Pallo Jordan has outlined ambitious plans to modernise South Africas telecommunications essential for joining the information highway, reports Jacquie Golding-Duffy Telkom has set itself the phenomenal target of connecting five million new phones by the year 2000. They have the backing of the Telecommunications Ministry which regards widespread access to telecommunication services as central to […]

Nicole Fritz and Rehana Rossouw Mongezi Stofile was one of thousands of former MK members who reported this week to the Doornkop military base outside Johannesburg to demobilise from the South African National Defence Force (SANDF). He no longer wishes to serve in the military, and went to Doornkop to take advantage of a package […]

ATHLETICS: Julian Drew AT the Old Mutual South African Cross Country Trials on Saturday the cream of South Africas middle-distance running talent will do battle over the same Stellenbosch course that in six weeks time will play host to the world cross country championships. The world championships will be the biggest and most prestigious athletics […]

Marion Edmunds Cape Town wine merchant Vaughan Johnson is to appear in the Cape Town magistrate’s court on February 20 charged with employing a foreigner illegally in his Waterfront wine shop. British-born Sharon Meeking pleaded guilty to working without a permit and paid a fine of R750. Johnson refused to pay an admission of guilt […]

The Get Ahead Foundation’s Don MacRobert bemoans the fact that most overseas development funding is going to the government rather than NGOs FINDING the money to fund the government’s essential Reconstruction and Development Programme (RDP) was a relatively easy task. Finding ways to ensure that people at grassroots level benefit directly from the programme is, […]

CARNAGE in the streets of the Sri Lankan capital, Colombo, where more than 80 people were killed and about 1 300 injured last week by suspected Tamil suicide bombers, is a terrible reminder of the human cost of civil war and of the limits of force in solving chronic ethnic conflicts. The violence shows no […]

Marion Edmunds The R-word hit the newspaper headlines with meaning for the first time this week, after ANC hard-liner MP Pravin Gordhan warned minority parties that if negotiations failed, a referendum would be a reality. At a time when parties are shaping up to negotiate the worst of the disputes in the final constitution, this […]

Hazel Friedman The SABCs drama department is filled with intrigue, but not of the scripted variety. The mystery revolves around the criteria used to commission scripts for drama series and sitcom programmes. Independent film-makers claim they are being discriminated against as they are SABC outsiders, while the SABC drama department insists everything is being done […]

Some film-makers feel the SABC is not being fair and equitable to both in-house and independent producers, reports Jacquie Golding-Duffy While the SABC is committed to independent production, some independent film-makers are frustrated and are accusing the corporation of foot-dragging its implementation of commissioning procedures. A commissioning procedures task group, with representatives from the SABC […]

The SABC’s grand relaunch: Was it worth the money? Did anyone learn anything? Will advertisers support the new-look state television station? Jeff Zerbst found the SABC’s grand relaunch of its TV stations to be a spectacle loaded with symbolism for the new South Africa IT was in a spirit of awe and reverence that one […]