Does the Pact crisis spell a larger problem with cultural policy? Charl Blignaut argues that implementation is the real problem ‘If I were to tell you everything that’s going on here at Pact I would be fired and you would receive a promotion,” said a Pact worker to the Mail & Guardian over the phone […]

Janet Smith If you’re thinking of sharing your copies of Seymore Butts Meets the Pleasure Girls and Sluts and Angels in Budapest with your coterie of fellow porn-lovers, think twice. The South African Police Services (SAPS) in Port Elizabeth – which had obviously had enough of pornography being peddled with scant regard for the law […]

Adam Haupt On stage in Cape Town There is something very ironic about the fact that, in Summer Holiday, our very own obnoxiously heterosexual Boere boy, Steve Hofmeyer, plays a lead role made famous by Cliff Richard, one of Britain’s last remaining ambiguous bachelor boys. A career moment which seems to have set the tone […]

Gillian Dell In your ear What happens when people with a passion for radio are given free rein over a newly independent radio station that many considered little more than a ”volksradio” and way beyond redemption? They take it, remould it and watch it take off. Radio Oranje/OFM, which broadcasts to the traditional backwaters of […]

Charl Blignaut On stage in Johannesburg I was so stunned when I came across an advert billing The Eleventh Commandment as ”risqu” and ”controversial” you could have knocked me down with a latke. We all know that publicists exaggerate, but honestly, The Eleventh Commandment is about as risqu as saying ”poo” to a pre-schooler. If […]

THURSDAY, 12.30PM: THE International Intellectual Property Alliance (IIPA) has submitted a written complaint to United States trade representative Charlene Barshefsky, noting that South African piracy of software, books and videos cost the US $105-million in lost sales last year. The IIPA blames the situation on lax and unco-operative police, shoddy laws and the lack of […]

THURSDAY, 7.00PM: ALL the indices on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange rose on Thursday after a brisk day’s trade, on expectations that an interest rate cut may be announced on Friday. The all gold index gained 9,5 points to 737,9, and the industrial index 130,4 points to 8176,7. The financial index hit its 18th new record […]

TUESDAY, 3.00PM: MORE than 200 soldiers, thought to be sympathetic to Sierra Leone’s toppled junta, surrendered to Nigerian-led Ecomog intervention forces in Sierra Leone’s Kambia district on Thursday. Ecomog troops seized large amounts of arms and ammunition from the soldiers, including over 100 assault rifles, mortar bombs and grenades, a dozen machine guns, and 200 […]

WEDNESDAY, 4.30PM: SOUTH African tennis players are doing well abroad, with Jeff Coetzee and Jason Weir-Smith continuing their good run in Cuba, and Chris Haggard making the final of an ITF Futures tournament in Eastbourne, England. Coetzee and Weir-Smith won the doubles final in the second leg of the ITF Cuba-Mexico Satellite in Havana on […]

THURSDAY, 6.30PM: ANGOLAN rebel movement Unita said on Thursday it will not meet an end-February deadline to completely disarm its forces. The National Union for the Total Independence of Angola said in the Portuguese capital Lisbon it cannot disarm its remaining troops “effectively or with dignity”. The statement, which came from Unita’s headquarters in Bailundo, […]