OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Thursday 9.45PM. SOUTH Africa A have won the first match of their unofficial limited-overs series against Sri Lanka A at the Uyanwatte Stadium. Man of the match, Derek Crookes scored 95 not out and was involved in several important partnerships as South Africa A scored 209/5 in reply to Sri Lanka’s […]
wealth Angella Johnson VIEW FROM A BROAD Is there a group of people more irritating, self-righteous and unnaturally enthusiastic than a bunch of sales folk trying to punt their wares? Well, imagine being trapped in a hall heaving with them. Not a great way to spend a Sunday, but who can ignore the lure of […]
Liese van der Watt On show in Johannesburg Barricaded Bryanston seems a fitting backdrop for the first South African exhibition of expatriate Philip Badenhorst, who has been living, working and teaching in Antwerp for the last 21 years. His is an unfamiliar aesthetic – European perhaps – in its detached refusal to engage the exterior […]
Tracy Murinik On show in CapeTown I was sold, and then so was the painting. It said: “Narcissus daarling, it’s time to go home” . and the message on the back clarified, “dearest daarling, I love oysters. Yours forever . sign here”. And for the moment all I wanted was to sign. And then there […]
Steve Smith The thing about a public sculpture is that it’s a lot like a tattoo. If you’re going to have one, best think long and hard about what you want. Once it’s there, it’s there. This was the responsibility placed on the judges in the recent Public Sculpture Competition organised by the Cape Town […]
`I can’t understand it”, said Sean Fitzpatrick, “everyone’s being nice to me for a change.” Back in South Africa on a trip to promote New Zealand as a holiday destination, Fitzpatrick needs to understand one thing: people wouldn’t be half as nice if they thought he was going to run out of the tunnel at […]
movies Philip French Stephen King’s movie career got off to a strong start in 1976 when his first novel, Carrie, provided Brian de Palma with his first hit and brought Sissy Spacek an Oscar nomination for her portrayal of a gawky teenager who uses her telekinetic powers to revenge herself on schoolmates and neighbours. Blood […]
OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Thursday 6.30PM. LOCAL shares moved slowly off their lows today after a slightly better-than anticipated opening on the Dow Jones industrial average. Overall confidence, however, remained weak. According to dealers, JSE investors are finding it a hard task to predict the market, as they react to the whims of international perceptions […]
OWN CORRESPONDENT, Goma | Friday 1.00PM. WITH panic growing in Kinshasa, rebel troops in the Democratic Republic of Congo are reported to have advanced as far as Kasangulu, some 30km south-west of the capital. Rebel leaders in Goma said Kinshasa is now in their sights, and will fall by the end of the month, if […]
fraud Godfrey Thabo Makhubedu The National Education, Health and Allied Workers’ Union (Nehawu) has asked that criminal charges be laid against staff members of Technikon South Africa accused of corruption and fraud. This follows a series of internal disciplinary hearings against senior staff. In one of the worst instances, Herman Putter, employed at the centre […]
machine Andy Capostagno Golf It might be unkind to a fine tournament, but this week’s United States PGA Championship is likely to suffer by comparison. The PGA is older than the Masters and both Jack Nicklaus and Walter Hagen won it five times, so it comes highly recommended. But because the wise men of the […]
The European Union is trying to block the diamond smuggling route from Angola. Violence won’t be far behind. Dan Atkinson in Antwerp, Alex Duval Smith in Johannesburg and Owen Bowcott investigate It was an unpromising start to Europe’s tough new policy on diamond smuggling. Yards from Antwerp’s grand railway station, an African in traditional dress […]
Robert Kirby: Loose Cannon At present in its committee stage is a draft Bill designed to hoist South Africa even higher on the international booby scale. Having been diagnosed, if this newest legislative psychosis is allowed to develop untreated, it could well become terminal and develop into an genuine pathological law. Under this law, South […]
Evidence wa ka Ngobeni Ginger Mahlamvu (22) was released from jail in May after spending two years behind bars for robbery. But unlike many former prisoners, he is hopeful about his future. “I felt like a useless person, and that I wouldn’t regain my dignity and trust from my family and the community because of […]
OWN CORRESPONDENT, Abuja | Friday 10.00pm. THE Nigerian government on Friday conceded that it in the past “diverted” much of the fuel intended for the country’s fuel-starved domestic market. Speaking to reporters on Friday after a meeting of the top military body, the Provisional Ruling Council, council spokesman Major-General John Mark Inienger admitted that past […]
Justin Arenstein President Nelson Mandela has ordered the country’s top investigator, Judge Willem Heath, to probe a land deal involving South Africa’s outspoken ambassador to Mozambique and former homeland strongman, Mangisi Zitha. The controversial deal allowed Zitha to buy a 5,7ha farm with two houses in the former KaNgwane homeland in 1991 for just R5 […]
Ferial Haffajee A South African multinational has patented the potent part of dagga and is selling it locally. Elevat – a brand owned by Pharmacare – is being hailed as a wonder drug for its treatment of the symptoms of cancer, Aids, multiple sclerosis and other diseases. This exposes the contradictions in South Africa’s policy […]
What happens when a French philosopher decides to take on the truth commission? To find out, Chris Roper attended Jacques Derrida’s lecture on forgiveness at the University of the Western Cape `Pardon,” says the stylishly clad and devastatingly sexy Jacques Derrida. It is the first word of his lecture – one that will go on […]
Brenda Atkinson The programme preview of South Africa’s first free-to-air commercial television station was a Bondian event, slick with dress suits, French champagne, impeccably understated yet omnipresent waiters, oysters, and a subtle conspiratorial air. e.tv, the Warner Brothers-partnered broadcast competitor that has SABC and M-Net by the balls, last week invited media buyers to a […]
Who is . . . Yasser Arafat? Angella Johnson Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat has received red-carpet treatment worthy of a state president during his official visit to South Africa this week. It is a long way from the days when he was viewed as the personification of Arab evil, described by former Israeli prime minister […]
Phillip Kakaza Jabu Khanyile is a composed and impassive man whose self-image is clearly important to himself and his audiences. He is a self-taught, spiritual singer who has been influenced by religion and African tradition. He was an active member of the Apostolic Zionist church at an early age and reckons he was caught by […]
Exclusive Books recently bought rival chain Facts & Fiction. Shaun de Waal asks Exclusive Books MD Fred Withers what the implications are Exclusive Books and its owners, Mega,recently bought Facts &Fiction, your main rival in Gauteng, the province which accounts for the majority of South Africa’s booksales. Will you be closing any of the Facts […]
ROB DAVIES, Johannesburg | Friday 10.30AM. TWO more South African athletes have won gold medals at the World Athletics Championships for the Physically Disabled in Birmingham, bringing the number of gold medals won to five. Malcolm Pringle, winner of three medals at the Atlanta Paralympics in 1996, won the 1500m class 38 cerebral palsy event […]
OWN CORRESPONDENT, Cape Town | Friday 5.00pm. JUSTICE Minister Dullah Omar has said that the the transformation of the judiciary must be speeded up. Speaking on Friday after the week’s outcry over the handling of the SA Rugby Football Union’s successful application to have a commission of inquiry overturned, Omar said the judiciary’s accountability should […]
OWN CORRESPONDENT in Johannesburg | Friday 9.15pm. MERCENARY outfit Executive Outcomes on Friday denied that any of its members is playing a hand in renewed fighting in Angola. Responding to recent media reports, EO managing director Nic van den Berg said: “I declare that EO is not involved in Angola and has not been since […]
FERIAL HAFFAJEE, Johannesburg | Friday 8.00pm. INDEPENDENT television producers believe that the South African Broadcasting Corporation secretly gave a multi-million-rand contract for breakfast television to a favoured firm while pretending to be taking submissions from its rivals. The contract was awarded to Urban Brew, a production house which is co-owned by New Africa Investments Limited […]
Howard Barrell Leaders of agriculture and business joined forces to fight worsening crime this week – and to persuade desperate farmers and businessmen not to resort to unlawful protests against the government’s seeming inability to get to grips with the problem. “It is becoming increasingly difficult to prevent our members taking the law into their […]
The surest sign of China’s remarkable economic success was when President Jiang Zemin traded his Mao Zedong suit for Giorgio Armani and became the Gordon Gecko of Asia. Like his fictional movie-tycoon counterpart, Jiang’s slogan could be “greed is good”. Under his guidance China has become an economic powerhouse with stock markets that would make […]
Next month Pietermaritzburg, hometown of Alan Paton, marks the 50th anniversary of the publication of Cry, the Beloved Country, writes Stephen Gray This year’s Alan Paton celebrations in Pietermaritzburg include the kind of events rarely accorded a South African writer – but appropriately so, for it was he who put the city on the map. […]
Matthew Krouse On the air in Johannesburg In the 1920s, when radio transmitters were switched on for the first time all over the world, live music was the main attraction. The immediacy of the medium made people feel so modern, so in-with-the-times. Suddenly, you didn’t actually have to be there, to be part of what […]
Keith Henderson CD of the week Although Brimful of Asha is the track which has catapulted Cornershop to fame, the album is more than just one funky pop tune and a couple of mediocre bits and pieces to make up a complete album. Rather, When IWas Born for the 7th Time could easily be heralded […]
The Mail & Guardian has taken something of a battering at the hands of the legal system over the past couple of weeks. After winding ourselves up for the libel case with the KwaZulu-Natal Attorney General, Tim McNally, we were advised by senior counsel to “tender” for a settlement of R50 000, which McNally took. […]