Eddie Koch BLAST, lash, haul and crush. The words that describe the essential stages of gold production on South African mines are drawn from the imagery of battle. When Sotho miners go underground to do these tasks, they sometimes sing a song with a chorus line that says liphoro tsa mali, liphoro — floods of […]

THEATRE: David Le Page FARCE in South Africa has come to mean, typically, an=20 evening of imported bourgeois Anglo-Saxon capers –=20 romantic, sexual and ridiculous. However, the Anglo-Saxons=20 are not deeply into muti, and so they’ve never been=20 inspired by a love potion called Afrodizzia to an evening=20 of leap-frogging, overlapping and incongruous infatuations.=20 But […]

Justin Pearce South Africa enters the satellite TV age tomorrow when African Satellite Entertainment (ASE) starts beaming trial broadcasts into the country. It will go “live” a week later with the country’s first Kuband (small dish) service. ASE has pre-empted M-Net by three months, and caught the authorities on the wrong foot by beaming its […]

Anouk Mommer Fathers of children born out of wedlock will soon have a fair chance to gain access rights. The Minister of Justice has referred a number of important recommendations of the Law Commisssion to Parliament in the form of a draft Bill. Fathers currently have no rights over children born out of wedlock — […]

Iden Wetherall in Harare When Zimbabwe’s senior public prosecutor made it clear on Monday that the police had insufficient evidence to proceed with defamation charges against those at the helm of the contry’s leading independent newspaper, and that arrests and charges were in any case inappropriate procedures in such a case, a telephone call from […]

FINE ART: James Garner THE paintings by Francine Scialom Greenblatt at the South=20 African Association of Arts in Cape Town serve as a=20 reminder that explorations of sex and sexuality need not be=20 subsumed by the self-conscious, ironic appropriation of=20 media stereotypes that has become so fashionable among=20 artists desperate to place themselves at the […]

With prize money on offer in the Comrades Marathon for the=20 first time this year, foreign runners, especially the=20 Russians, are a big threat to local athletes ROAD RUNNING: Julian Drew T HIS year will be one that the Comrades Marathon=20 traditionalists will rue, but just like King Canute they=20 were unable to prevent the […]

The strengths, weaknesses and form of the 16 nations=20 competing in the Rugby World Cup by Jon Swift Pool A Holders Australia and South Africa, who meet in the opening=20 fixture at Newlands next Thursday, are favourites to go=20 through to the last 16. Unbeaten since June 1994. But they only edged Italy 23-20=20 in […]

Reg Rumney looks into the new plastic=20 money that promises to help you buy a car The advantage to South African motor car company Nissan in=20 launching its ”Nissan card” seems obvious: card users are=20 locked into buying a Nissan vehicle as their next new car.=20 Would-be Nissan owners get a form of added value […]

CINEMA: Stanley Peskin IN Mike Leigh’s Naked, a 27-year-old man comes from=20 Manchester to London. Claiming to be fascinated with all=20 things peripatetic, Johnny (Daniel Thewlis) is unable to=20 find any meaning in or make any commitment to people, life,=20 or any religious belief. In a series of encounters with friends and strangers he=20 meets […]