Some film-makers feel the SABC is not being fair and equitable to both in-house and independent producers, reports Jacquie Golding-Duffy While the SABC is committed to independent production, some independent film-makers are frustrated and are accusing the corporation of foot-dragging its implementation of commissioning procedures. A commissioning procedures task group, with representatives from the SABC […]

The SABC’s grand relaunch: Was it worth the money? Did anyone learn anything? Will advertisers support the new-look state television station? Jeff Zerbst found the SABC’s grand relaunch of its TV stations to be a spectacle loaded with symbolism for the new South Africa IT was in a spirit of awe and reverence that one […]

Marion Edmunds The R-word hit the newspaper headlines with meaning for the first time this week, after ANC hard-liner MP Pravin Gordhan warned minority parties that if negotiations failed, a referendum would be a reality. At a time when parties are shaping up to negotiate the worst of the disputes in the final constitution, this […]

Dirk Hartford It was reminiscent of the heady mass struggles of the Eighties. For four hours last Sunday, several hundred trade unionists listened to fiery speeches from workers and trade union leaders denouncing the government and its policy of national reconciliation as a `national disaster’ between songs praising socialism as the only road to liberation. […]

Education in the new South Africa: While apartheid still rules on the platteland, Soweto schools stand half empty as pupils move to the suburbs The week after white parents barred black pupils from Potgietersrus Primary, Justin Pearce found apartheid to be a fact of life at many Northern Province schools Grey-haired, bespectacled headmaster Hennie Berg […]

Simon Segal JUST what does the Reconstruction and Development Programme (RDP) office, officially called the Development Planning branch of the President’s Office, do? Is criticism around its delivery fair? Deputy director general Bernie Fanaroff is clear that the office has three primary functions: l Development planning: This is the mobilisation of resources to match societal […]

Bop Broadcasting is forging ahead with new programmes despite the prospect of losing its government funding, reports Jacquie Golding-Duffy Bophuthatswana Broadcasting Corporation (BopBC) is digging in its heels against integration with the SABC, despite having only two months before government funding is cut-off. Representative of the North-West premier Willie Modise said BopBC were intending to […]

Sam Shilowa, Cosatu secretary general, in The Mark Gevisser ONE of Sam Shilowa’s previous employers tells the story of meeting him across a picket line and being so impressed by his performance in negotiations that he suggested he be groomed for management. Sorry, said Shilowa’s immediate boss: nice enough chap but he really doesn’t have […]

Andrew Worsdale VETERAN South African film-maker Jamie Uys, who died of a heart attack on Monday aged 76, was often berated by progressive film-makers and academics for being a paternalistic racist who trivialised both nature and black people in his movies. In reality, however, he was a true film fantasist who operated within the confines […]

Karen Harverson The development of a positive enterprise culture is not solely the responsibility of the government but also of the private sector. South African Breweries (SAB) recently hosted a prize-giving function for the winners of its Kick-Start programme, a joint initiative set up in May last year between SAB and youth business organisations. The […]