Graham Matthews A couple of months ago I said it would be wrong to read too=20 much into the tourist arrivals data for any one month.=20 As the weeks roll by, however, the so-called “big picture”=20 emerges and reveals the strong underlying pace of growth in=20 the number of foreign visitors entering South Africa. Intriguingly, […]

The head of Avia Airlines has a shady past, reports Stefaans BrUmmer GERT de Klerk, the former airline mechanic whose Avia Airlines has made him South Africa’s Richard Branson, built his empire flying clandestine military contracts to war-torn Angola in the 1980s. Avia this month became South Africa’s first independent carrier to ply the lucrative […]

The need to create jobs has emerged as the burning issue for the government, labour and business, reports Reg Rumney Suddenly, at the end of a year in which economic growth and fiscal and monetary discipline held centre stage, joblessness has entered like Banquo’s ghost. The official unemployment rate is around 33 percent, but the […]

Themba waKashe, chief director of the Ministry of Arts and Culture, is reluctant to identify possible candidates for the most powerful cultural positions in the land — members of the National Arts Council —“because the people will be doing the nominating”. But a glance at the present make-up of the performing arts councils, the current […]

What ‘s worse than not having a ticket to the big match? Having a ticket but not making it to the game, writes Jon Swift THE phone call came in the early hours of Friday morning. The language emanating from the instrument was a choice mix of the more neanderthal part of Nether-landic and the […]

Ann Eveleth African National Congress (ANC) and Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) leaders have taken off their gloves to wage an all-fronts battle between their respective power- As negotiators from both parties prepared to sit down at the table this week for what turned out to be little more than “talks before talks before talks” discussions, […]

CINEMA: Justin Pearce=20 THE tombstone inscriptions used as title credits in Ed Wood=20 seemed like a touch of macabre Tim Burton inspiration. In=20 fact, the credit for the credits should go to Ed Wood=20 himself, as is demonstrated by Plan 9 from Outer Space –=20 on for a short run at the Seven Arts — […]

Reg Rumney While the government is pressing on with attempts to get South Africa preferential trade access to the European Union (EU) in terms of the Lome Convention, business seems lukewarm. The Lome Convention gives products from underdeveloped countries access to European markets, and could boost sales in Europe of certain South African products, particularly […]

The Kriegler Commission report on last year’s prison unrest went largely unnoticed, but it made some important recommendations on penal reform, writes Bronwen Manby THE long-awaited publication on May 5 of the final report of the Kriegler Commission, appointed by the President to look into the causes of the unrest in prisons following the election […]

Julian Drew IT is early morning in Johannesburg’s trendy suburb of=20 Yeoville. I venture into the street and am greeted by=20 three blond Swedish girls. “Can you tell me the way to the=20 Pink House?” they ask in chorus. “Just follow the yellow brick road,” I am tempted to say.=20 But this is no fairy […]