THURSDAY, 1.30PM: THE Sports Ministry mooted legislation on Wednesday enabling it to intervene in sports affairs “when things go wrong”. The Sports and Recreation Department is responsible for promoting sports and recreation, but has no statutory authority to do so. In addition, the duplication of the functions of the department and those of other sports […]
Donna Block The bullion price has sunk to new 20-year lows amid heavy fund selling, and the barbarians are at the gate once again. Most analysts agree the short-term outlook for gold is decisively negative. Traders, speculators and hedge funds are taking advantage of that negative sentiment and keeping the downward pressure on the metal […]
Nigeria’s transition to democracy will come full circle on Saturday. Chris McGreal reports Nigeria’s first elected president in two decades will be sworn in on Saturday to grapple with a plundered treasury, decaying infrastructure and unrest in the oil fields, while wondering if there’s a soldier waiting to take his job. President Nelson Mandela is […]
Transforming human tragedy into humorous – or humane – entertainment is a daunting and, some may say, dubious task. It didn’t work when Anne Frank and her family were turned into a musical. But it did when Roberto Benigni took similar anti-Semitic subject matter and turned it into a mass- appeal movie. Perhaps the success […]
Moses Qomoyi Right to Reply It is not at all clear what Ted Baumann and Diana Mitlin are attempting to prove in “The unpleasant truth of housing delivery” (Letters, May 21 to 27). Although their article appears to be intended as a critique of housing delivery, it develops into a general attack on South Africa’s […]
Tara Turkington Northern Cape Premier Manne Dipico is confident he will be back in his office the week after next. At 40, the country’s youngest premier is charming in a down-to-earth and engaging way. “Take me as Manne, man,” he says with a flick of his wrist, “I’m just Manne.” Dipico stayed the five-year distance […]
ANDREW MUCHINERIPI, Johannesburg | Thursday 4.00pm. FOR FA Cup read BobSave Super Bowl, for Manchester United read Kaizer Chiefs, for Newcastle United read SuperSport United. The Red Devils defeated the Magpies 2-0 on the green turf of Wembley last Saturday and it would come as no surprise if the Amakhosi triumph by the same margin […]
Aaron Nicodemus Last week it was baboon meat; this week health authorities are warning travellers off eating bats. Bat meat is apparently being served as a delicacy in some restaurants in the Seychelles, but the British Airways Travel Clinic in Johannesburg warns tourists that eating them could be a health risk. Says Dr Andrew Jamieson, […]
Roger Ballen’s photographs are simple black and white images. The reactions they provoke are far more complex. Brenda Atkinson delves beneath the surface Arranging to interview Roger Ballen was becoming difficult. Not because he was difficult to get hold of, but because he insisted, holding me to the prospect like someone in a photograph, his […]
DAVID SHAPSHAK, Johannesburg | Thursday 5.00pm. Gary Teichmann has retained his Springbok captaincy in a 32-man squad named by coach Nick Mallett on Thursday. The number eight and Natal skipper missed the last four weeks of the Super 12 with a knee injury – which precipitated a captaincy scare. Also named is another key player […]
Rian Malan Crossfire Before we take off the gloves here, let us pay tribute to Piers Pigou for having the courage to defend the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s finding with regard to the infamous Boipatong massacre, or at least attempt to deflect attention from its real nature (A Second Look, May 21 to 27). It […]
A new crisis, a new premier, but firms enriched by the end of communism go on salting cash away, writes Simon Pirani Russian prime ministers come and go – Sergei Stepashin is the fourth in 14 months – but the flight of capital is constant. It flows through semi-legal and illegal channels into assets denominated […]
A COMMERCIAL Bank of Malawi official has said that local and international investors are taking a “wait and see” approach to the June 15 elections. Fred Kanjo, the bank’s head of economic research, sayd investors have adopted a more cautious stance before making any firm investment decisions. Malawi has experienced a growth rate of about […]
Cameron Duodu Letter from the North The furore in South Africa over the right of the editor of the Financial Mail, Peter Bruce, to determine what political party the paper should support in the forthcoming election will amaze readers from the north. You see, we are not at all used to freedom of the press. […]
Andrew Worsdale Movie of the week I remember taking my first cap of LSD (it was only a quarter) in 1982 when I saw Steven Lisberger’s Tron, which had Jeff Bridges as a computer programmer caught up in a game. The drugs and, for that time, dazzling special effects seemed to cancel everything out. I […]
Donna Block Share World They say variety is the spice of life. So if you’re looking to spice up your investment portfolio, warrants could be just the ticket. Warrants are a right to buy or sell a specific asset at a specific price for a designated period of time. They make it possible for investors […]
again A Super 12 rugby victory has once more slipped away from SouthAfrica. Andy Capostagno looks at some of the reasons for the failure Prepare the cold soup, it’s an all-New Zealand final. The Super 12 has again eluded a South African team, just when it seemed that the Stormers offered the best chance since […]
Evidence wa ka Ngobeni The management of the Rand Afrikaans University (RAU) has agreed to pay compensation to victims of vicious assaults by the protection services on the campus. RAU management has bowed to pressure from black students, who have called on the Human Rights Commission (HRC) to probe human rights violations against them. Last […]
We talk of “subcultures” in a positive tone, expressing the potential of a kaleidoscope multi-culture to be vibrant and stimulating rather than its danger to come apart at the seams of its component parts. Difference does not equal opposition, and there’s a place in the sun for everyone. An intriguing visual microcosm of the complex […]
John Matshikiza With the Lid Off Isn’t there a fairy tale by the Brothers Grimm in which a young lad goes off into the world to seek his fortune, admonishing his old mother, who is not very bright, to make sure that she always locks the door securely when she goes out? And doesn’t the […]
Stephen Gray FRAGILE HERITAGE: A ROCK ART FIELD GUIDE by David Lewis-Williams and Geoffrey Blundell (Witwatersrand University Press) The surface of the rock shelter overlooking the offices of this newspaper is blank these days; the bright gallery of San paintings that celebrated how the country had been for millennia has dimmed and eroded off. On […]
TUESDAY, 6.30PM: A CONTINGENT of seven South Africans will compete in the 1998 African Weightlifting Championships in Algiers from the beginning of June. The competition will be unique in that female weightlifters will also be allowed to compete. The inclusion of two women, Bronwyn Gertse and Loriaan Daniels, in the South African side may be […]
THE appeal of former president PW Botha (83) against his conviction for ignoring a Truth and Reconciliation Commission subpoena was postponed to be heard in the Cape High Court on Friday. The postponement is to allow for outstanding matters. Botha was convicted last August for ignoring a summons to testify to the commission, thereby contravening […]
WEDNESDAY, 7.00PM: SOUTH AFRICA rattled up an impressive 283/7 in their alotted 50 overs against Minor Counties at a cold and blustery Stone on Wednesday, with veteran all-rounder Brian McMillan scoring 79 runs in his stand at the wicket. The 34-year-old, dropped for the one-day Texaco series, cracked seven fours and four sixes off the […]
ERNIE Els exceeded his own expectations with a superb 66 to take an early lead in the first round of the Deutsche Bank-SAP Open on Friday. The 29-year-old South African had not played for five weeks after the Masters in April before arriving at St Leon-Rot to take on the best field in Europe outside […]
PRESIDENT Nelson Mandela will attend Saturday’s inauguration of Nigeria’s new civilian president Olusegun Obasanjo, his office said on Wednesday. Mandela is to leave for Nigeria on Friday, a presidential statement said. The president had originally been scheduled to address a major election rally in the Indian Ocean city of Durban on Saturday to mark the […]
OWN CORRESPONDENT, Harare | Thursday 1.00pm. THE World Bank says that for the first time since independence in 1980 Zimbabwe has failed to service its foreign loans on schedule, a report in Thursday’s independent Financial Gazette said. The Gazette said it had a copy of a letter from World Bank president James Wolfensohn to International […]
SEVERAL Zimbabwean soldiers are missing in the war in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, but the army will only give details when the war ends, a Zimbabwean newspaper reported on Wednesday. “It is only at the end of the campaign that I … will compile a report which details all we have lost in […]
ABOUT 10 men armed with AK47 and R4 assault rifles robbed a coal mine in Secunda of over R1-million meant for salaries early on Tuesday morning, police said on Wednesday. Police spokesman Inspector Sibongile Nkosi said the men stormed the Sasol Brandspruit Coal Mine at about 4.30am when a security company delivered the money. “About […]
LEICESTER manager Dean Richards on Monday backed new England captain Martin Johnson to make a success of his dramatic and sudden promotion following Lawrence Dallaglio’s decision to step down. British Lions skipper Johnson, who led Leicester to the Premiership title this season, takes charge of England following Dallaglio’s resignation, announced at Twickenham earlier on Monday. […]
A PETROL bomb has exploded at the house of a leader of South Africa’s United Democratic Front in Nyanga, a black suburb of Cape Town, police said on Wednesday. Nobody was injured in the attack on Erasmus Ndakane’s home in the area where five politicians have been killed in the run-up to South Africa’s June […]
MORE than five million Malawians have registered to vote in general elections on June 15, the electoral commission said on Wednesday. Chairman James Kalaile said the voters represent 102% of the projected number of eligible Malawians. Voter registration has been hit by a number of problems, causing it to be extended twice and forcing a […]