CLASSICAL MUSIC: Coenraad Visser=20 GAUTENG audiences were presented with two of the=20 centrepieces of the classical religious repertoire=20 recently. Unfortunately, neither performance was an=20 unqualified success.=20 The Standard Bank Arena was packed with an audience=20 eager to hear Yehudi Menuhin conduct Handel’s Messiah.=20 He brought with him the Lithuanian Chamber Orchestra and=20 three soloists. They […]

The concerns of commercial farmers should be taken into account, argues Graham McIntosh ALTHOUGH some of our farmers have a racist prejudice that blacks can’t be good farmers, they represent a lunatic fringe. Commercial farmers who produce the nation’s food are hardy, realistic, resilient, cautious and adaptable. They are a precious national asset and their […]

The Mandela daughters have sided firmly with their mother after her sacking, writes Justin Pearce Winnie Mandela may have suffered the most devastating defeat of her political career this week. Yet she has won the battle for the loyalty of the Mandela children, leaving her estranged husband — one of the world’s best-loved national leaders […]

Eddie Koch A COMMISSION set up this week to probe Thor Chemicals’ importation of toxic waste to South Africa may be presented with evidence of links between employees of the British multinational and a covert weapons The Environmental Justice Network Forum (EJNF), a coalition of environmental groups, this week said it feared the commission would […]

A new airline brings more travel options to South=20 African travellers. Andre van Zyl reports=20 A new airline, Avia Airlines, has taken over the slot=20 created by Virgin Atlantic Airlines to bring an end to=20 the domination of South African Airways and British=20 Airways on the lucrative and historic Johannesburg- London route.=20 Avia’s crew will […]

Justin Pearce THERE’S almost R1 000 in banknotes taped to the window of the manager’s office at Hillbrow’s Fontana bakery. Well, it looks like a thousand bucks’ worth. In fact, all of the notes are fakes, and all have been handed over the counter since January this year. “It’s rife around here,” says manager Basil […]

Some of the sharpest words about the Budget were said by ANC members in Parliament this week, writes Gaye Davis IT was the first Budget on which the ANC was able to exert its influence — but that didn’t stop ANC MPs from handing out brickbats along with bouquets in their assessment of it this […]

Despite her ranking as one of the more prominent and most highly-regarded women in the African National Congress caucus, Brigitte Mabandla’s appointment as Deputy Minister of Arts and Culture, Science and Technology has come as a surprise. Mabandla, a constitutional and human rights lawyer, has no experience in either the arts or the technology world. […]

Jan Taljaard THE first salvoes in the battle for the rightwing vote in November’s local government elections have been fired by two big rightwing guns, Ferdi Hartzenberg and Constand Viljoen. Competing against the rain, rugby and Queen Elizabeth’s visit to the capital last week, neither the Freedom Front’s (FF) Viljoen nor Conservative Party (CP) leader […]

BALLET: Stanley Peskin=20 IT has not been established whether Emma Livry’s costume=20 caught fire while dancing the title role of Taglioni’s=20 Papillon (1860) or during a rehearsal of Auber’s opera=20 La Muette de Portici, in which the role of the dumb girl=20 was traditionally played by a ballerina. =20 Whichever account of her death is […]