Jacquie Golding-Duffy SEVERAL members of the government’s communications task group, Comtask, have accused the Cabinet of endorsing a “stage- managed operation” to ensure the survival of the old-guard South African Communications Service (Sacs). Deputy President Thabo Mbeki, who established Comtask last year to investigate the government’s relationship with the media, last week rejected its recommendation […]

With newspaper sales dropping even further, publications will have to become more innovative, reports Jacquie Golding-Duffy The downward trend in newspaper circulation has once again been reflected in the Audit Bureau Circulation (ABC) sales figures for the last six months of 1996. The freefall seen during January to June 1996 among most mass targeted urban […]

GWEN ANSELL speaks to Zim Ngqawana about his moves and shakes.

MARIA McCLOY discusses fame with Molo Fish star David Meyer ‘I’m not very good at this, am I?” says Molo Fish’s David Meyer half-way through our interview. After three years as a TV presenter, five months on the series set as young Daryl Malgas and three episodes, he’s shocked that people in the street want […]

increases Afrikaans Newspapers The latest circulation figures indicate once again an increase in the Afrikaans press — both dailies and weeklies — with Die Burger showing the highest increases (5,2%). In light of the political divisions among Afrikaans readers, this increase in Die Burger’s readership is particularly significant and says much about the beleaguered National […]

SOUTH AFRICA’S second annual Adult Learner’s Week will be celebrated from March 3 to 9, run by the National Literacy Co-operation (NLC). The NLC views Adult Basic Education and Training (ABET) as a fundamental right of all our citizens, though only 1% of the country’s R32-billion education budget is spent on ABET. On February 20, […]

Multi-directorships are still a concern despite recent efforts to expand the field, reports Max Gebhardt Anglo American again leads the field with the largest number of multi-directorships, according to the latest information from McGregor’s Who Owns Whom for 1997. Michael King and Leslie Boyd from Anglo share top billing with 24 directorships each. Out of […]

Lynda Loxton The government has been urged to provide subsidised interest rates to carefully targeted small businesses and to allocate more funds to support this sector, which is seen as playing a vital role in easing South Africa’s high unemployment rate. The recommendation was made by the parliamentary trade and industry portfolio committee after a […]

David Bowie has introduced pop investment, but will others follow in his footsteps, asks Neil Spencer The days when David Bowie represented the cutting edge of modern pop may lie back in the Seventies, but the 50-year-old Bowie proved he’s still an innovative force in the business of music when he invented the pop star […]

Eddie Koch THE truth commission is discussing plans to subject staff to a security clearance test in a bid to prevent the leak of sensitive information. But some of the body’s 17 commissioners – a group which sits with chairman Desmond Tutu and his deputy, Alec Boraine, on its executive committee – have refused to […]