Mungo Soggot TWO of Johannesburg’s elite schools went head-to-head this week, not on the playing field but in the somewhat seedier surrounds of the Randburg Magistrate’s Court, to settle a case of assault, with racial overtones and a sporting twist. The case stemmed from a fight at the Randburg Waterfront last year between two students, […]

Catalyst Films is becoming the busiest and most respected production house in South Africa. ANDREW WORSDALE reports IN early 1986 Jeremy Nathan was doing his military service with the film unit of the Entertainment Corp – a virtual propaganda wing for the South African Defence Force. At night, though, he’d hang out with friends Matthew […]

THEATRE:Andrew Wilson STEVE MARTIN’s award-winning play, Picasso at the Lapin Agile, currently running at the Civic Theatre, bears a marked resemblance to Nicholas Roeg’s brilliant 1985 film Insignificance, sharing not only the concept, but some of the characters. Working from Terry Johnson’s satirical script, Roeg’s film gathers together four prominent characters from the Fifties in […]

Adrian Dawson in London A YOUNG playwright from Edenvale is currently earning interest in the West End of London, Britain’s theatreland. Backpay, by 24-year-old Tamantha Hammerschlag, is being staged at the illustrious Royal Court theatre, known for its pioneering of young talent. Hammerschlag is clearly delighted at having her work staged at the Royal Court. […]

Alexander Chancellor in London I CANNOT quite decide how worried to be about this cloning business. Since some scientists in Scotland announced recently that they had created an exact copy of a sheep from one cell in its udder, the British newspapers have been full of what they like to call “chilling prospects”. The Times […]

Mick Cleary OOPS! You’re barely round the first circuit of the interview and you’re off the track already. All those good intentions to steer a straight line along a route of technical interrogation, bluffing furiously about gear shifts, aerodynamic force, fuel loads, go up in smoke as you give into temptation and plough straight into […]

Charl Blignaut LEADING music concert promoter Attie van Wyk said this week he wants to bring international actors to South Africa in an effort to rejuvenate the country’s languishing theatre industry. He disclosed plans to add an International Theatre Division to his already successful Big Concerts promotions company. To be headed by Bernard Jay, entertainment […]

Jan Raath in Harare INVESTIGATIONS into allegations that former Zimbabwean president Reverend Canaan Banana repeatedly raped and sexually abused at least one police aide-de-camp have begun “in full seriousness”, a police source said here this week. “The commissioner [of police, Augustine Chiuri] said inquiries would begin immediately, and they did,” the source said. He would […]

Mungo Soggot OLIVER HILL, South Africa’s most wanted white-collar fugitive, could be back home in a matter of weeks, following the rejection this week by a London court of his appeal against extradition to South Africa. The court also torpedoed Hill’s attempts to further delay his return by denying him the right to appeal to […]

Marion Edmunds THE government is trying to revive the Presidential Review Commission, created to help reform the ailing public sector but paralysed by its own problems, which culminated recently in the resignation of its chairman. Professor Bax Nomvete, who by all accounts had a stormy relationship with the rest of the commission, has refused to […]