Anthony Egan TREKKING: In Search of the Real South Africa ‘by Denis Beckett ‘(Penguin, R59,99) One of the (few) popular and quality local television programmes currently showing is the quirky, opinionated, sometimes angry but always watchable Beckett’s Trek. Ajournalist with attitude, Denis Beckett takes often all-too-close looks at the realities and foibles of contemporary South […]

TELEVISION: Andrew Worsdale All you film-makers out there! Dust off those old video-cassettes and film reels ‘ the SABC might buy them. The three-part series Matchbox City plays on SABC3 at 9.45pm on Sunday December 22. Matchbox City was initiated in 1990 by left-wing group Free Filmmakers as a hands-on training project for its stable […]

There were stories to remember and some that editors just wanted to forget. Jacquie Golding-Duffy reports on the highs and lows in the media industry This was certainly an eventful year for the print media, with several editors admitting to a series of high notes as well as major booboos. While some editors had inaccurate […]

Police claim that a commander tried to get serious charges dropped against relatives, reports Angella Johnson Fresh evidence of police involvement in top crime syndicates emerged this week with allegations that Charlie Landman, suspended acting commander of the Brixton Murder and Robbery Unit, has close links with two brothers said to be among South Africa’s […]

Anthoni van Nieuwkerk In 1996, South Africa’s international relations went on a roller-coaster ride. The country’s multi-lateral approach to global affairs produced a number of successes, the high point of which was probably in April, when South Africa hosted the ninth meeting of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development. Also significant is the […]

* Jackie McLean / Junko Onishi: Hat Trick (Blue Note) Forget pretty young sax players sporting an earring or two. At 64 Jackie McLean is still playing with that same mixture of love, pain and fuck-you defiance which characterised his performances in the early Sixties. Three decades on, he has many more life songs to […]

An exhibition of mostly linocut prints celebrating the new Bill of Rights opened in Durban last week. SUZY BELL reports After trampling over every single clause of the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights during the apartheid era, it’s fitting that South Africans can finally express their newly found freedom in art, by celebrating the […]

As the fight for the commercial TV licence heats ‘up, bidders are closing their doors to the press. ‘Gillian Farquhar and Jacquie Golding-Duffy report Bids have already begun for the commercial television licence to be awarded by the Independent Broadcasting Authority (IBA), but most contenders are shrouding their plans in secrecy as the race heats […]

A unique project has ‘saved a little girl from a lifetime in hospital, reports Marion Edmunds The evil has for once been taken out of Ondine’s Curse, thanks to a determined mother and the Red Cross Children’s Hospital in Cape Town. They have saved a ‘cursed’ toddler from life in a hospital ward. On Wednesday, […]

Archbischop Desmond Tutu, as chairman of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, is recently reported to have issued a decree to commission members to act impartially. Among the commissioners who are reported to have been cautioned are Denzil Potgieter and Khoza Menojo. Ironically neither of these commissioners were nominated by interested parties according to nomination procedures […]