Friday night Marianne Thamm Friday nights in the city are rather predictable. I’ve never really liked them. Most of us are generally too tired from the week’s toil to really let rip. There’s nothing brave about going out on a Friday night. Friday nights are for the faint- hearted. But Monday nights are another thing. […]
Barry Streek Government departments do not always get their administration right – and even the institute set up to teach them how to do it has slipped up. This was revealed when Auditor General Henri Kluever tabled his annual report for the 1997/98 financial year in Parliament. The South African Management Development Institute was established […]
Mungo Soggot Police have raided Cape empowerment group Brimstone’s pharmaceutical arm for the second time this year, seizing a batch of stolen antibiotics. The swoop on Monday follows a high profile raid on the company in May, in which the narcotics squad confiscated stolen painkillers as well as assorted drugs allegedly destined for the state […]
There is something uncomfortably familiar about what has become known as the Tuli elephant scandal and it is not just the tradition of cruelty by man to dumb animals. It lies in the apparent impunity enjoyed by some individuals who are engaged in activities which, if not criminal, are anathema to the rest of society. […]
claims Barry Streek Former Minerals and Energy Minister Penuell Maduna this week admitted that he could not be “bothered” to retract his groundless accusation in Parliament in June 1997 that Auditor General Henri Kluever conspired in a cover-up of the theft of R170-million worth of oil. Though he was aware within days that the claim […]
Niki Moore President Thabo Mbeki, Swaziland’s King Mswati III and Mozambican President Joaquim Chissano have given the Lubombo spatial development initiative (SDI) a shot in the arm, which it is hoped will help raise R1- billion for development projects. The three heads of state signed a protocol at the Southern African Economic Summit in Durban […]
At the end of his own century, the veteran economist JK Galbraith sums up the state of the planet. Some inhabitants are gloriously free from toil. Others starve I was born and reared on a farm in Canada. To this day I never awaken in the morning without a sense of satisfaction that I will […]
A top official at the University of the North has been accused by a commission of inquiry of forging former state president Nelson Mandela’s signature on a fundraising letter to raise more than R600-million. Documents that form part of the findings of a commission appointed by the university to probe irregularities show that John Wiltshire, […]
David Shapshak Western Cape scientists, working with their counterparts in Texas, have discovered the gene that causes one of the most common forms of blindness. Now that they know where the gene is, scientists can begin work on a drug to act specifically on it. The scientists used Silicon Valley analysis techniques to mine the […]
Riaan Wolmarans Let’s face it. Raves are getting a bit boring. You have your big venue, your carefully label-dressed crowd of several thousand, the laser lights, VIP ticket holders glaring snootily from some balcony … it could be a description of any of the big dance events of the past few months. Now don’t get […]
Kasia Boddy THE ANGLE OF INCIDENCE by Alex Benzie (Viking) Alex Benzie’s novel begins with a Freudian primal scene. Five-year-old Cameron stumbles upon his parents in the act of generation. Rather than sending her son away, his mother, Catherine, insists that he watch. She wants him to understand that it is not an act of […]
Housing for the All Africa Games is being built within sight of the Alexandra offices where refugees from factional battles sheltered in 1992 … and still live, writes Thokozani Mtshali A young woman died of pneumonia in Alexandra this week. She had lived in the former muncipal offices, into which about 300 people have been […]
Shaun de Waal Pop movie of the week Stephen Somers’s film, The Mummy, updates the 1932 original via Indiana Jones, making of it an adventure romp rather than a mere horror flick, though the monster still takes centre stage in this hugely enjoyable creature feature. He is not the somewhat sad figure provided by Boris […]
Yemi Toure Just when you thought it was safe to go into the jungles of Hollywood, along come the folks at Disney, swinging from the rafters with their film Tarzan. Disney’s official website describes how the studio came up with the image, the “look,” of the 1999 Tarzan. The studio wanted the character to be […]
Net users used to say that “information wants to be free”, but the new trend is for websites that will pay you to read them. Frequent surfers can collect cash in the form of “ipoints” or beenz the way frequent flyers collect air miles, as website owners sign up for rewards schemes that encourage customers […]
Matthew Krouse The latest incentive to bring culture to the inner city on a grand scale will probably be greeted with scepticism from suburban quarters. It’s winter again, and inner city culture suffers historically in the cold. Working against the weather, and metropolitan apathy, the French Institute kicks off its bold plan to stage a […]
Anthony Egan ROGUES, REBELS AND RUNAWAYS: 18TH-CENTURY CAPE CHARACTERS by Nigel Penn (David Philip) When asked how their latest work is doing, academics sometimes joke ironically about selling the film rights. In Nigel Penn’s case, a discerning film producer really could turn these true stories of violence, sex, race and class into costume epics of […]
David Gough Ten years after the outbreak of civil war in Somalia, there is growing optimism in the capital, Mogadishu, that Islamic groups, in partnership with the business community, are on the verge of restoring a semblance of order to the city. In the past month Islamic militias operating under the auspices of self-appointed Islamic […]
The Springboks have never won at the House of Pain in Dunedin, but the return of Os du Randt to the scrum might just be the boost the team needs. Andy Capostagno reports Three weeks ago South Africa had never scored 100 points in a single Test match. Two weeks ago Wales had never beaten […]
University of the North vice-chancellor Njabulo Ndebele says he is proud of Edupark and its achievements.
Cameron Duodu Letter From The North The late Joshua Nkomo is the sort of personality to which the world is exposed only once in a thousand years. A familiar figure in Accra in the early Sixties, when President Kwame Nkrumah was helping Africans everywhere to organise resistance against white rule, Nkomo could easily have passed […]
Newtown Some big projects, with big names, are being aired in yet another attempt to resuscitate the Newtown Cultural Precinct in Johannesburg, which first saw the light of day nearly a decade ago, writes Ricky Burnett Sometime in the early years of this decade Christopher Till, then director of culture for Johannesburg, described a future […]
The location of De Beers’s South African diamonds is now a major stumbling block in talks between the state and the giant to resolve the deadlock over gem exports. Mungo Soggot reports The battle between De Beers and the government has intensified amid accusations by state diamond officials that De Beers has backed out of […]
A few weeks ago I attended a workshop by the law commission on its draft Administrative Justice Bill. The combination of the Open Democracy Act and this Bill will be crucial legislative instruments in ensuring open, honest democracy. In the words of the Mpumalanga political lexicon, these laws will make it hard for government to […]
Andrew Muchineripi Soccer No Premier Soccer League coach is under more pressure to deliver or die than Victor Bondarenko, the former Soviet Union international who occupies the extremely hot seat at Orlando Pirates. Buccaneers boss Irvin Khoza, who kept Bonders in suspense for several weeks before giving him the green light to continue, expects at […]
Ben Laurance and Ed Vulliamy In many ways it was a very 1990s crime. The suspected perpetrator was a loner who dressed in baggy jeans and T-shirts. He worked from home and rarely went out. The technologies of cable and satellite allowed him to surround himself with more than 100 TV sets and computer screens […]
In the mystically charged Grahamstown, more drama is taking place in the streets than on the stages and in the theatres, writes John Matshikiza `I wish people would stop talking about white and black,” National Arts Festival director Lynette Marais is quoted as saying in last week’s Sunday Times, “and just talk about a South […]
South African theatre appears to be in the doldrums of self- indulgence, even though play makers are finding plenty to say, writes Matthew Krouse The National Arts Festival has been a glorious gathering of gurus – all strutting about like peacocks. It’s their moment, a time to get what they deserve. A time for nonchalant […]
Women of the sports world are no longer hiding behind their skirts. They themselves are the latest fashion trend and have no reason to be modest. That was the week of women in sport. The Wimbledon women, the women’s football World Cup and the England versus India women’s cricket test series are moving to centre […]
The falling gold price is making money for traders around the world, writes Belinda Beresford Champagne corks were popping in New York this week as traders celebrated their winning bets that the gold price would fall. Meanwhile, on the other side of the Atlantic in Pretoria, miners demonstrated in a desperate attempt to draw international […]
Fiona Macleod Riccardo Ghiazza, the man at the centre of the Tuli elephant furore, is being investigated by police in connection with a huge illegal animal-smuggling network. The endangered species protection unit (ESPU), a branch of the police service, is scrutinising Ghiazza’s alleged links with some of the kingpins of Southern Africa’s illegal wildlife trade. […]
Matthew Krouse Down the tube Of all the images of South African culture identifiable to the outside world, the Ndebele homestead must stand out as the one most exoticised. In pictures of homely bliss, postcards and books have portrayed neat little Ndebele communities as organised as the geometric patterns that women paint on their houses. […]