CLASSICAL MUSIC: Coenraad Visser AUDIENCES in Gauteng have been treated to a feast of=20 new music — a world premiere and two first South=20 African performances. For the third time Carlo Franci conducted the Transvaal=20 Philharmonic Orchestra in a first performance of one of=20 his works. But enough is enough. This year’s creation, Time of […]
Reg Rumney reports on what the Minister did not do to=20 the tax system. Finance ministers cannot do everything they are=20 expected to do, but the Budget this year has some=20 significant tax reform gaps. One big sin of omission was that no adjustments were=20 made to the tax table to take into account “fiscal=20 […]
The Department of Defence has been allocated R9,8- billion, which is a 11,7 percent decrease (or a cut of=20 R1,3-billion) from last year’s R11,1-billion. However,=20 the South African Police Service was allocated R8,9- billion in the 1995/96 Budget.=20 The reduction in defence will finance increased=20 spending on social services, said Chris Liebenberg=20 during his Budget […]
EGYPT is the third-largest movie producer in the world,=20 earning the country the title of the “Hollywood of the=20 Middle East”. The Egyptian Film Festival, which begins=20 today at the Seven Arts Cinema in Norwood,=20 Johannesburg, will present eight of the country’s=20 landmark films, made between 1968 and today.=20 The films, presented by the Egyptian […]
Native tongue Bafana Khumalo It was that time of the evening when one can glare at the boss and waltz out of the office and the glare is followed by a smug smile that says: “This time is mine and there is nothing you can do about it. For the next couple of hours I […]
Clive Simpkins With all the brouhaha about a national health scheme,=20 the whole issue of marketing safer sex to ill-informed,=20 superstitious and suspicious communities is in danger=20 of being eclipsed, or altogether lost. Get ready for an=20 unpopular and un-PC but vital series of observations. The recent international Aids conference in South=20 Africa highlighted some […]
It is incumbent upon legislators to pen their semantic outpourings in a manner comprehensible to the populus … Sorry, government language should be simple, argues Justin Pearce ‘ESSENTIAL budgetary reforms, linked to the enhancement of systems and institutional management and the improvement of professional practice, will bring major equity, efficiency and productivity gains, amounting to […]
Movable Feast EVERY once in a while you feel the urge to pump up=20 those iodine levels and taste the flavour of the deep=20 blue sea as immediately as biting into a salt-water=20 oyster. When this happens, listen to your body. You=20 need sushi — that wonderful art form of the Japanese=20 chef, which takes […]
THEATRE: Guy Willoughby OUT of the slough of despond once called Capab Drama=20 comes a dull, draughty production of Alan Bennett’s=20 superb historical play, The Madness of George III. This=20 rendition offers scant help to the local cause of=20 ”Eurocentric” culture, confirming rather that we don’t=20 have the resources to mount this kind of work […]
The Markets Jacques Magliolo Two financial events took place over a period of a mere=20 five days this week which astounded — nay=20 flabbergasted — pessimistic, bearish me! While I may=20 be forgiven for incorrectly thinking the Budget would=20 be harsh, the scrapping of the financial rand was=20 totally unbelievable. Pre-Budget forecasts for both the […]