Marion Edmunds THE Presidential Review Commission, created a year ago to help in the reform of the public service, was set up for failure and should be abolished, one of its own members says. Professor Fanie Cloete, of the School of Public Management at the University of Stellenbosch, has accused the government of manipulating the […]

Jacquie Golding-Duffy THE Daily Dispatch’s circulation has grown in leaps and bounds, thrusting this small East London-based player into the ring with some of the big boys of print media. Gavin Stewart (54), who took over the newspaper’s helm three years ago, has stealthily changed its format and content into an explosive formula which has […]

The hunt is on for informants in the ANC, report Ann Eveleth, Rehana Rossouw and Peta Thornycroft THE African National Congress is sitting on information linking one of its prominent provincial members of Parliament in KwaZulu-Natal to the former South African Security Police. The allegations about the MPP first surfaced in 1994 following the death […]

Chris Taylor THERE was a time when clubs in Rio de Janeiro needed look no further than the nearest side street, car park, beach or backyard for the next crop of football talent. Young players seemed to sprout like the weeds in the wasteground where they would hone their skills until it was too dark […]

Would this year’s Bandslam follow the triumphs of last year? MALU VAN LEEUWEN was at the River Club concert APOLOGISTS for the so-called South African Music Explosion are probably going to hate me for this, but it’s so corny it’s worthy of a Leon Shuster gag – except the man has more taste than to […]

Hazel Friedman A MILESTONE in educational programming on television and radio has been reached with the SABC’s new Learn `N Live initiative, giving independent producers an unprecendented opportunity to make their mark by replacing the SABC’s traditionally stodgy fare. Learn `N Live, a joint initiative between the SABC and the Department of Education, not only […]

LESLEY MARX revisits The Space theatre and some of its stalwarts and memories in time for the 25th anniversary celebrations ARTHUR BENJAMIN has a huge warm wicked generous laugh. It erupts as he tries to explain why Brian Astbury was, for him, an inspirational figure at The Space Theatre: “He got you to do things […]

Education gets more money but too late to prevent stringent cost-cutting and student unrest, report Tangeni Amupadhi and Carien du Plessis THE Ministry of Education may have succeeded in securing more money for tertiary education, but it has come too late to prevent stringent cost-cutting on campuses across the country. Several universities and technikons contacted […]

Letsholo THE Botswana government has dismissed as “lies” reports from Bushmen in the Central Kalahari Game Reserve that they are being pressured to leave their ancestral lands with verbal promises of hard cash. The permanent secretary in the Ministry of Lands, Elridge Mhlauli, said this week that he was still in the process of answering […]

Stephanie Pain in London SCIENTISTS are increasingly being forced to get into bed with big business. The change is partly out of necessity: government funding for research is dropping and scientists have to finance their work. But it means that where research was once mostly neutral, it now has an array of paymasters to please. […]