SHAUN DE WAAL speaks to Graham Swift, who won the 1996 Booker Prize, and is visiting South Africa THE latest “international” (that is, not South African) author to visit the country is Graham Swift, winner of the 1996 Booker Prize for his novel Last Orders, published by Picador. He follows other recent guests who have […]
democracy Yusuf Hassan LAST Sunday’s Sierra Leone coup d’etat shocked the world. But any serious observer of Sierra Leone would have seen it coming. For years the people of Sierra Leone have been saddled with a plundering elite and maladroit regime, which left what was once a thriving nation in ruins. Five years ago, the […]
Marion Edmunds THE government is to be urged to set up a special inquiry into district surgeons and health professionals who betrayed their ethical codes in complicity with apartheid authorities. The call will be made at health hearings at the Truth and Reconciliation Commission next month and will come from among the 30 organisations making […]
FRIDAY, 11.30AM ZIMBABWEAN President Robert Mugabe has set a two-week deadline to a group of what he calls “former Rhodesians” to return to Zimbabwe to start negotiations on the future of former Union Carbide Mining subsidiary Zimasco or face seizure of the mine. “If they don’t come here by that given time then the government […]
IN one sense the collapse of New Age Beverages (NAB) is an everyday tale from the world of business – a story of straightforward mismanagement. The company expanded too fast, too soon, making fundamental strategic mistakes along the way, the biggest in distribution. Losses mounted, market share shrank and the shareholders baulked at throwing good […]
This year will be `difficult and challenging’ for the SABC, says its head, Zwelakhe Sisulu. In the light of the current turmoil there, this looks like a considerable understatement Ferial Haffajee THE South African Broadcasting Corporation is to demand nearly R1,8-billion from the government – and will threaten to pull the plug on special coverage […]
A task force reports that immigrants to South Africa need not be bad news, reports Marion Edmunds THE Green Paper on immigration recommends scrapping the country’s current system and dealing with skilled immigrants as national assets. The proposals, handed to Minister of Home Affairs Mangosuthu Buthelezi last week, call for his department officials to be […]
Chris McGreal in Kinshasa, Congo A GROWING tide of resentment against the conspicuous presence of Rwandans in President Laurent Kabila’s victorious army this week transformed a political protest into a demonstration against foreign intervention. Alliance of Democratic Forces troops broke up the protest – called against Kabila’s failure to include a leading anti-Mobutu politician in […]
FRIDAY, 12.00NOON PRIVATISATION and restructuring of the state-owned Northern Cape Diamond mine Alexkor has been suspended by the mine’s restructuring committee after it declared a dispute with government and Alexkor’s board. The committee, made up or representatives of Alexkor management, labour, community and provincial government, said the dispute arose after Public Enterprises Minister Stella Sigcau […]
Stewart Nkosi THE only reason I sat through Jump the Gun is because I had invited a companion along and it really would have been rude of me to yank her off the seat and walk out. I did ask her whether she would mind leaving, but she wanted to see all of it. So […]