wall Madeleine Wackernagel Opinion is swinging away from an increase in value-added tax (VAT) in next week’s Budget, as the cost in terms of inflation and labour relations is deemed too high. Instead, Finance Minister Chris Liebenberg is expected to go ahead with the Katz commission proposals to tax the retirement funds, despite strong opposition […]
Tough bouts in Tunisia are the last chance for South African boxers to book their places to the Atlanta Olympics BOXING: Julian Drew A rhythmic whirling sound intensifies the hypnotic concentration etched on the faces of the national boxing squad at a small hall in Maraisburg. They have just completed a warm-up run and are […]
David Le Page THIS year’s Grahamstown Festival once again looks likely to have the town bursting at the seams with debuts, premieres, installations, exhibitions and screenings. Details of the line-up released this week reveal a myriad attractive theatrical possibilities. South Africa provides the context for an adaptation of a Brechtian classic — The Good Person […]
others GOLF: Jon Swift THIS season heralds great things for Wayne Westner, the runaway winner of the FNB Tour’s Order of Merit with a staggering R709 308 in winnings on the circuit. The hugely talented Westner has ironed some of the inconsistencies out of his game and shown an admirable composure in adversity, such as […]
Journalists rally in support of Fred M’membe and Bright Mwape, jailed for criticising the Zambian government. Justin Pearce reports Newspaper editors from South Africa and Namibia are to visit Zambian president Frederick Chiluba to demand the release of the two Zambian journalists who were arrested this week. The journalists face an indefinite prison term if […]
world The construction industry is positive about a better year ahead, locally and internationally, reports Karen Harverson Despite a slowdown in the building and construction industry towards the end of last year, the industry is optimistic that activity will pick up significantly by mid-1996. “The situation is a lot better now than two years ago,” […]
Mbongeni Ngema, director of Sarafina II, in The Mark Gevisser Profile DEPENDING on which way you look at it, Mbongeni Ngema is the very best or the very last person you’d want to give a R14-million Aids education contract to. Even his biographer, Laura Jones, was moved to chide him, in an otherwise-salutary Nothing Except […]
natural disasters Bafana Khumalo OKAY now. I’ve always known that I grew up under a racist regime that intended me to remain ignorant for the rest of my life. What I did not know, however, is how far the regime succeeded. They succeeded so much that the basics of Western concepts remain a mystery to […]
Stefaans Brummer SOUTH AFRICAN arms dealer Ters Ehlers — ex- President PW Botha’s last private secretary — has been implicated in “unauthorised” flights of a Russian cargo aircraft between South Africa, Namibia and Angola. Namibian Deputy Minister of Transport Klaus Dierks last Friday said his department had grounded the Russian- registered Antonov-12 in Grootfontein pending […]
A 61-year-old white farmer stands accused of sexually abusing nine schoolgirls. Strangely, none of his neighbours seem surprised. Ricardo Dunn reports Ockie Olivier’s smallholding in Louisrus is typical of this depressed area south of Johannesburg: a creaking windmill, wild flowers and stray dogs set against the backdrop of steelworks, industry and pollution billowing into the […]