Cinema: Justin Pearce Rue Princesse, by Ivorian director Henri Duparc, appears at first like a made-for-television movie. It takes the form of an extended situation comedy with a judicious dose of sticky moments, escapist glamour and mild sexual innuendo — not to mention a happy ending. But its script has an edge to it that […]

Thami Mazwai of the Black Editors’ Forum in The Mark Gevisser Profile Last Saturday night at the Carlton Hotel, while a band trundled tonelessly through a rendition of Stand by Me in the function room next door, Thami Mazwai’s Black Editors’ Forum (BEF) gathered to contemplate its relationship to press freedom, to the white mainstream […]

Karen Harveson Over the next two decades, three-quarters of world trade will take place in the emerging markets, of which South Africa is one. Speaking at a Bell, Dewar and Hall presentation on trade and business in South Africa last week, United States Minister Counsellor for Commercial Affairs Millard Arnold said the US, along with […]

Rehana Rossouw MINERAL and Energy Affairs Minister Pik Botha this week blamed the Strategic Fuel Fund (SSF) for allowing a “rust bucket” tanker — which spilled 66.5 tons of crude oil into the sensitive Saldanha Bay area — to slip through safety controls. The spill, some of which seeped into the Langebaan lagoon reserve, fulfilled […]

Local-content rules will help the industry, writes IBA chair Peter de Klerk in a response to the M&G THE new local-content rules for television are designed to build a South African TV-programme-making industry —so that South Africans can see and hear themselves on our TV screens, and to create jobs in a key industry of […]

The sentencing of 18-year-old schoolboy Uwer Rayner Campher to four years’ jail without the option of a fine, just a few hours after his arrest, has been described by Lawyers for Human Rights as “absurd”. “Bizarre”, “asinine” and “idiotic” are just a few other adjectives which spring to mind. Campher was caught dealing in LSD […]

The troubled Limpopo River area is in trouble again — this time from the effects of herbicides used by contractors employed by the SADF, writes Stephanie Dippenaar ILLEGAL and dangerous herbicides — used by South African Defence Force contractors to control 70km of sisal fence along the Zimbabwe border — have contaminated farmers’ crops and […]

Rehana Rossouw THERE’S a new way of describing women who challenge male domination at Safety and Security headquarters in Pretoria: the women are told they are “doing a The Zelda being referred to is Zelda Holtzman, a thirtysomething from Cape Town who in June became the highest-ranking black woman in South African police She was […]

THE Attorney General of KwaZulu-Natal, Tim McNally, is suing the Mail & Guardian for R250 000 over reports published last month detailing criticism of his handling of investigations into hit squad activities. McNally, charging that the reports “cut at the very heart of his reputation and dignity”, has demanded publication of a “complete, unconditional and […]

Craig Hedderwick ARTS ALIVE this year has a particularly lively dance component — a 24-day celebration and exploration of the diverse styles of South African dance, to be held at the Dance Factory in Newtown. More than 300 performers will present a feast of contemporary, African and jazz dance. The entire spectrum of dance culture […]