Justin Pearce THERE’S music floating over the boxy, red- brick buildings of the University of the North: the creamy sounds of Kenny G’s saxophone. The music is issuing from a loudspeaker on the wall of the student centre, the home of Radio Turf. Inside the studio, science student Thapelo Sehume is behind the microphone, chatting […]

THEATRE: David Le Page IN February 1956, in the foothills of the Drakensberg near Bergville, a group of Zulu dagga farmers took severe umbrage when the South African Police attempted a raid on their crop. It was, after all, not only a traditional indulgence, but their livelihood. At first the police retreated, but it was […]

For Helge Janssen, cult status’ has meant an 18-year career on the margins of the artworld. He spoke to HAZEL FRIEDMAN EVERY city has its cultural heroes, those living legends who define the times (and themselves) by defying the norms. Durban had Helg Janssen, DJ, designer, film-maker, performance artist and painter, tapping into the psyche […]

Vuyo Mvoko ‘THE World in Soweto” — a project to be launched today by President Nelson Mandela — will give foreign governments the chance to make their mark on one of South Africa’s biggest and most famous townships. According to the project’s founder and co- ordinator, Zelda Mantle, it is envisaged that a foreign country […]

ANGLO AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL CORPORATION (AMIC) has invested R117-million in a South African safety syringe plant to be set up in Somerset The project, due to be commissioned by the end of 1996, signals Anglo’s entry into the medical consumables and equipment market. Safety syringes can only be used once and reduce the risk to healthcare […]

SLOWLY DUMA SKHOSANA, convicted “Sharpeville Six” murderer, is breaking his hunger strike, but he remains resolute to force a retrial to prove his Skhosana (38) has gone back to “prison” volutarily. Sentenced and convicted with five others for the 1984 mob murder of Sharpeville deputy mayor Jacob Khuzwayo Dhlamini, he is staging a sleep-in and […]

Evelyn Groenink DUTCH do-gooders have run into flak at home for handing out R20-million to South African political parties without any built-in checks and balances on how the money is spent. The organisation giving the money is the Foundation for the New South Africa (FSA), which is made up of representatives of political parties in […]

Simon Segal WITH South Africa’s inflation rate, down to 6,3 percent in October, at levels last seen in the early 1970s, much is being said about the economy entering a lower inflationary Most economists (there are a few exceptions) see South Africa’s inflation rate remaining in single digits both next year and in 1997, averaging […]

Mail & Guardian reporter A TEAM of prosecutors worked around the clock this week putting the final touches to the 40-odd-page indictment against former defence minister Magnus Malan and nine others. Malan, former Military Intelligence chief General Tienie Groenewald and eight other former and serving officers are charged with murder, attempted murder and conspiracy to […]

>From zouk to mbalax, world music is available — and pushing back the borders of Anglo- American culture. SHAUN DE WAAL dips into its SOME years ago, I lamented in these pages that there was more African and Third World music to be found in London’s Virgin Megastore than in all of South Africa. So […]