The Hitch-hiker exhibition bristles with bizarre ideas and dazzles with techno- wizardry. So what’s new? HAZELFRIEDMAN didn’t find the challenge AT the very least, Hitch-hiker will probably go down in the annals of contemporary art as one of the most aggressive – and effective – inter-media marketing blitzes ever undertaken by the local artworld. It […]

A few years ago you could have counted SA’s independent music producers on one hand. Today, reports GLYNIS O’HARA, the industry is booming THEIR products are legendary, the stuff of teenage dreams and, sometimes, adult enjoyment, yet few people outside the music industry would know the names of producers Thapelo Khomo and Don Laka. Youngsters, […]

NGO Week saw the sector calling for more control over funding and policies, reports Aspasia Karras THE choice of Rand Afrikaans University as the venue for NGO Week set the tone for the ironic paradigm shift the sector has been forced to make since 1994. The megalithic laager hosted 500 delegates, representing an estimated 30 […]

Hazel Friedman CULTURAL politics in Johannesburg is deadlocked while the city’s former director of culture, Christopher Till, awaits “clarification” on his future position. And unless the situation is sorted out soon it will jeopardise funds for the rapidly approaching 1997 Biennale. As a result, Danie Malan, who heads the Transitional Metropolitan Council (TMC) – which […]

More research is urgently needed into the effects of cellphones on the brain, reports Ben Potter from London ‘EAR, what’s all this fuss about cellphones? Are cellphones bad for the brain? The possibility that they could be is cause for serious concern, says Australian writer and commentator on the communications industry, Stewart Fist. He argues […]

REALPOLITIK forced South Africa’s recognition of mainland China and its decision to cut off official ties with Taiwan. Those who suggested the decision reflected the influence of the South African Communist Party on the government were missing the point. No serious international player can continue without ties to a country of China’s size and growth […]

Celia Weston EUROPE’S oil and gas companies face a $23- billion bill for disposing of offshore rigs and platforms in the wake of the resurgence of the political controversy which dogged the Brent Spar. This is the key finding of a confidential report commissioned for the European Union’s environment and energy directives and discussed at […]

The Minister of Public Enterprises is seeking direct control over Eskom’s equity, raising concerns of a backdoor attempt at nationalisation. Max Gebhardt reports THE Ministry of Public Enterprises has set the ball in motion to bring Eskom under direct government control, despite admitting that such a move could raise doubts among foreign investors over the […]

Helen Meintjies and Robert Aitken MA DLADLA doesn’t complain much about the absence of refuse removal or the long queues to get water from one of the five standpipes in her shanty town. She prioritises a different concern: paraffin is expensive and getting more so. She lives in a shack settlement with high levels of […]

Chris Dunton and M&G reporters NOT even Britain’s publicity-hungry Booker Prize could have come up with the scandal that rocked the French literary world last week. Calixthe Beyala, winner of the 100000-franc Acadmie Franaise’s Grand Prix du Roman, was accused of plagiarising Ben Okri’s 1991 Booker winner, The Famished Road. Beyala denied plagiarism: “I know […]