Staff Reporter

Africa’s Oscars : Andrew Worsdale Two days before the launch of South African cinema’s biggest schmooze-fest, Sithengi, the film and TV market, most local players were gathered in force with the continent’s counterparts at last Saturday’s M-Net All Africa Film Awards in Pretoria. The State Theatre is a bit monolithic but the seats are so […]

Swapna Prabhakaran It is common knowledge that South Africa has one of the highest rates of road death in the world. Less well known, however, is that much of the carnage is caused by trucks and could be prevented if heavy freight vehicle regulations were brought into line with world safety standards. South Africa has […]

Kelwyn Sole It is unfashionable these days to admit to any intention in one’s poetry. Yet, as a critic and teacher as well as a poet, I find it impossible to imagine my poems without thinking about their generation in the broader context of South African literature and its history. They grow out of this […]

Jack Schofield Two years after it was launched, the Universal Serial Bus (USB), a connector designed to replace serial and parallel printer ports on personal computers, should start to take off this Christmas. More than 100-million personal computers have been shipped with built-in USB ports, software support has been provided in Windows 98 and Mac […]

site David Larsen Ndumo game reserve, on the border with Mozambique in northern KwaZulu-Natal, is the centre of a land-claim dispute that could set a precedent for numerous community land claims in game parks throughout the country. The KwaZulu-Natal MEC for Traditional and Environmental Affairs, Nyanga Ngubane, has agreed to temporarily allocate 10ha of land […]

Douglas Rushkoff online So, am I, like the last kid on the block to get my Hotline server up and running? It sure seems so. Not since I logged on to the Internet for the first time, back in 1988, and encountered the already-populated chat rooms, bulletin boards, and hacker groups, have I been so […]

SARAH BULLEN, Johannesburg | Wednesday 5.30pm. THE long-awaited cut in interest rates by the United States Federal Reserve on Tuesday night failed to inspire the local market on Wednesday, despite global markets’ positive response to the move. The all share index closed 0,58% lower, led down by the financial index which shed 1,47% on the […]

DAVID LE PAGE, Johannesburg | Wednesday 11.30pm. THE day for which South African rugby fans have long waited — when popular Western Province captain Bobby Skinstad dons the Springbok green and gold — comes at last on Saturday when the South African team faces Scotland at Murrayfield in Edinburgh. Though Skinstad (22) has played seven […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, New York | Thursday 12.30pm. FRANCE’S 1995 Australian Open champion Mary Pierce thrashed South Africa’s Amanda Coetzer 6-1 6-0 in New York at the WTA Chase Championships on Wednesday. The 45-minute humbling of Coetzer, who was the last player to qualify for the season’s final tournament, sets up a repeat of last year’s […]

SARAH BULLEN, Johannesburg | Wednesday 3.30pm. THE real value of building plans fell by 10,3% during the first nine months of the year, representing a loss of R1,27-billion to the economy, according to the latest building statistics released by Statistics South Africa on Wednesday. This continues a falling trend since the second half of 1996. […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Harare | Wednesday 11.00am. ZIMBABWE was hit hard on Wednesday by a second anti-government national strike as trade unionists pressed their demands for pay rises, price cuts and an end to corruption. Factories and building sites fell silent across the country, with most shops and banks also closed, as trade unionists proved for […]

ROB DAVIES, Johannesburg | Tuesday 10.15am. WHEN the South African mid-week rugby team take on Edinburgh Reivers at Eastern Road on Tuesday evening Springbok coach Nick Mallett will have his selection spectacles focused on more than one Test hopeful. We all know that Mallett prefers not to change a winning combination, but after Saturday’s near-catastrophe […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Harare | Tuesday 3.30pm. THE International Monetary Fund’s executive board confirmed this week it is due to meet early next month in Washington to consider releasing an emergency $53-million balance of payments support for Zimbabwe under a standby credit arrangement. This announcement raises hopes that other lenders and donors which have been sitting […]

SARAH BULLEN, Johannesburg | Monday 5.00pm. LOCAL markets had a fairly flat day on Monday with almost no movement in the key indices, with the exception of the all gold index which ended significantly lower on profit taking. Dealers said the day was vacuous, with the market just holding its ground after last week’s heavy […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Sunday 12.30pm. KAIZER Chiefs reached the the final of the Rothmans Cup soccer championships, despite losing 1-0 to Orlando Pirates in the second leg semifinal at the FNB Stadium in Johannesburg on Saturday. Chiefs carried a valuable two goal cushion from their 3-1 win in the first leg into Saturday’s match, […]

ROB DAVIES, Johannesburg | Saturday 7.30pm. THE South African rugby side on Saturday came close to an embarrassing defeat when they beat an incredibly spirited Welsh side 28-20 at Wembley Stadium in London. The Springboks looked completely out of depth against the full-strength Welsh side, drilled to perfection by former Auckland Blues coach Graham Henry. […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Cape Town | Monday 4.15pm. POST and Telecommunications Minister Jay Naidoo on the weekend unveiled South Africa’s first ever locally-built satellite which will be launched by Nasa in January. The micro-satellite, called Sunsat, cost about $6-million to build and was constructed by post-graduate engineering students at Stellenbosch University. Unveiling the satellite, Naidoo said […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Friday 5.00pm. FRANCE and South Africa signed on Thursday two agreements to expand their relations, notably with joint ventures and financial aid. One agreement calls for the appointment of a French expert charged with determining the best options for joint ventures and facilitating their establishment. Sectors deemed best suited for such […]

South Africa needs interest rates of 12% or lower if the country is to avoid an economic slump, argues David Gleason Why hasn’t the Reserve Bank dropped interest rates faster and to a greater extent than its miserable efforts so far? And why, during the period in which the rand has enjoyed an entirely unjustified […]

David Shapshak All I wanted to do was type up a few stories. With the dauntingly boring prospect of an 11 hour flight – leaving at 2pm, the best time of day to do some work – and not having finished the work before I left, it seemed like the perfect time to complete the […]

deliver? In the second report of his seven-part series on transformation, John Matisonn looks at the financial problems that confronted the ANC when the party took over government The South African Airforce helicopters flew past the Union Buildings bearing the new flag in salute to President Nelson Mandela. Jet fighters streamed through the sky trailing […]

Alex Brown The 1998/9 Spier Summer Festival opened last week with a bit of a bang, and a bit of whimper. The bang was the sold-out amphitheatre, and the big name Spier scooped: David Helfgott, the Australian pianist on whose tormented life the film Shine was based. The whimper was some patchy play from Helfgott; […]

Links to Executive Outcomes may have made an Angolan mining company a target for attack, writes Chris Gordon DiamondWorks, whose Yetwene mine in north- eastern Angola was attacked last week, may have been a target because of the links of its parent company, British-based Branch Energy, to the South African mercenary company, Executive Outcomes. Branch […]

Chiara Carter and Marianne Merten A legend who lived a fast life and died a hard death is the inevitable epitaph for slain Cape Town gang leader Jackie Lonte. Lonte – born Neville Heroldt -scripted his life like a B-grade gangster movie and mythologised himself in a city where his gang, the Americans, has resonance […]

Gail Smith African women involved in all aspects of film – from producers and directors to grassroots organisers – will be among the delegates at Sithengi ’98. These include Zimbabwean filmmaker Tsitsi Dangarembga, director of Everyone’s Child, who is also the author of the critically acclaimed novel, Nervous Condition. Also attending this year are Anne […]

Charlene Smith General Andrew Masondo, an African National Congress political commissar in Angola in the 1980s, this week apologised to the brother of the man whose execution he ordered in 1981. Masondo and Mzwai Piliso, the ANC head of security at that time, have widely been held responsible for letting conditions in Angolan camps get […]

As the next election draws closer, and in preparation for the resignation of The Great Mandela, it is stimulating to watch Thabo Mbeki as he patiently welds and rivets himself into position. Renaissance and other long-term projects, like getting shot of Professor Sibusiso Bengu, aside, Mbeki is showing great imaginative tenacity in virtually every field […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Friday 12.45pm. A SHOWDOWN between diversified African industrial group Lonrho Africa and its largest shareholder, emerging markets fund Blakeney Management, is looming as Blakeney is vying for control of the board after accusing it of giving a dismal performance. Lonrho annouced on Thursday it has scheduled an extraordinary general meeting for […]

Andrew Worsdale : Movies of the week `Tis the season for film festivals, and the latest celluloid treat is the Japanese Film Festival. This year’s festival is a tribute to auteur Akira Kurosawa, with five of his films included in the line-up. There are also many contemporary films on show, including the enchanting Village of […]

Howard Barrell Armed rebels are making skilful use of rainy season in the jungles of the Democratic Republic of Congo to push back President Laurent Kabila’s army and allied Angolan, Namibian and Zimbabwean forces, say intelligence sources and security analysts. The rebels, familiar with local conditions, have been pressing forward mainly on foot in the […]

The furore about the new anti-smoking legislation is not about individuals’ rights, argues Michael Metelits Minister of Health Nkosazana Zuma’s Tobacco Products Control Amendment Bill fired up a huge controversy as tobacco firms, lobbyists and unions squared off against the government and anti-smoking groups over sport sponsorships, smoking in public and advertising bans. It’s tempting […]

Mail & Guardian reporter The Human Rights Commission (HRC) has thrown out a complaint of subliminal racism laid against the Mail & Guardian and Sunday Times newspapers by the Association of Black Accountants and the Black Lawyers Association. The request for an investigation was turned down “because the issue of racism in the media is […]