Amid all Cosatu’s and business’s bluster lies a danger that the central tenet of Gear – job creation – will be ignored, writes Madeleine Wackernagel BUSINESS has until Monday to respond to the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu), which threatened continued mass action unless business accedes to its demands over the Basic Conditions […]

Sarah Boseley in London PRE-MENSTRUAL syndrome (PMS), often blamed for turning women into murderers and arsonists, is all in the mind, according to new research from Australia. Psychologists monitored women who said they had PMS, together with two control groups – women who did not claim to suffer and men. They found all three groups […]

JULIE BARKER enjoyed the vibrance and variety of the performers at the FNB Vita Community Theatre Festival THIS year saw the seventh FNB Vita Market Theatre Lab Community Theatre Festival bursting at the seams. At the opening ceremony, the FNB general manager of group communications said that the pursuit and promotion of excellence within the […]

Why do Pedi men wear Scottish kilts in their traditional dress? MARIAMcCLOY listens to some tall stories THE Lesedi Cultural Village in the Magaliesberg offers an expensive and contrived African experience. Visitors can “sing, dance and taste traditional Africa”. This includes them getting to see a group of Pedi, Zulu, Mosotho and Xhosa. They can […]

Robin McKie in London SCIENTISTS are developing the ultimate in designer genes: genetically engineered plants that produce naturally blue cotton. The aim is to make denims that can be manufactured without dyeing. The blue-gene project, created by United States chemical giant Monsanto, reveals the flourishing power of crop geneticists. Last year, this resulted in a […]

Shaun de Waal BORN IN THE RSA: FOUR WORKSHOPPED PLAYS by Barney Simon (Witwatersrand University Press, R39,95) LIKE Joan Littlewood, with whom he worked, and Athol Fugard, to whom he was close, Barney Simon made theatre out of a process of bringing real life as directly as possible to the stage. Simon’s actor-collaborators would be […]

Dan Moyane is the biggest casualty of 702’s ‘repositioning strategy’, reports Hazel Friedman DAN MOYANE, the Radio 702 morning chat-show host who was suddenly taken off the air last week, did not jump. He was dumped. And in terms of a restraint agreement, he may be off the air for the next year. The agreement, […]

Armed gangs of ‘Zulus’ and ‘Khoikhois’ roam the streets fighting for the control of Brazzaville, reports Dalal Magan GANGS of armed youths roam the rutted streets. Some as young as 12, who can barely handle their automatic rifles, engage in sporadic fighting for the control of Brazzaville. As the battle rages, travellers who have managed […]

Ruaridh Nicoll in Mutjiku, Western Caprivi, Namibia THE Kxoe, an 8 000-strong section of Southern Africa’s Bushman community, are being squeezed out of their lands in Namibia’s Caprivi Strip by the regal aspirations of a neighbouring tribal leader. Erwin Mbambo, chief of the Mbukushu people, has given land belonging to the Kxoe to the Namibian […]

FRIDAY, 11.30AM MEDIA group Nasionale Pers on Thursday announced it had finalised a R110-million deal for the sale of its City Press Sunday newspaper to City Press Media, a newly formed company 40% owned by three black investment groups. Naspers chairman Ton Vosloo said City Press “has the potential to become the first newspaper in […]