Dan Glaister in London It was, to borrow a phrase, better late than never: 66 years after it was originally commissioned and 64 years after his death, Elgar’s unfinished Symphony No 3 received its world premire. The work, finished – or “elaborated upon” – by the composer Anthony Payne, received an ovation from a packed […]
Mukoni T Ratshitanga The University of Zululand – one of the hardest hit by government subsidy cuts and student debt – spent more than R1,7-million on curtains in three years. However, university representative Carl de Villiers said this week a preliminary report on the linen spending spree “does not show any criminal activity”. The probe […]
Emeka Nwandiko As South African companies struggle to fill high-flying posts they are increasingly relying on executive recruitment agencies – better known as headhunters – to fill the gap. Crime is the reason most often given for the outflow of mainly white senior executives from South Africa since 1994. The Central Statistical Service notes that […]
South African and Mozambican investigators have failed to contact a potentially crucial witness in the McBride affair, writes Mungo Soggot A close associate of Robert McBride, who has offered information to counter allegations that the foreign affairs official was smuggling weapons in Mozambique, has still to be contacted by Mozambican and South African authorities. As […]
A letter from Don Mkhwanazi cites Thabo Mbeki as the “top command” of his black-empowerment bank, reports Mungo Soggot The offices of Deputy President Thabo Mbeki and businessman Don Mkhwanazi this week sought to dispel suggestions that Mbeki was closely involved with the Malaysian-backed bank Mkhwanazi chairs. Senior staffers at the bank, including its former […]
FRIDAY, 8.30AM: LOW-KEY Gerald Morkel became the most powerful coloured person in the National Party when he defeated his flamboyant opponent Peter Marais on Thursday night to become party leader in the Western Cape, the last remaining NP stronghold. But Morkel’s first few hours of power gave him little chance to savour his success: First, […]
Ferial Haffajee Here’s the dream: industrial development zones (IDZ) will bring prosperity to some of the country’s poorest areas, where new industries will fuel the renaissance of the economy as exports grow. An advanced labour relations system will solve disputes in record time as thousands of workers will be trained to service new industries. Here’s […]
Janet Smith Pianistically, Paul Hanmer is beautiful. His music – folkloric, occasionally proletarian, always warm and real – is not a private dominion or a place where culture is combat. His music, as experienced on his celebrated Sheer Sound debut album Trains to Taung, has reached into the South African jazz community like a hand […]
Appearance masked disappearance and death in Stalin’s Soviet Union. Nothing was how it seemed. Nigel Fountain reports on the photos that hid dirty deeds One photograph in The Commissar Vanishes is of two men playing chess in the sunshine of Capri. It is April 1908. Alexander Bogdanov, later to found the Soviet Union’s first blood […]
David Beresford One of the former stars of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s investigative team, Piers Pigou, this week delivered a savage critique of the inquiry, charging it with having failed lamentably in its task of uncovering the “truth” about human rights violations during the apartheid era. Pigou, who will long be remembered for his […]