Staff Reporter

society My colleague Mungo Soggot’s glib call for a total ban on guns (“What’s the hold-up on banning guns?” January 29 to February 4 and preceding editorial “Ban guns, build jails, fire Sydney”) is as useful as a call to ban malaria. The fact is that guns are not so much a problem in themselves […]

THE De Beers black empowerment deal involving the high-grade Marsfontein mine in the Northern Province is undervalued by half, it was reported on Friday. It was announced last Friday that a 24% share of the mine will soon be held by black companies. De Beers is selling 49% of its 60% in Marsfontein for R200-million […]

SEVEN people were rescued by the Durban Fire Brigade on Thursday night, after a torrential downpour flooded the city, Radio 702 reports. The seven people were rescued in the Reservoir Hills area after 120mm of rain fell on the city in three hours. Fire chief Mark te Water said: “So far we are working on […]

EMERGENCY workers at Sydney airport in Australia have been commended for preventing what could have been a major air disaster, when a South African Airways jet caught fire shortly after landing. SAA’s regional manager in Sydney, Thevan Krishna, said SA 281 flight had just landed with 140 passengers on board when passengers and the control […]

Fiona Macleod A Pretoria businessman is suing conservation authorities for about R7- million after he discovered that buffalo he bought at a public auction are infected with a disease that is fatal to cattle. At least 150 cattle have died in the past two weeks at a farm in Dundee, KwaZulu-Natal, where the buffalo are […]

Unknown to most of the official delegates at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, last weekend, a caravan of 60 leftist economists, researchers and activists had sneaked through the police cordons to stage an “Alternative Davos”. It included intellectuals and activists from all five continents, a motley but determined crew who had spent two […]

A PAIR of Siamese twins who were separated at the abdomen last month have died, a doctor at Pretoria’s Ga-Rankuwa Hospital said on Thursday. The first twin died on Monday and her sister died on Thursday from a blood and bone infection related to prolonged intravenous feeding, paediatric surgery head Lesek Marciz said. The little […]

AMANDA Coetzer beat defending champion and top-seeded Lindsay Davenport of the United States 2-6 6-4 6-3 on Friday in the Toray Pan Pacific Open in Tokyo. The upset sees the seventh seeded South African advancing to the semi-finals — along with Australian Open champion Martina Hingis, who defeated Steffi Graf of Germany 3-6 6-2 6-4. […]

Jonathan Jones on an unlikely affair between Kenneth Tynan and Louise Brooks – and the widow who told their story in a screenplay Martin Scorsese is best known for his films about the violently deranged and delusional, about boxing, vigilantism and the mafia. Now he is set to tackle a story about a British theatre […]

NIGERIA’s military ruler General Abdulsalami Abubakar has won the African Man of the Year Award for 1998. The Nigerian ruler received the award from the African Sun Times, a publication for African readers published in New York. Previous winners of the annual award are President Nelson Mandela and Ghanaian President Jerry Rawlings. Abubakar has promised […]

David Shapshak The horse racing industry has been rocked with rumours that bookmakers tried to hobble Horse Chestnut, one of South Africa’s top horses and the hot favourite for this weekend’s J&B Met. The horse, owned and bred by Harry and Bridget Oppenheimer, almost had its legs broken two weeks ago. But security guards shot […]

Ted Leggett The police have promised a “zero tolerance” approach to the Western Cape crisis, a term that has been bandied about a lot lately. There is a growing sense that they are being too soft on criminals, that a concern for human rights has emasculated what was once a potent police service. “Zero tolerance” […]

offer Howard Barrell Heavy pressure from Democratic Republic of Congo President Laurent Kabila’s military allies lies behind his statement on Wednesday that he is ready to open peace talks and sign a ceasefire with rebels. But security analysts and the rebels remain doubtful about Kabila’s seriousness in the search for peace in the war-ravaged Central […]

Eddie Butler Five Nations Rugby The world’s worst-run sport is about to take a breather from self-abuse. Like a kindly great aunt arriving with a carpet- bag full of winter woollies and sage advice on the temptations of the flesh, the Five Nations Championship is upon us. In a way, the old dear’s arrival is […]

THE KwaZulu-Natal provincial government may soon retrench redundant employees, Finance MEC Peter Miller said on Thursday. Miller said at a press conference that national government will soon release guidelines for retrenchments and severance packages. A process of job evaluation will begin in all departments to determine who gets the chop. About 83% of the 1998/99 […]

CHRISTIAN FIGENSCHOU, Johannesburg | Thursday 9.30pm. A PAIR of advisers to two former British Conservative Party prime ministers are orchestrating a campaign aimed at undermining thousands of claims being brought against a British company by sick South African asbestos workers. The Independent reports on Thursday that Charles Lewington and Wilf Weeks are advising Cape plc, […]

Y2K is getting steadily closer. Donna Block investigated how it may affect your money Three-hundred-and-thirty days and counting. The millennium bug is upon us and no doubt you’ve heard the horror stories that could begin at the stroke of midnight on December 31 1999. Unable to cope with the year 2000, computer programs go crazy […]

the wings John Matshikiza, son of the composer of the music for the original King Kong, Todd Matshikiza, believes that 40 years on the time might be right for the show to find its feet once again and stand tall in the musical hall of fame King Kong, the mother of all South African musicals, […]

David Macfarlane POST-COLONIAL SHAKESPEARES edited by Ania Loomba and Martin Orkin (Routledge) In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was English, and the Best Word was Shakespeare. In him the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth; we have beheld his glory … Or so generations of school […]

FERIAL HAFFAJEE TAKING STOCK Lazarus Madiseng proffered the fruit of democracy. A prickly pear, it is sweet and juicy. The assignment: to find out about the life of ordinary South Africans since 1994, when change came to this land. They don’t come a lot more ordinary than Madiseng – a kindly grandfather who after a […]

Patrick Smith Former South African president FW de Klerk presided over a Cabinet meeting in March 1993 that gave Cape businessman Vito Palazzolo a residence permit, although at the time he was the subject of an Italian extradition warrant. The respected magazine Africa Confidential will report this week that in September 1993, De Klerk’s government […]

Matthew Krouse Down the tube The coming week will see two showings on e.tv of a local documentary directed by Jurgen Schadeberg dedicated to the life of photographer Ernest Cole called, Ernest Cole 1940-1990 Photo Journalist. It will show on Wednesday at 9pm and then again on Thursday at 10am. Photographer Ernest Cole is one […]

Ken Daniels Horse racing Horse Chestnut, already hailed as a wonder horse, now stands on the brink of becoming the country’s most phenomenal racehorse in recent history. On Saturday the big, long-striding colt attempts to do what no three-year-old has been able to do for 50 years: win the J&B Met. Few horses have captured […]

Hennie Bester is the Democratic Party’s blue-eyed boy in the Western Cape, writes Chiara Carter `Hennie who?” is the likely response of Capetonians when they hear the name of the man who might well hold the balance of power in the Western Cape after the elections. But while Western Cape Democratic Party leader Hennie Bester […]

A friend with zero tolerance of nonsense points out that not a shred of credible evidence has yet been produced to support the view that a group of militant Muslims is responsible for the spate of evidently politically motivated bomb attacks in the Western Cape. He is right. The only support comes from inference drawn […]

not PC Andrew Worsdale `I’m real pessimistic about the local film industry … and as for advertising and the commercials industry – that’s really siff, all these cocknoses with B Com degrees who think they can make movies, when all they want is to make money.” So says Keren Labuschagne, outspoken perhaps, but tongue firmly […]

THREE Kenyan legislators and a leading environmental activist have appeared in court on charges of inciting violence. James Orengo of the Ford-Kenya party, Njehu Gatabaki of the Social Democratic Party and Green Belt Movement activist John Makanga appeared before Nairobi principal magistrate, Jane Ondieki after being arrested after three days of riots by students from […]

The arrest of six Pagad G-Force members may not be a breakthrough after all, writes Marianne Merten The twin brother of Yusuf Jacobs – who died after he was shot by police at a People against Gangsterism and Drugs (Pagad) demonstration last month – was among five men arrested outside Prince Alfred in the Karoo […]

Chiara Carter A Cape Town bus company employee is asking the Labour Court to find that he has been paid less than a white colleague because he is black – a case which, if successful, is likely to set a precedent for challenging discrimination in the workplace. Michael Louw, a buyer for Golden Arrow Bus […]

shoes Smangaliso Mkhatshwa is tipped to replace Mathews Phosa in Mpumalanga after reports that the premier’s name was taken off the ANC’s election list. Justin Arenstein reports Mpumalanga Premier Mathews Phosa appears to have surrendered to his detractors within the African National Congress and, despite heavy denials, is expected to formally resign from the government […]

THE managing editor of a Kinshasa newspaper announced on Thursday that he had been freed after spending a year in jail following his conviction on charges of threatening state security. Albert Bonsange Yema of L’Alarme, who was freed on Wednesday, had called in an editorial for the arrest of President Laurent Kabila. Initially confined to […]

Alex Dodd Long gone are the days when Lovelace Watkins was received here like the Beatles returning to Liverpool. When it comes to the global music circuit we’re no longer at the bottom of the hicklist, and there could be no greater affirmation of that fact than the advent of Womad, happening right here in […]