NATIONAL Party leader FW de Klerk is juggling the chicken and the egg, and cannot decide between the two. The chicken is the current NP: it clucks about forming a “new new” National Party and scratching for dirt on the African National Congress, particularly in the backyards of the Western Cape, where it struts its […]

GLYNIS O’HARA speaks to the versatile Sibongile Mngoma, a young soprano who is riding the wave of opera in South Africa SUPERLATIVES fly for Sibongile Mngoma (25), the soprano whose voice has overwhelmed critics, conductors and the public. “I think she’s great,” says Robert Maxym, freelance American conductor and musician resident in South Africa. “She’s […]

South Africa’s brain drain Marion Edmunds SKILLED foreigners should be lured to South Africa to fill the gap left by the brain drain, according to research for an influential government task team on immigration. Social scientist Robin Cohen says official statistics have not adequately reflected the exodus of professionals with valuable skills from South Africa, […]

Nick Price had his first victory in 15 months last weekend, and he’s hoping it will be the first of many this year GOLF:Jon Swift THERE’S a new lady in Nick Price’s life. A fat one. And she has much to do with the Zimbabwean’s changing fortune in tournament play. The new fat lady is […]

Charles Krauthammer in Washington IN 1991 in the Dutch city of Assen, a perfectly healthy 50-year-old woman asked her doctor to help her die. Her two sons had died, one by suicide, one by cancer. She wanted to join them. After many hours of consultation, Dr Boudewijn Chabot consented. He was at her side when […]

Newspaper houses are planning to spend close to a million in an attempt to scupper the government’s crackdown on tobacco advertising, reports Jacquie Golding-Duffy MAJOR newspaper houses are planning to spend close to R1-million to fight the government’s crackdown on lucrative tobacco advertising. Documents in the Mail & Guardian’s possession show that nearly half of […]

Iden Wetherell in Harare ZIMBABWE’s human rights record has taken a hammering with a United States official report detailing violations ranging from police brutality to interference in the media. The US State Department’s 1996 Country Report on Zimbabwe criticises the government for failing to pursue past allegations of torture and refusing to prosecute police and […]

Jacquie Golding-Duffy BROADCAST RESOURCES (BR), the network programming services arm of Primedia Broadcasting, is reassessing its role in the market with rumours persisting that the network may even shut shop. Resources managing director Chris Gibbons this week said the network is “reconfigurating”. BR is operating at a loss and the market it was planning to […]

The struggle for democracy in Swaziland is becoming increasingly violent, reports Ruaridh Nicoll in Mbabane INTERNATIONAL trade union leaders flew out of Swaziland this week threatening to blockade the kingdom unless its monarch, King Mswati III, releases four of their colleagues from prison and reforms the archaic system of government. Four union leaders were jailed […]