lf anything can justify Sky TV’s =9C34 charge=20 for a month’s subscription fee, it is the=20 advertising breaks during its screening of=20 live Premiership football matches. Crisply=20 directed mini-epics, with budgets that=20 would raise eyebrows in Hollywood, there=20 seems to be an arms race in the new breed=20 of commercials which fill half-times: they=20 get […]

Next week’s summit will have to negotiate=20 several tricky issues, writes Lynda Loxton National sensitivities continue to dog the=20 delicate negotiations in the Southern=20 African Development Community (SADC) as it=20 moves towards a free trade area and tries=20 to update its institutions and programmes=20 of action. Top of the list is the accusation by other=20 […]

FRIDAY, 8.30AM ZAMBIAN president Frederick Chiluba returned from a visit to South-East Asia, to show little regret at the shooting of his chief rival, Kenneth Kaunda, by a police sniper. “If some people want to provoke a government elected by the people, it is our duty to show them we are in charge. That incident […]

Robert Kirby: Loose cannon One of the first things they teach you at=20 the Newspaper Columnists School is how to=20 be two-faced. I remember one of our=20 lecturers – some frostbitten old geezer=20 calling himself Ken someone-or-other -=20 telling our class that, when it comes to=20 writing a regular newspaper column, there=20 is no greater […]

Peta Thornycroft While Ma and Pa are out on the town=20 boogying on Friday nights, their sons and=20 heirs are making whoopee back at home. At least 70 000 pre-pubescent and teenage=20 boys, between the ages of seven and 15, are=20 watching M-Net’s soft porn slot, Love=20 Street. In an analysis of TV audiences=20 between […]

Design of the week: Swapna Prabhakaran Dedicated dancers at ESP, Doornfontein’s=20 roofless rave venue, have been waiting for=20 a month to see what’s behind the heavy=20 material curtains. Big signs have warned:=20 “Don’t look behind here!” But all was revealed at the Garden of Eden=20 party last Sunday. Despite a badly-timed=20 raid by the police, […]

Andrew Muchineripi: Soccer By early next week the upgrading of Clive=20 Barker from part-time to fulltime national=20 coach will hopefully be finalised and the=20 first, vital steps on the road to France=20 and the 1998 World Cup finals can be=20 walked. It is never too soon to prepare and one=20 trusts that the South African […]

Stephen Gray: Unspoilt places Thomas Pynchon’s new novel about those=20 geologists, Mason and Dixon, reminds us:=20 lines conquer. And where they conquered=20 most was in the Cape. Compasses and=20 theodolites, as much as the force of arms,=20 subdue nature, demarcate control. Once the=20 horizon has shifted in from the glassy=20 yonder where springbok migrated, and […]

Janet Smith The debate raging over the V-chip (violence=20 chip) in the United States has resulted in=20 compelling academic and social research=20 into American children’s viewing habits -=20 and a powerful condemnation of many of=20 their favourite shows. The V-chip – introduced in the=20 Telecommunications Act of 1996 – allows=20 American parents to block TV […]

Janet Smith South African children watch very little=20 children’s TV, and one of the most=20 important reasons for this could be that=20 most South African children are not home=20 and free to watch television until after=20 supper. When superb productions like the specially- packaged import Open Sesame (now broadcast=20 in Zulu and Sesotho) and the […]