upright people’ With its biennial film festival the little country of Burkina Faso plays a big role in African film-making. John Matshikiza found the `reel’ heart of Africa in Ouagadougou Give a dog a bad name and he’ll be a bad dog. Give a dog a good name, and he might just turn into a […]
The consummate politician didn’t wear socks. Thabo Mbeki’s sockless feet was one of few down-home symbols as the new-look African National Congress leader made one of his first forays on the hustings last weekend. On a sodden Saturday afternoon in Soweto, Mbeki displayed the political colours he will wear on the election trail. Like being […]
ROMAN Catholic priests incited Lesotho Defence Force troops to overthrow their commanders and later the government in a failed coup bid last year, according to court martial evidence heard on Friday. The evidence was contained in a military intelligence report submitted by the commander of the Lesotho army, Lieutenant-General Makhula Mosakeng. Mosakeng said priests visited […]
Alex Dodd This image, Berlin (1981) is part of a major Jurgen Schadeberg retrospective on show at the Gallery of Photography in Dublin, Ireland until the end of March. Although Schadeberg is best known for his classic black and white Drum photographs from Fifties South Africa, the images on show will expose viewers to his […]
ANGLO American Platinum Corporation disclosed on Thursday that its new R1,2-billion Bafokeng Rasimone platinum mine, 10km from Sun City, will be brought into full production 21 months ahead of schedule in April next year. By that time the mine will be milling 200000 tons of ore a month. Business manager George Viljoen said the new […]
Late last week I switched on to a BBC television programme de- voted to money and financial matters. On this occasion the subject was a debate about an address given earlier by Eddie George, governor of the Bank of England. I got ready to be thoroughly bored; it wasn’t long, however, before I found myself […]
KALAHARI Express Airlines, grounded by a host of problems since being granted an operating licence in 1996, now appears set to take off. KEA, to be operated jointly by Air Namibia and South African Airways’ sister airline, South African Express, is expected to start daily flights between Windhoek, Johannesburg and Cape Town before July 1999. […]
Question: What do you do with a large brown tube-like object placed between your index finger and thumb? Answer: Don’t deny the experience ever took place – as United States President Bill Clinton did after he gave Monica Lweinsky a cigar to titillate herself with while he watched. That’s the official line from the 70-odd […]
Andrew Worsdale Movie of the week `Skill without imagination is craftsmanship and gives us many objects such as wickerwork picnic baskets. Imagination without skill gives us modern art.” So said award-winning playwright Tom Stoppard who, together with Marc Norman, penned the faultless script for Shakespeare in Love. If they don’t get an Oscar nod for […]
aRonald Bergen on the life and films of Stanley Kubrick, the enigmatic and reclusive director who died recently aged 70 Over his 40-year career, the director Stanley Kubrick made only 13 feature films, yet the scrupulous care with which he chose his subjects, his extremely slow method of working, the years of planning, the secrecy, […]
SOUTH AFRICA will play Togo in June in the first round of the African qualifying round for the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games football tournament. The draw was announced on Thursday, for the first and second legs on the weekends of June 11 to 12, and 25 to 17. Group 1: Uganda v Zambia, Nigeria v […]
FRANCE said on Thursday it expects Libyan leaders to uphold the life sentences handed down here against six Libyan agents for the 1989 mid-air bombing of a French UTA airliner that killed 170 people. “Libya has to uphold the verdict in line with pledges it made, notably in a letter by Libyan leader Muammar Gadaffi […]
Neil Manthorp in Christchurch Cricket `It couldn’t have happened at a better time in my career. I grew up more in that week than I did in the rest of my life put together. If I hadn’t and I’d been the same person I was before then, I would never have survived, I just wouldn’t […]
The introduction of six bull elephants seems to have sorted out the `aberrant behaviour’ of the young males in Pilanesberg, writes Barbara Ludman It was the sort of scene certain to delight visitors lucky enough to come upon it: a young bull elephant and two much younger males browsing peacefully together in the sparse bushveld, […]
selection With the Western Stormers announcing a B team for their match down under this weekend, Andy Capostagno ponders how other sides will react Western Stormers coach Alan Solomons seems to be reinventing the traditional rules of the game on an almost daily basis. Last year, for instance, Solomons stopped releasing teams to the press […]
Matthew Krouse Down the tube `No politicians behind desks and no talking heads,” promise the producers of Real Lives, e.tv’s new 13-part documentary series aired on Wednesdays at 9pm. The first two episodes, now shown, have indeed been free of laboured political invective and emotional commentary – proving what light relief a non-judgmental approach to […]
Kevin Mitchell backs Lennox Lewis in this weekend’s world heavyweight unification bout On Saturday night at Madison Square Garden in New York, two big men will slug it out for the biggest title on offer, the heavyweight champion of the world. One of them, Lennox Lewis, is certain to be as happy as anyone in […]
PUBLIC Enterprises Minister Stella Sigcau told Parliament on Wednesday that long-struggling South African Airways is finally back in the black. Speaking during her department’s Budget vote, Sigcau said that SAA reflects a R8,4-million profit from October to December last year and has made R40-million this year.
Chris McGreal in Lagos Of all the mysteries surrounding the capture of the Lagos “man-eater”, the fate of the missing heads is the most disturbing. Clifford Orji was caught frying up human feet and ribs for breakfast under a city flyover. Severed hands lay about the place. There was even a policeman’s helmet resting on […]
FOOTBALL’S ruling body has approved emergency medical plans, including evacuation, when Nigeria host the World Under-20 Championships next month. There have been fears voiced by coaches of the standard of the medical conditions in the country. English Premiership coach David O’Leary of Leeds United announced recently that he would not allow any of his players […]
Review of the week Peter Makurube Five Guys Named Mo is a first rate musical set in Forties America – a story of love and friendship threaded around the music of jazz great Louis Jordan. The main theatre at The Market is the perfect venue for a show of this magnitude that has thrilled countless […]
GHANA, Morocco and Nigeria have applied to host the 2000 Nations Cup, the Confederation of African Football said on Friday. They will compete with original hosts Zimbabwe for the right to stage the 16-nation tournament from January 23 to February 13. The successful candidate will be named on Monday when CAF executives meet in Guinea. […]
Barbara Ludman MRS EINSTEIN by Anna McGrail (Anchor) A daughter was born to Mileva Maric and fellow student Albert Einstein a year before they were married. Baby Lieserl was given up for adoption in her mother’s village in southern Hungary so that the great man’s studies would not be disturbed. The two sons born after […]
`Le Vive? Le … something like that. Does it mean anything to you?” “Le Vive? La Veuve, perhaps? You say it has something to do with nuns?” “I think they’re nuns. They don’t speak English, so I wasn’t too sure what they were talking about.” The setting is Ouagadougou by night. We’re driving around in […]
SPARKED by crop damage fears, white maize futures reversed their upward sprint on Wednesday and turned back from the R1000-a-ton mark. A dealer said white maize futures reversed between R10 and R16 on five of the six contracts because of failed export orders for the staple grain. Traders are revising their estimates for the total […]
David le Page So you’re driving down the information highway (no “super” – it’s Telkom). You’re on your way to a website in Durban, and you decide to pull in to Harrismith to check your e-mail. There, of course, your Cyberhost is cheap, friendly and accommodating – just like the Wimpy. Well, Internet start-up company […]
This is International Women’s Week and even if I wanted to, I could not prevent myself from thinking about womanhood. What is a man to make of women these days? Since the feminists took over, it has become extremely difficult for my gender to interact with females. Once, in a newspaper office, I casually smiled […]
ANDRE MARKGRAAFF has picked two new caps for the Cats team to play the Sharks in a Super 12 rugby match at Ellis Park on Saturday night. Pieter O’Neill from South Western Districts and Riaan van Jaarsveld from Boland will be playing at flyhalf and centre respectively. In another backline change, Jorrie Kruger comes in […]
WORKERS at Zimbabwe’s Boka Tobacco Auction floor, which belongs to the late tycoon Roger Boka, have reportedly not been paid for two months. Several of the business empire’s bank accounts have also been compulsorily closed. Boka, once seen as the champion of black empowerment in Zimbabwe, died after a long illness last month. Workers are […]
Andrew Muchineripi Soccer It is unfortunate that at a time when South African soccer should be presenting a united front to the world, cracks are appearing in relations between the national association and its professional wing. Premier Soccer League (PSL) chief executive Joe Ndhlela last week requested that referee Petros Mathabela be barred after the […]
If you knew what leaders of the different opposition parties tend to say about each other over, for example, lunch with a journalist, you too would have sat up and taken note of an event last Friday. Leaders of the New National Party, Democratic Party, Pan Africanist Congress, African Christian Democratic Party and Freedom Front […]
Allegations that Hernus Kriel influenced casino licensing have surfaced. Chiara Carter and Ivor Powell report A man who served on the Western Cape Gaming Board has accused former premier Hernus Kriel of exerting undue influence on decisions to license casinos and urging a cover-up of an alleged bribe by a business friend. The allegations are […]