Farouk Chothia in Durban THERE is a new Battle of Blood River. This time it’s over a bid by the Voortrekker Museum to upgrade the kwaZulu/Natal monument to the original 1838 battle at a cost of about R1-million. According to sources, the Voortrekker Museum wants to build a “British-style medieval fortress with battlements, towers and […]

Critical Consumer Pat Sidley SOUTH AFRICAN consumers should be getting used to the notion of debating critical issues around their health care. But one issue that needs a bit more attention is the rationing of health care. More precisely — who should live and who should die, a question facing hospitals and health maintenance organisations […]

Mark Gevisser THE deadlock over the future of ex-bantustan broadcasters — notably Bop-TV — may have been broken. Broadcasting Minister Pallo Jordan has created a ministry-led task group to investigate the issue and will promulgate an omnibus Broadcasting Bill this year that will set conditions for “provincial public media”. These two initiatives are the result […]

Is indigenous work going to get its due in the new South Africa’s school arts curriculum? Ivor Powell investigates a muddled situation BLAME it on the government of national unity, if you like, with its guarantees of jobs for civil servants. Or you can blame it on the new government’s White Paper on education and […]

IT should come as no surprise that there are military ghosts in the SABC machine. In a way, it’s a bit unfair to single out new head of Agenda Nico van Burick when there are so many others, in places as influential or more so, who participated in the use of the SABC as a […]

TOKOLOSHES, these creatures which do the work of witches, are central to the culture of the people who live in the Lowveld. It is widely believed that anyone who owns one of these animal-like beings can acquire great wealth at the expense of others. The tokoloshe — which looks like a baboon or a short […]

Eddie Koch and Vusi Khoza THE Zoeknog coffee plantation near Acornhoek was the site of a novel labour dispute late last year. After a driver died in a motor vehicle accident, the 150-strong workforce went on strike and demanded rights to consult a sangoma and sniff out the witches among them who had caused the […]

Media and marketing Clive Simpkins THE marketing of our new dispensation is not and should not be to the overseas investment community only. There’s dignity-marketing too. Like many of the people I speak to, I am desperate that we project a mature, rational and dignified national image and example to countries both in Africa and […]

Gaye Davis in parliament THE huge task of writing the country’s new constitution began in earnest this week as political parties squared up against each other in sometimes acrimonious debate, spelling out their vision for the document which will become the supreme law of the land. Deputy President Thabo Mbeki rejected the notion of continued […]