Glenda Daniels If the newly formed Millennium Council, a bilateral between labour and business, modelled on the successful Irish model, works, it would be great for South Africa. Now all we need is the economic growth that followed the formation of the Irish counterpart. The Irish bilateral, where social dialogue between business and labour yielded […]
Nicky Blumenfeld In attempting to secure a record-company deal, an increasing number of artists in South Africa invest their own time and money, in the hope that their demo will be heard and their efforts acknowledged. Just more than a year ago as a radio presenter I received one of these self- made initiatives, put […]
Nawaal Deane SOCCER Bafana Bafana jetted off from Europe to the United States for the Four Nations Nike Cup Tournament starting in Washington on Saturday. The four countries competing will be South Africa, the United States, Mexico and the Republic of Ireland. South Africa will open their US tour against the US on June 2 […]
Luvuyo Kakaza CD OFTHEWEEK Miriam Makeba’s latest release, Homeland (Putumayo), lives up to its epic name. It pays tribute to Makeba – affectionately known as Mama Afrika – a living legend of African music. It also showcases a collaboration of African sounds, cultures and beats. It cannot be compared to any of Makeba’s past albums. […]
Heather Hogan A Dutch Reformed minister’s son was sentenced to life imprisonment in the Johannesburg High Court this week for the hijack and murder of the bodyguard of Joe Nhlanhla, the former minister of intelligence. Pule Mokoena (26) appeared in court along with three other men, all of whom were facing charges of murder, robbery […]
There’s more to India for a South African traveller than just Mahatma Gandhi and cricket Lauren Shantall ‘Hello! What country?” So goes the “getting-to-know-you” mantra in India. You’ll hear it often enough if you decide to slake a Western thirst with the clichd promise of the East. Luckily for the South African tourist, this typical […]
PETER CUNLIFFE-JONES, Freetown | Friday 9.40am. GOVERNMENT forces in Sierra Leone have sent reinforcements to the strategic town of Lunsar, near Freetown, reclaimed earlier in the week by rebels, as fighting resumed ahead of a pull-out by 800 British troops. The rebel Revolutionary United Front lost control of Lunsar on Monday but regained the town […]
bitter past Andrew Feinstein On January 22 1943 my mother and her parents received, at their home in Nazi- occupied Vienna, a letter from her 84- year-old grandfather. It read in part: “My dearest children. I have received your letter and thank you for your best wishes on my journey, to which I am not […]
Themba Khoza, who died on Sunday, was at the centre of some of the most brutal killings in living memory Ivor Powell When Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) firebrand Themba Khoza died of Aids- related illnesses on Sunday, so did many of the secrets of one of the darkest chapters in South Africa’s recent past. Khoza […]
Can Tolkien’s classic be read as an allegory about the dark forces of globalisation? Larry Elliot It’s what a generation of superannuated hippies have been waiting for – the big- screen version of The Lord of the Rings. With Sir Ian McKellen as the wizard Gandalf, JRR Tolkien’s epic is being filmed in some of […]
AHM Scholtz published his first novel, Vatmaar, in 1995 at the age of 72. This acclaimed debut won the M-Net Prize, the Eugne Marais Prize and the CNA Literary Award. The panoramic tale of a small town in the Northern Cape has been translated into Dutch and German. Chris van Wyk’s new translation brings A […]
PRESIDENT Thabo Mbeki flew to Europe on Thursday for meetings in Germany and Denmark with world leaders where he is expected to push Africa’s development agenda. Mbeki will carry with him the message that he delivered to the United Kingdom and United States during visits there this month — that Africa needs international assistance to […]
Philippa Garson The radical findings of the curriculum review committee, set up to investigate the workability of Curriculum 2005, signal the long-overdue arrival of some clarity and reason on the issue. The Department of Education has for years doggedly pushed ahead with the implementation of an essentially flawed and jargon-laden curriculum, despite cries of confusion […]
Neal Collins RUGBY South Africans will probably be recoiling at the thought of Martin Johnson leading another group of tourists to the Rainbow Nation this month. Last time the huge Leicester lock captained a touring side against the Boks, he led the Lions to a shock victory over the then world champions in 1997. But […]
Connie Selebogo The youth development club in Moutse, Mpumalanga, has developed a new literacy campaign consisting of a computer project on maths and science called Computer Aided Maths Instructions (Cami). However, the project is stalled for a while for lack of computer equipment. A pilot Cami project has been implemented in one of the local […]
Thebe Mabanga IN YOUR EAR Johannesburg-based adult contemporary station Kaya fm 95.9 is steadily making inroads in winning over a fastidious and habit-driven audience – the black middle class – using retro sounds with a world music slant. Since its August 1997 launch, Kaya has entrenched its distinct sound. Its music selection is astute, yet […]
ETHIOPIA and Eritrea mulled peace proposals before resuming indirect talks in Algiers on Friday, but Addis Ababa reported renewed fighting a day after it declared their two-year-old border war over. The Ethiopian government accused Eritrea of attacking its positions on the eastern front on Thursday, saying Eritrean shellfire has killed two civilians and wounded eight. […]
Steven Friedman WORM’S EYE VIEW Taking from those who have most does not necessarily mean giving to those who need most. Our government has chosen to respond to events in Zimbabwe by insisting that we need more urgent land redistribution. To many, that conjures up images of land being shared among the poor. But that […]
Barbara Ellen BODY LANGUAGE It seems to be the fate of some women to become relationship universities. What usually happens in these cases is that the woman in question is involved with a man for many, many years. They grow and learn together. Often they will cohabit, and buy lots of “stuff” to cement their […]
Duncan Campbell Ridley and Tony Scott, two of Britain’s most celebrated film directors, reacted with fury and more than a little embarrassment to an advertisement placed by their company that critics say is offensive to black people and women. They apologised profusely for the advert, in the trade weekly Shoot, which has led to picketing […]
What took place this week at the Department of Education’s 123 Schoeman Street headquarters, soon to be renamed after Sol T Plaatjie, was profoundly significant. A team of educationists was given the platform to pronounce judgement on one of the government’s most flashy and therefore politically laden flagship projects – Curriculum 2005 – in the […]
THE petrol price is to rise by 8c a litre on Wednesday. The Department of Mineral and Energy Affairs said on Friday that the wholesale price of diesel will decline by 6c a litre and that of illuminating paraffin will drop by 4c per litre. From Wednesday, 93 octane will cost R3,31 per litre in […]
Jon Henderson TENNIS Whether to trash or tank? Marat Safin’s progress in the French Open – and there are many who believe the 20-year-old Russian can go all the way to clay-court tennis’s premier title this year – will depend on which of these diametrically opposed options he takes over the next week. Safin in […]
David Beresford ANOTHER COUNTRY Leafing through an old copy of the Penguin Book of Lies (out of which falls a dusty gift card fondly admonishing me not to “take it personally”) I am moved to a confession, not as to a lie, but a resource. Parkinson’s gets one down from time to time – times […]
Traditional financial services are no longer confined solely to the ‘big fish’ or the conventional banking sector Alan Finlay With the hostile bid by Nedcor to acquire banking rival Stanbic dominating the headlines a few months ago, one might be forgiven for thinking that the health of the sector is entirely dependent on what the […]
Lauren Shantall Making a mini-pilgrimage to see the saffron-robed Sai Baba could easily be classified under the header “The Weird and the Wonderful”. For Baba is the controversial holy man who has been seen belching rings of blue flame from his belly, the venerable Sri who manifests gawdy gold jewellery from the aether, and the […]
He is at home on the international stage, but Thabo Mbeki battles to get his message through at home. Howard Barrell reports Thabo Mbeki ends his first year as president of South Africa bearing some resemblance to Jan Smuts, the Boer general turned prime minister who led the country 60 years ago. Like Smuts, Mbeki […]
LEFT FIELD Ebrahim Harvey Long last have I read an article so contradictory and dishonest as that by Dale McKinley last week in Crossfire, “The cheerleaders of capitalism”. He was until recently a political economist of the South African Communist Party, which is, together with the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu), in an […]
commission Khadija Magardie The Human Rights Commission (HRC) is investigating possible criminal charges against Minister of Public Enterprises Jeff Radebe. This follows an application by the Mail & Guardian to investigate Radebe, after remarks he made in a submission to the HRC during the racism in the media hearings earlier this year. Radebe accused M&G […]
Barry Streek The government has released details of its R374-million Community Based Public Works Programme (CBPWP) for the current financial year, including a R50-million programme to involve unemployed young people in making government buildings accessible to disabled people. It has also allocated R6-million for repairs to roads and bridges damaged by the floods earlier this […]
Chris Louw I read a book, I wrote a letter, and a floodgate opened. That would be the simplistic way of looking at an episode that has dominated the Afrikaans dailies’ letters pages for the past month. Because the overwhelming reaction to my open letter to Dr Willem de Klerk after reading his book Afrikaners: […]
Job-sharing in today’s hi-tech workplace is a flexi-work trend overseas, and it’s beginning to take off in South Africa Glenda Daniels If just one boss is more than enough of a headache, imagine two or three. But many workers worldwide, and in South Africa, are hopping aboard the globalisation fast-train and dealing with the changing […]