Karen Harverson The power of advertising on television is uncontested but so far only big business can afford the medium. The South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) is now offering small and medium enterprises the opportunity to buy airtime at reduced rates for six “We believe that the television exposure will boost their businesses sufficiently to […]

A health and safety centre has been closed after one of its employees developed lung cancer, reports Eddie Koch A health and safety centre that has played a major role in highlighting the dangers of asbestos has been shut down by the government — because it failed to report that one of its workers was […]

President Mandela receives so many gifts that his staff cannot cope and he may have to build on to his house to accommodate the regular truckloads. Hazel Friedman peered into the treasure chest

Rowan Callaghan Negotiations between the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) and the Small Business Development Corporation (SBDC) have gone largely unnoticed until a deadlock in talks caused the corporation’s annual general meeting (AGM) to be re-scheduled last week. The SBDC has long been a target of criticism by particularly small black business, who have […]

The sound of poetry rocked gently against the walls of Pretoria Central Prison last weekend. Hugh Lewin, a political inmate of Central in the 60s, reports on a day with LKJ and eight South African poets Ask any prison graduate: there’s one fear greater than the fear of going to prison. It’s the fear of […]

Rehana Rossouw NEIGHBOURS of Cape Town gangster killer Harry Joshua believe his crime was not that heinous: he was only cleaning up a little. “He was just ridding the area of some of the vermin,” was one of the descriptions of Joshua’s shooting spree last May which left five young men dead and two wounded, […]

SOCCER: Lungile Madywabe ONLY two of the 11 foreign-based South African internationals will be available for selection when the locals take on Mozambique in a friendly at the FNB stadium on Saturday. Doctor Khumalo of Ferrocarril Oeste in Argentina and Augustine Makalakalane, who plays for first division FC Zurich in Switzerland, are the only two […]

Outside Johannesburg, Cecil John Rhodes is conquering the Matabele all over again. JUSTIN PEARCE visited the set of the BBC mini-series OUTSIDE the old petrol station near Lanseria airport, they’re making Matabele shields. Fifty shield-shaped plywood cut-outs are spread out on the grass, and four men armed with industrial spraypaint equipment advance to give them […]

Justin Pearce MARIA SEKATANE proudly points out the photograph on the wall of her tiny sitting-room in Meadowlands, Soweto. In the picture, her son Montsheng stands next to Chris Hani. Both are in MK camouflage gear, and the tropical vegetation in the background tells that the photo dates to the years of exile. These days, […]

ATHLETICS: Jon Swift THERE are times in South African sport when you wonder whether the word “development” does not have the Orwellian connotation of separate but equal. The All African Invitational athletic meeting to open the magnificently appointed new Johannesburg Stad-ium last weekend was just such an occasion. A surprisingly sparse crowd had come on […]