OPERA: Peter Klatzow VERDI’S Nabucco (Cape Opera Festival) may not be one of his most popular masterpieces, but it offers plenty of evidence of the mastery which was to follow in Rigoletto and La Traviata. Already present is his astonishing ability to weave disparate characters and melodic lines together into a cohesive ensemble. As is […]

Peter Mokaba has denied the accusations levelled against him and has blamed the director of the NTF for the financial crisis, writes Mduduzi ka Harvey AS the National Tourism Forum (NTF) chaired by former ANC youth leader Peter Mokaba heads deeper into financial crisis, divisions have been drawn in the upper echelons, with two factions […]

Farouk Chothia THERE have been seven attacks on prominent Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) members involved in peace initiatives with the ANC since last September. The Human Rights Committee (HRC) suspects these attacks are being carried out by hardliners who oppose the peace initiatives of their moderate colleagues. But IFP senator Philip Powell vehemently denied this. […]

MUCH fuss was made in the last week over the crisis in the government of national unity and FW de Klerk’s threats to abandon the ship. But there was never a real crisis. For one thing, De Klerk’s threats were hollow. It was a tantrum by someone who is still coming to terms with the […]

Burning issue: More than 70 people have been killed in the Northern Transvaal owing to witchcraft since April 1994 … The malevolent tokoloshe and the snake that drinks blood. Amid flashes of lightning and under a new moon, Eddie Koch, Edwin Ritchken and Vusi Khoza, investigate a strange case of sorcery in the Eastern Transvaal […]

Weekly Mail Reporter THE Weekly Mail & Guardian hired a private investigator to “bug” the offices of former Civil Co-Operation Bureau chief Staal Burger in 1992 after receiving evidence from a number of sources about secret meetings at his Hillbrow hotel, the Johannesburg Magistrate’s Court was told this week. The intention, senior staffer Eddie Koch […]

Classical Music: Coenraad Visser IN its first two concerts this year the Transvaal Philharmonic Orchestra showcased local artists and composers, in this way setting an example hopefully followed by other orchestras in this country. After a round of competition triumphs overseas Francois du Toit returned home to give a elegant performance of Beethoven’s first piano […]

What’s in a name? Plenty if its a branded product which is bypassing the regular channels. Reg Rumney reports. AS a rule you can’t count on what’s available at flea markets — except for cheap brand-name audio cassette tapes, the essential element of the home-taping the record industry abominates. Not only at flea markets, but […]

TELEVISION: Luke Alfred EVEN on the telephone Mark Gillman is all you expect him to be. As he lolls in the bath somewhere in Cape Town, the presenter of NNTV’s Livewire is likeably egocentric, just as he is on the little blue screen. Gillman is the shape of things to come in television: cosmopolitan, manic, […]

What does your business card say about you? Reg Rumney has some suggestions. The most impressive business card I received last year was that handed to me by the venerable head of Anglo American chairman’s trust Michael O’Dowd. It states simply in black print, “M. C. O’Dowd, 44 Main Street, Johannesburg,” and gives the relevant […]