water Eddie Koch THE construction of expensive and environmentally damaging dams – and new inter-catchment transfer schemes like the controversial Lesotho Highlands Project – could be postponed by revolutionary water- saving measures contained in municipal regulations to be introduced across the country this year. The proposed Israeli-style regulations, some of them so dramatic they were […]
CLASSICAL ON CD: Coenraad Visser THE new Decca diva is American soprano Renee Fleming. Two years ago she was a last-minute replacement for Georg Solti’s live recording of Cosi fan tutte. So enthusiastic was the critical reception that Decca immediately signed her as an exclusive artist. That spurred a publicity campaign last launched to place […]
In the first of a series of articles on economic policy, Asghar Adelzadeh of the National Institute for Economic Policy looks at industrial development South Africa’s industrial development has been and remains deficient, with serious problems: a lack of capacity in intermediate and capital goods; an aged capital stock, reflecting limited investment in the past; […]
Ann Eveleth THE Inkatha Freedom Party is planning to strip all political powers from its secretary general’s post in an effort to prevent future holders commanding the influence over the party enjoyed by past incumbents. Ben Ngubane, the KwaZulu-Natal premier and IFP acting national chairman, told the Mail & Guardian this week that party officials […]
Mark Milner and Christopher Zinn in Sydney AUSTRALIA is facing one of the biggest share flops in its history after investors cold-shouldered an innovative package aimed at financing the building of the Sydney 2000 Olympic stadium. Final figures for the A$364,4-million (R1265-million) issue, which closed on Thursday last week, have not yet been released, but […]
TV programmes are being rescheduled in an attempt to win back advertisers and viewers, reportGillian Farquhar and Jacquie Golding-Duffy IN an effort to increase advertising revenue and attract viewers, the SABC’s three TV channels are rescheduling prime- time programmes, dropping most magazine productions and introducing “more entertainment-driven” television like game shows and foreign sitcoms. The […]
Jean-Claude Buhrer in Bern reports on Swiss banks’ efforts to keep a distance from Mobutu and rumours of his hoarded millions AFTER getting its fingers burnt by the Ferdinand Marcos affair and, even more, by the present controversy about what happened to assets deposited in Swiss banks by the victims of Nazism, the Bern government […]
Tangeni Amupadhi took a trip to Zion City Moria – along with three million worshippers of Africa’s biggest church THE masses who gathered at Zion City Moria, 40km from Pietersburg, last weekend, did not only pray and listen to the sermon of their leader, Bishop Barnabas Lekganyane. They also bought souvenirs and food, including Zion […]
taxes James Meek in Moscow CONFUSION and chaos reigned across 11 time zones last week as hordes of Russians fought bureaucratic obstacles in a final attempt to throw off their reputation as a nation of tax-dodgers and settle their accounts with the revenue. In a country where people commonly accuse the government of stealing their […]
KAROO ARTSFESTIVAL: Gustav Thiel AN overweight twentysomething turned around and asked whether I would mind if he “killed the fucking kaffir with the beer can”. This was moments before cans were thrown at Miriam Makeba during the now infamous concert at the Klein Karoo Arts Festival. Ton Vosloo, managing director of Nasionale Pers, the main […]