The concerns of commercial farmers should be taken into account, argues Graham McIntosh ALTHOUGH some of our farmers have a racist prejudice that blacks can’t be good farmers, they represent a lunatic fringe. Commercial farmers who produce the nation’s food are hardy, realistic, resilient, cautious and adaptable. They are a precious national asset and their […]

Eddie Webster suggests that Wits University academics would do well to look at other African universities for some hints on how to handle change IN his insightful article on his alma mater (“Wits — Barometer of Change”, Weekly Mail & Guardian 24-30), Anton Harber concludes that Wits “has become a model of poor change management”. […]

Eddie Koch NELSON MANDELA’S air force helicopter was covered in camouflage paint and created a scene from a war film as it thudded over the green hills and thorn trees that surround Weenen. Although unintended, the image was appropriate because the president had come to this farming town in kwaZulu- Natal on Sunday to help […]

THEATRE: David Le Page=20 IN the second act of The Twilight of the Golds, Phyllis=20 Gold suggests that the information age confuses people=20 with too much knowledge irrelevant to their experience.=20 This confusion could be ended if we just ”listened to=20 our hearts”, she says. Unfortunately, though The=20 Twilight of the Golds is highly topical […]

Bronwen Roberts Angry women’s groups are threatening to run a boycott campaign against Grahamstown stores which stock soft- porn magazines and posters. Several women attending a Rape Action Project panel discussion in the town on Tuesday night called for boycott action against sex magazines. A member of the audience said increasing numbers of children were […]

One of the pioneers of long-distance education, Michael Young, suggests a new use for Robben Island IN the primary school hangs a large model of the most famous prison island in the world. The plaster island, made by the children, is green and peppered with tiny squares for the white houses where they and their […]

Justin Pearce asks why democracy has worsened the conflict on our campuses The annual row over student fees has become as regular an event on the calendars of some universities as the intervarsity rugby match at others. Students invoke their right to education — the university invokes dwindling government subsidies and rising costs. Usually, everything […]

Critical Consumer Pat Sidley IT IS a commonly held view that South African consumers are ignorant, apathetic and don’t stand up for themselves. There is good reason for thinking this at times — particularly when well-educated, well-heeled consumers who know the ropes of life don’t take up the challenge of bad service, sue for medical […]

The Markets Jacques Magliolo Suddenly, mysteriously, the markets have gone strangely=20 quiet. After two weeks of intense activity, the=20 Johannesburg Stock Exchange trading floor this week was=20 more like a museum than South Africa’s financial centre. To make matters worse, nobody seems able to provide a=20 reason for the total lack of investor interest across […]

THEATRE: Bafana Khumalo T HERE is something terribly dated about The Hill, a=20 Zakes Mda-penned play looking at the lives of the poor in=20 Southern Africa. It transports one back to the bad old=20 past, when migrant labour was still considered a thing=20 worth talking about and the collusion of the church in=20 people’s oppression […]