Cindy Shiner in Obuasi, Ghana JUST beyond the yellow “no trespassing” sign, a burly fellow who calls himself “Jangu-man” stood ankle-deep in chemical-laced black muck. He scooped some into a wooden gutter with a dented old army helmet and washed it, letting promising particles gather into a porous brown cloth. Quicksand-like pits have claimed the […]

Last week this newspaper reported an event which brought back just what the old South Africa was like. We pictured a 1991 meeting involving the governor of the Reserve Bank, a Cabinet minister and a former chief justice at which the bank’s extraordinary secret decision to hand out money to an ailing bank was discussed […]

FIX your bayonets, send in the drummer boys and duck: the Gauteng Children’s Theatre Wars continue to rage. Over the past decade or so the genre has been ruled by two titans — sure, there’ll always be Janice Honeyman and the Civic, Annie Barnes’s Out-of-the-Box, Pact and others gripping your children’s attentions, but if you […]

Human rights abusers are staying away from the truth commission — and the attorneys general are being blamed, reports Stefaans BrUmmer THE Truth and Reconciliation Commission has been left in the lurch by those it needs most to solve the mysteries of the past — human rights abusers — and attorneys general are being blamed […]

WHEN University of Zululand lecturer Mandisa Hlatshaneni resisted hijackers who were trying to steal her car on campus recently, she was shot dead. The evening before, student Sibusiso Mehlo was murdered two kilometres from the same campus, allegedly by the same notorious “Khumalo gang”. Incidents like these are becoming almost commonplace, shattering the illusion that […]

Alliances are unlikely to make opposition parties more powerful against the ANC, writes a sceptical Marion Edmunds Opposition parties have begun flirting with each other in the post-election political lull, in an attempt to find common ground and sharper definition against the ANC, before the1999 ballot. And while meetings between political parties lead to speculation […]

With 2% at stake, Western Cape clothing workers are to make history by striking for higher wages, writes Rehana Rossouw The clothing workers’ strike is their first in the Western Cape for higher wages. Although there have been work stoppages over the years, never before has there been a co-ordinated strike by the overwhelming majority […]

SWIMMER Penny Heyns has shown the way for the South African team with two gold medals for the 100m and 200m butterfly evets. Marianne Kriel also finished among the medals with a bronze in the 100m backstroke. Now it’s the turn of the athletes and none has a better chance than 800m sensation Hezekial Sepeng. […]

Richard III, on circuit this week, was sent into the world as a play. Ian McKellen talks to MARK LAWSON about bringing the killer king to cinema IT is a depressing fact that most of the best comic anecdotes turn out to be false. European movie fans last year enjoyed smugly chortling at the story […]

In the wake of the disastrous Mossgas `market testing’ exercise, it has emerged that the government effectively turned down a R1-billion bid from the Saudis. Mungo Soggot reports In the week that President Nelson Mandela led a top- level delegation to Europe on a “sell South Africa” mission, the government turned down an offer by […]