A SECOND LOOK Joachim Wehner In its latest submission, the Financial and Fiscal Commission (FFC) presents some valuable recommendations on local government finance. At the same time, however, the commission fails to present concrete figures on the recommended slicing of the fiscal cake. The lack of specificity and seemingly dwindling commitment by the commissioners are […]
Few people or institutions come out of the Bredell confrontation well. The government and its policies, the Pan Africanist Congress and the ruling African National Congress and its allies have, each in its own way, demonstrated breathtaking disregard for the plight and purposes of the hundreds of families who settled on this stretch of vacant […]
ART Chris Roper Interesting exhibition this, a mixture of disposable pop philosophy and nuggets of theoretical insight, grafted on to digital art of varying quality. Hard to tell what to make of it, sometimes. Hard to tell, at least initially, whether it’s worth the effort. There is ample evidence of some of the Warning Signs […]
MG and Rover are officially back in South Africa and will soon be selling sports cars and luxury sedans from three outlets in Durban, Cape Town and Gauteng, writes Gavin Foster. Thanks to its backers boasting enough export credits to allow the import of fully built-up MGFs and Rover 75s at competitive prices, MG Rover […]
Barry Streek A Western Cape development agency, Wesgro, has initiated a novel approach for providing would-be entrepreneurs with information on small enterprises by establishing “business corners” in local libraries. So far 24 business corners have been established in libraries in the Cape Town metropolitan area, and another seven are planned for other areas in the […]
There were more animal lovers than hunters at an experimental hunt last weekend, writes Darran Morgan At first light in a valley in the foothills of the Drakensberg in KwaZulu-Natal, a line of black men, each with a pair of leashed greyhounds, are advancing in search of prey. Just about anywhere else in the province […]
OVER A BARREL Howard Barrell You, like me, will have heard repeatedly in recent years about how cunning the big pharmaceutical companies are: how adept at manipulating a medical need. The chorus has been particularly loud in the case of the HIV/Aids pandemic. Some have gone so far as to suggest that the HI virus […]
BODY LANGUAGE Polly Vernon She gazes defiantly from behind the battered perspex of any number of bus shelters. Statuesque, dewy-thighed, leather-booted. Guns and techno-gadgetry strapped to her bare flesh, glossed lips slightly parted, hair damp with the (not unduly pungent, mind) sweat of her recent exertions. She is Lara Croft or, rather, Angelina Jolie pretending […]
When you encounter one of South Africa’s most enduring enigmas, soccer star Doctor Khumalo, it is not hard to see why so little outside his football career is known.
whipping boy If the Durban July is to retain its position as South Africa’s premier horseracing event, the organisers will have to take a long, hard look at the flesh on display. It’s not a pleasant job, but someone has to do it. One expert at the July opined bitterly that, with the cigarette makers […]