South Africa’s real economic challenges are beginning to=20 Reg Rumney reports Alarm bells have begun to ring for the economic outlook for=20 South Africa. As the election “miracle” begins to be discounted,=20 doubts about the underlying soundness of the economic structure=20 have begun to mount. It is not only that economists are by nature pessimists […]
The science boffins are worried about whether the government will fund their research, or switch the money to RDP work. Jonathan Ancer and Fumane Diseko report Scientists are holding their breath while the government prepares a White Paper laying out plans for research and development. With the new government likely to use its limited resources […]
How did South Africa’s most popular singer end up a sad, semi-destitute occupant of a seedy Hillbrow hotel? Hazel Friedman traces the decline and fall of Brenda Fassie DRUG abuse is not the sole cause of the decline and fall of Brenda Fassie. She suffers from a much deeper malaise: loneliness. It was drugs which, […]
Like a castrated bull required to make calves — that’s how Pule Zwane sees the new KwaZulu/Natal Peace THE KwaZulu/Natal Implementation of Peace Bill, gazetted a few weeks ago, is a bid to resurrect the already-dead — and ineffectual — Peace Committee. It is not clear who authored the Bill, as the province’s multi-party portfolio […]
Education Ministry bureaucrats are trying to prevent ideological changes to schools’ history syllabuses, reports Philippa Garson THE education department has launched an inquiry into the role played by one of its “old guard” officials in allegedly sabotaging the process of amending the history syllabus. Participants in the National Education and Training Forum’s curriculum sub-commitee on […]
After years of silence, archetypal Gothic band The Mission is=20 alive, well — and playing in Johannesburg. FRED DE VRIES=20 THE Mission’s singer/guitarist, Wayne Hussey, has a reputation=20 for being loud and pretentious. His lyrics always used to be full of=20 quasi-religious symbolism; his music often fell on the wrong side=20 of pomp. And in […]
Gaye Davis JUST two years ago, the very idea of a Socialist International (SI) meeting in South Africa would have been inconceivable — so this week’s two-day meeting in Cape Town of the council of the world federation of social democratic, socialist and labour movements in Cape Town was richly symbolic. That it took place […]
Mapula Sibanda A security briefcase fitted with 41 000 volts of electricity, a=20 piercing alarm, and a red smoke dye-bomb is becoming popular=20 among businessmen transporting cash takings in the=20 Johannesburg central business district area. Looking like an ordinary black briefcase, Safe Case operates in=20 such a way that only the authorised bearer can carry […]
‘Papa’ de Klerk is the hero of the National Party youth. Marion Edmunds attended their weekend conference and found a vibrant, energetic collection of New Nats ‘You’re simply the best,” screamed Tina Turner as National Party leader, “Papa” de Klerk, stepped off the stage into the arms of excited members of the Jeug Aksie. Bodyguards […]
Leon Perlman reports=20 on Telkom’s new range=20 of high-tech services State telecommunications monopoly, Telkom, is discovering the=20 joys of high-tech innovation and marriage with the=20 Reconstruction and Development Programme. But it had to be=20 dragged to the altar. Swiftnet, formed last month to run the FastNet service, is touted=20 by Telkom insiders as the beginning […]