Anthony Egan MEMORY AGAINST FORGETTING by Rusty Bernstein (Viking ) Struggle autobiographies are becoming increasingly common – so common that one wonders if there is anything new to be said. The first chapter of this new book, however, dispels such fears. Lionel “Rusty” Bernstein’s autobiography is well-written and it contains a load of new and […]
Gavin Evans looks at the boxing future of Cornelius Sanders Cornelius Johannes Sanders, heavyweight king of South Africa and the parochial little universe of the World Boxing Union (WBU), is about to become a British product. As he explained it to me: “I’ve fought in the United Kingdom six times and I’ve had a great […]
Barry Streek The leading role of development in South Africa has to lie with the state, not with the private sector, African National Congress MP Ben Turok has written in a new book. The ANC had always assumed that a strong state apparatus would be required to establish a democratic system and that “the state […]
Matthew Krouse Down the tube Wet and worldly in the dreariest season. That’s the promise of M-Net’s winter line- up. There’s nothing local or of over- arching relevance on the pay channel in July – not that it’s criminal to propose ideology-free programming. On the contrary. When one watches television a lot, one eventually tires […]
Alex Dodd Sitting on Church Square sipping hot chocolate in the winter sunlight, you’d be forgiven for imagining for a moment that you were at a caf in Europe, and that’s probably why the French Institute has chosen the grand historic square as the spot to host its Bastille Day celebrations. In collaboration with the […]
Sathima Bea Benjamin. The name rings with enough familiar mystique to enthrall the musically conscientious and the politically conscious. It’s a name rekindling memories of her pristine interpretations of the songs of Duke Ellington, her musical mentor. It rings with the reminder of her somewhat funky 1988 tribute to Winnie Madikizela-Mandela on her most well-known […]
Angolans are press-ganged into a conflict that began before they were born and where greed has overtaken ideology. Chris McGreal reports This is not a good year for the self-styled “Joao the Survivor” to turn 21. A few weeks before his birthday the Angolan army called up men born in 1978 to throw into the […]
Jean Pigozzi has been collecting African art for years, now he has gone one step further by creating the Pigozzi Prize for Contemporary African Art, writes Denise Rack Louw `I believe that contemporary African art will be to the new millennium what Pop Art was to the 1960s,” says renowned collector Jean Pigozzi. Pigozzi, an […]
Mercedes Sayagues For tourists, The Kingdom, a posh new hotel in Victoria Falls, is a delight. For locals, it is a sore point. Sore enough that angry residents planned a protest in March. It was cancelled under threat of police repression, but the issue is not dead. In question are the hiring policies of The […]
Marianne Merten Six former Cape Town street children left for Germany for two weeks to meet other children at risk as part of a life-skills programme. It was the first time Shana Steer (14) from Mitchells Plain and Vuyiswa Nogioa (17) from Nyanga East left Cape Town. Both are excited and, by their own admission, […]
Because the Congo peace talks failed to deliver the much-promised ceasefire agreement last weekend does not mean they have failed or that Thabo Mbeki is mistakenly staking his reputation on a lost cause. The president is to be commended for his evident hard work in attempting to settle a dispute which lurks menacingly on the […]
Shaun Harris Taking Stock There is still an intimidating air about private banks. They service an exclusive ring of wealthy, often powerful clients who fall within the scope of that dreadful term, “high net-worth individuals”. So are private banks really only for the filthy rich? Well yes, but not as exclusively as in the past. […]
OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Thursday 5.20pm. POLICE are awaiting a report from the National Director of Public Prosecutions, Bulelani Ncguka, before deciding whether to take action against former narcotics bureau head, Piet Meyer, for alleged fraud and racketeering. KwaZulu-Natal police spokesperson Director Bala Naidoo said on Thursday: “We are considering acting against him (Meyer) but […]
David Sharrock in Jerusalem The Israeli government, fearful that a rush of pilgrims marking the new millennium next year will turn Christendom’s holiest shrine into a deathtrap, is putting pressure on the religious orders that control it to open a new emergency exit. The Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Old Jerusalem is where Jesus […]
David Sharrock in Jerusalem Nine hundred years after the first crusaders reached Jerusalem on a mission to free the Holy City from Islamic control, massacring thousands of Jews and Muslims, a second wave of Western Christians arrived this week with a very different purpose – to apologise for the actions of their bloodthirsty forebears. The […]
THURSDAY, 6.00PM: THE Johannesburg Stock Exchange bucked bad news from the currency and bond markets to gain 1,45% on Thursday, reports Sarah Bullen. Despite the gains, the market sentiment remained negative, Deutsche Morgen Grenfell head of trading Chris Wilde said. The rand was the problem, said Wilde, playing off its “back foot” since the morning, […]
Matthew Krouse The opening item on the programme of the National Arts Festival didn’t happen. The print of Athol Fugard’s 1991 celluloid version of Road to Mecca was damaged and replaced by his earlier Boesman and Lena. This gave patrons a chance to prepare a comparison of the version currently in production, with Angela Basset […]
Andrew Muchineripi Jnr Soccer When your grandchild greets you in 2040AD and inquires about the origins of the African Super League, you will say it all began back in 1999 when the R1-million Vodacom Challenge was launched. The child will give a blank stare and wonder what the connection is between the annual club championship […]
Iden Wetherell Zimbabweans are at each others’ throats over the ground rules for a poll next year that could decide the future of President Robert Mugabe’s 19-year grip on power. At the centre of the controversy is a constitutional review process launched by the government in May in response to growing demands for reform to […]
THURSDAY, 6.30PM: THE Zimbabwean government appears to have wrested charge of Air Zimbabwe’s privatisation process from the airlines management, an official said on Thursday. “It now seems Air Zimbabwe management has no voice over the running of the company.” an airline official said. Transport and energy minister Enos Chikowore, however, said he feels government intervention […]
WEDNESDAY, 12.30PM: CLIVE WOODWARD, coach of the English rugby side that arrived in South Africa on Monday for a one-off Test against the Springboks at Newlands on Saturday, has lashed out at “the thickheads” who organised the ill-fated English tour of the Southern Hemisphere. Woodward said his team will have time for only two training […]
WEDNESDAY, 12.30PM: THE winelands of the Cape will play host to the European golf tour for the first time when the 1999 Mercedes-Benz Vodacom SA Open is staged at Stellenbosch Golf Club. The South African Open forms part of the European Tour and will see world number two Ernie Els defending his home title, an […]
THE Tanzanian government is looking for potential buyers worldwide of the state-owned Tanzania Telecommunications Company Limited, PSRC (privatisation authority) Executive Chairman John Rubambe declared in Dar es Salaam on Tuesday. The TTCL currently has only 127000 lines connecting its customers and has been offering telephone services to about 2% of Tanzanian families, he stated. He […]
SHARON HAMMOND, Nelspruit | Thursday 2.45pm. MOZAMBIQUE will lift its ban on elephant hunting in the next month and start selling off 1,8 tonnes of ivory seized from poachers. The ban was introduced in 1990 after the government signed the Convention on the International Trade in Endangered Species. The convention was amended this year to […]
HISTORY will be made on Thursday when Gill Marcus takes over as deputy governor of the Reserve Bank. Marcus will be the first woman in the country to occupy such a post within the bank. She succeeds Chris de Swardt who retired on Wednesday. She is reluctant to comment on any future policy shifts: “In […]
MPUMALANGA Premier Ndaweni Mahlangu has dismissed reports that he will be meeting with Public Protector Selby Baqwa on Friday to explain his public defence of lying as a political technique. Mahlangu’s new spokesperson, Sefako Nyaka, said the planned meeting on Friday was actually between a junior official from the premier’s office and representatives from the […]
OWN CORRESPONDENT, Canberra | Thursday 4.30pm. RUGBY union superstar Jonah Lomu on Thursday dismissed suggestions he could be tempted to switch codes if he continues to be overlooked by the New Zealand All Blacks. Melbourne Storm rugby league side plan to cast their eye over Lomu when the New Zealand A side plays the Australian […]
THE two men accused of the 1988 Lockerbie bombing on Wednesday failed in their effort to persuade judges that a newspaper article was in danger of prejudicing their forthcoming trial. Lawyers acting for Abdel Basset Ali Mohamed al-Megrahi and al-Amin Khalifa Fhimah had argued that a front page story in the Sunday Times a month […]
ZIMBABWEAN Vice-President Joshua Nkomo died on Thursday morning, state media report. State radio and Ziana news agency reported that the 83-year-old died in the early hours of Thursday at the Parirenyatwa hospital in Harare, where he was admitted several weeks ago suffering from prostate cancer.
A JOHANNESBURG High Court judge on Wednesday dismissed an application for an urgent interim interdict by two former Civil Co-operation Bureau agents who wanted the book “Dangerous Deceits” banned from being distributed or sold because it contained “defamatory” passages. The book, written by Frank Welsh and published both in South Africa and abroad, implicated the […]
MINING company Consolidated African Mines (CAM) Wednesday reported an attributable profit of R132,5 million for the past financial year. This came after a loss of R178,6 million for the nine months to March 1998, the company said in a statement. CAM owns 64% of JCI Gold and has shares in the prominent Western Areas and […]
OWN CORRESPONDENT, Washington | Wednesday 8.30pm. THE World Bank on Wednesday announced an agreement to grant Mozambique $3,7-billion in debt relief from its external creditors. In terms of net present value, which reflects current interest and exchange rates, the relief is worth $1,7 billion dollars against present value of future debt obligations. The assistance is […]