Robert Kirby: LOOSE CANNON I see The Great Professor Jay Naidoo is up to his Indian rope tricks again. Should racist-bashers bulge to the previous sentence, let rest. I use the term, Indian rope trick, in its flattering sense. As a part-time magician, I have only praise for illusi ons that both delight and confuse. […]
In less than 14 days the IBA will award the coveted free-to-air TV licence, writes Ferial Haffajee Most of the seven television bid companies were on tenterhooks this week. Many have invested millions of rands in the bid that will attract millions more in foreign investment. No matter who wins, the spin-off from the new […]
Stefaans Brummer Gauteng Premier Mathole Motshekga has spun a web of lies around an accident three years ago in which his luxury Toyota was wrecked. Afterwards, he ran up a car-finance debt of more than R140 000, but ignored a court order to settle. The inconsistencies appear to include perjury, when Motshekga insisted in an […]
Mungo Soggot Don Mkhwanazi, the state oil chief under investigation for receiving “kickbacks”, enjoyed special acknowledgement from Deputy President Thabo Mbeki at a public gathering last weekend. Mbeki’s office has confirmed he turned to Mkhwanazi during his speech and said the businessman was “looking good despite what the Mail & Guardian has written about him”. […]
GANDHI’S LEGACY: THE NATAL INDIAN CONGRESS, 1894-1994 by Surendra Bhana (University of Natal Press, R64,95) Though not the only Indian political organisation in Natal during the last century or so, the Natal Indian Congress (NIC) was by far the most important in terms of commitment to liberation not just for Indians but for the disenfranchised […]
Lynda Gledhill A recent study published in a medical journal suggests that DMF, the main chemical constituent of Virodene, may activate the HIV virus. South African medical experts who reviewed the article said it raises serious questions about Virodene and its potential affect on Aids patients. The study showed that several industrial solvents, including DMF […]
FRIDAY, 6.00PM: THE Johannesburg Stock Exchange ended down on Friday, pressured by futures trade and profit taking. The all gold index wound down 6,4 points to 679,9, the industrial index 51,7 points to 8515,2, and the financial index 122,9 points to 13234,1. The all share index finished down 64,8 points at 7179,7. Around 130,328-million shares […]
Pallo Jordan: CROSSFIRE ‘Twilight,” my friend Karl-Heinz explained, “is the quintessential dialectical concept. It is the transition from light to darkness, from day to night. It tells us also that both day and night are but moments in a continuing cycle during which each day i s transformed into its opposite by the passage of […]
Craig Bishop: National Festival of the Arts The astonishing art of two-tone singing is practised by just three cultures: Tibetans, Mongolians and by a small group of Xhosa-speakers in the Lady Frere district of the Eastern Cape. Lady Frere’s Ngqoko Choir practises a singing art so special that it has been recorded and studied by […]
Emeka Nwandiko With a sharp intake of breath, followed by an oath, Aubrey flicks his left wrist and casts to the concrete floor a pair of dice. A three and four is scored, notching up his winnings to R50. He is all smiles: considering that when he began the game of ama dice he had […]