellenbosch course that in six weeks time will play host to the world cross country championships. The world championships will be the biggest and most prestigious athletics […]

Rudolph Mulder, convicted of cruelty to animals after a Guy Fawke’s prank, has already contravened part of his sentence, reports Ricardo Dunn Just 24 hours after being sentenced, dog torturer Rudolph Dawid Mulder (41) went awol and was sentenced to 72 hours in jail last weekend. He disappeared three times during the night while under […]

Madeleine Wackernagel Thabo Mbeki and his team returned tired but triumphant from the World Economic Forum in Switzerland on Wednesday. The deputy president was well-received, with fund managers clamouring to get a slice of the most popular emerging markets cake. While nothing concrete in the form of rands and cents came out of the five-day […]

Marion Edmunds Cape Town wine merchant Vaughan Johnson is to appear in the Cape Town magistrate’s court on February 20 charged with employing a foreigner illegally in his Waterfront wine shop. British-born Sharon Meeking pleaded guilty to working without a permit and paid a fine of R750. Johnson refused to pay an admission of guilt […]

Simon Segal WITH cellular telephones now virtually passe, satellite television is set to become the next yuppie symbol. Behind the scenes an intriguing corporate battle is unfolding between M-Nets Multichoice and SABC. There is potential for substantial losers and winners. The big question is whether SABCs decision to go analogue makes commercial sense in a […]

Justin Pearce AN easy way to kill 80 000 people muttered the man at the Africa Cup of Nations final as the Boeing 747 swooped over to ruffle the hair of the crowd. Laurie Kay, the man who was in the cockpit, disagrees: In Hong Kong people wouldn’t turn their heads at something like that, […]

Stefaans Brummer CREDIT card giant MasterCard International has infuriated local police by flying a self-acknowledged South African crook overseas in a botched cloak-and- dagger operation intended to entrap members of a powerful South African fraud syndicate. Now MasterCard stands accused of bypassing South African police, withholding information and obstructing local investigations. MasterCard denies the charges, […]