Greg Bowes CD of the week The titles of the three Ninja Cuts compilations from Britain’s inspired weird-beat label Ninja Tune, are always extraordinarily tongue-twisting. Funkjazztical Tricknology, Flexistentialism, and now Ninja Cuts III: Funkungfusion (Ninja Cuts), the latest round-up of revolutionary sounds from their roster. Headed up by sonic sorcerers Coldcut, who were once responsible […]
Suzy Bell On show in Durban Totally disarming in tweety-bird yellow, casual cotton shirt teeming with tiny fish, a Zulu beaded choker resembling a Smartie box of colours, brass bangles, and a genteel, generous-hearted demeanor – that’s our poet/playwright/artist, Breyten Breytenbach. Being the Buddhist he is, if you swing the conversation to China, Tibet and […]
For a few weeks in May ’68 in Paris, students and workers united in a wave of strikes and demonstrations that seemed poised to overturn the old order. Peter Lennon was in the thick of things I don’t remember the precise incident that made it clear to me that this time, this particular turmoil was […]
A bold new album deal and a minor national controversy have made it quite a week for top local band Boom Shaka. Charl Blignaut reports The mutterings began more than a fortnight ago, at the afterparty of the 1998 FNB South African Music Awards (Samas). It was evident, before the first glass of wine had […]
Ferial Haffajee The government will tax private radio and television stations, as well as signal distributors, to fund local-content production. A draft White Paper on broadcasting says a fund will be established to subsidise local producers. It is understood that private owners may have to pay up to 1% of their profits, which translates into […]
Janet Smith Anand Naidoo spent his last night on a recent trip home to Johannesburg strolling famously through his old haunt, the SABC. He went to see his mentor Chris Gibbons presenting News Hour on SABC3, and came away impressed – and not a little nostalgic. News Hour is, after all, not quite the same […]
If you find yourself attracted to shares in the building and construction sector, you had better make sure you have a stomach for volatility. Building and construction stocks are among the most variable on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange. An analyst at Nedcor Investment Bank explains that performance in the sector is really a function of […]
Chris Ball Switched-on managements who know that stress and poor performance are bedfellows are bringing in outside industrial agony aunts to counsel employees. Up to 25% of all United States staff are now covered by so-called employee assistance programmes (EAPs). In Britain, the schemes only cover about 6% or 1,3-million of the working population so […]
William Makgoba: A SECOND LOOK “Freedom is not enough. You do not wipe away the scars of centuries by saying: `Now you are free to go where you want, do as you desire, and choose the leaders you please.’ You do not take a person who, for years, has been hobbled by chains and liberate […]
Wonder Hlongwa Police have been blamed for the latest spate of taxi wars in Gauteng, which has claimed 20 lives in the past two weeks. Both the provincial transport department and taxi organisations say police either turn a blind eye to taxi-related crime or are involved in the crimes themselves. In the past two weeks, […]