Eddie Koch visits a northern Cape army base with land minister Derek Hanekom THE owner of a game lodge in Namibia which goes under the name “Intu Afrika”, called up the Schmidtsdrift army base last year, and asked to borrow some bushmen who could perform their ancient traditions for tourists on his farm. Schmidtsdrift army […]

Katz commission member Pierre du Toit argues that critics haven’t read the report SOUTH Africa is finding that tax reform within a real democracy is very different from the old days. Regardless of the Katz Commission’s specific terms, submissions came from a much wider representation of society and were much more fundamental than those received […]

Illegal occupants defiantly laid claim to vacant homes in a Lenasia suburb this week. Mapula Sibanda spoke to them OVERGROWN shrubs surrounding the houses testified to desertion, but there were newspapers pasted up to serve as curtains and white crosses marked on the windows to show that people were living there. On Wednesday afternoon, this […]

Critical Consumer Pat Sidley This is a sad tale about a dog called Gatting, named by his owners, the O’Keefe family, in 1990 after cricketer Mike Gatting, who was supposed to be heading up a cricket tour. The O’Keefe family’s three young children were attached to the dog, a highly pedigreed labrador with an unfortunate […]

Anouk Mommer and Inge Ruigrok A PRETORIA pharmaceutical company claims to have developed a drug that will improve the length and quality of the lives of Aids sufferers. Dr Roy van Brummelen, a director of Biomox, said this week clinical tests indicated the new product, Equimmune, could be the most successful drug in Aids treatment […]

By Reg Rumney Finance Minister Chris Liebenberg this week expressed concern about the effect of so-called “private label” credit cards on the country’s savings. Liebenberg said that aside from inflation, the other factor decreasing savings was financial deregulation. “When credit is more freely available, there is less saving.” In that context he was concerned about […]

THE withdrawal of sociologist Eddie Webster from the race for the post of vice-chancellor of Rhodes University has left a conservative as the only contender. To the dismay of Grahamstown progressive organisations and academics, Webster has chosen to stay at the University of the Witwatersrand. Academic sources said his work on proposed new labour legislation […]

Former police commander Eugene de Kock’s trial next week promises a taste of things to come, reports Stefaans Brummer TOP police officers and politicians will be watching closely when Eugene Alexander de Kock goes on trial in Pretoria on Monday. A number of them have been implicated in the “Third Force” misdeeds for which the […]

Trevor Steele-Taylor A FESTIVAL of Spanish cinema — to be attended by four leading Spanish filmmakers — will be presented as part of the fringe at the Johannesburg Biennale. The programme comprises 18 films, including two masterpieces by Luis Bu-uel, Viridiana and The Young One. Winner of the Grand Prix at Cannes in 1962, Viridiana, […]