Olivia Strange If someone gives you a khanga (printed cloth) with a rooster on it, don’t make your thanks too effusive. The symbolism of the bird, according to Roland Karakashian, who manufactures these cloths in South Africa, suggests that the recipient talks too much. A guinea fowl print brings rain; a fish design should be […]
FRIDAY, 5.00PM UNITED States special envoy Paul Hare arrived in Angola on Friday in an attempt to restart the country’s stalled peace process. Hare intends separately meeting President Jose Eduardo dos Santos and Unita rebel leader Jonmas Savimbi, as well as with international mediators. “We came to see what can we do to help,” Hare […]
FRIDAY, 5.00PM ARMED raiders attacked 4 000 displaced Kenyans in a church compound overnight, killing at least three of them and sending the others fleeing. The latest attack brings the confirmed death toll in violence on Kenya’s Indian Ocean coast to 43 since August 13. Many of the inland tribespeople who had sought sanctuary in […]
Last week’s Smirnoff International Fashion Awards were overrun by the young and ruthlessly hip. If you survived the trek to Helderfontein Estate, you were assailed by adolescents in hipsters and halters, cooler-than-thou kids at the hottest party of summer. “Decadence” was this year’s design theme, and the press release was dotted with words like “depraved”, […]
Maria McCloy Every time you ask anyone in the broadcasting world whether they know of any gay-oriented shows on South African airwaves, chances are they’ll refer you to In The Pink, a weekly programme on Cape community radio station Bush Radio. The show runs on Thursday nights between 8pm and 10pm. “It’s the only gay, […]
FRIDAY, 11.00AM: A SOCIAL fund for improving living conditions of wine industry workers is at the heart of an out-of-court settlement being negotiated between government and KWV in an attempt to resolve the dispute over ownership of certain KWV assets during its metamorphosis from a co-operative to a limited liability company. Agriculture and Land Affairs […]
FRIDAY, 11.00AM: OLD MUTUAL, the giant life assurer, said on Thursday that it is to end 152 years as a mutual society and seek a listing on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange, a move which could see more than R25-billion being disbursed to policyholders. Old Mutual chairman Mike Levett said the board had decided in principle […]
Steve Morris: Rugby It is indeed a sad indictment of the thought processes which idly bestir the muddied machinations of Springbok selection that Andre Joubert should be considered a reluctant second choice in the green and gold. It is also all well and good to talk of utilising youth to build towards the 1999 World […]
Aspasia Karras Minister of Trade and Industry Alec Erwin this week announced that President Nelson Mandela will open an important investor conference in East London on November 7, where two of the eight Spatial Development Initiatives (SDI) in the Eastern Cape will be formally launched. It is clear from the outset that the Wild Coast […]
When horrors happen – like Bhopal or the Exxon Valdez – Burson-Marsteller pours PR oil on its clients’ troubled waters, reports Andy Beckett If, by unhappy accident, you were to poison a river, or a customer, or the reputation, slowly assembled, of your corporate employer, then your salvation might arrive in a pale slim folder. […]
FRIDAY, 5.00PM CONGOLESE government troops intensified their shelling of the central and northern parts of the capital Brazzaville on Friday in a continued attack on the militia of former dictator Denis Sassou Nguesso. Brazzaville residents fleeing across the Congo river to Kinshasa, capital of the neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo, said shells struck the home […]
aThe new-look Mail & Guardian, with its striking new arts pullout, Friday, has been hailed by readers, media-watchers, and the advertising industry. The bulk of the redesign was done in-house by literary editor and chief designer Shaun de Waal, in consultation with Riaan de Villiers, a veteran journalist and production expert who works at the […]
Last week was a turning point for South African fashion. Charl Blignaut on SA Fashion Week 1997 and Brenda Atkinson on the Smirnoff Awards. Photos: Danny Hoffman `You can only make one mistake with fashion,” said a top style writer to me over a glass of suitably dry champagne before the opening of South Africa’s […]
Chris Roper: Cultural sushi Cape Town is about to experience an influx of beautiful uitlanders. Two major modelling agencies are opening branches in our fair city. The world’s largest model management corporation, Elite, has launched its SA Model Look competition, and the lucky lass will be chosen on Saturday, August 23 in the Royal Ballroom […]
The Zulu Messengers, exponents of isicathamiya, are being applauded in a documentary. Andrew Worsdale hung around on set Every Saturday night, virtually without fail, the 15 members of The Zulu Messengers congregate at the downtown YMCA in Durban with over 20 other groups to perform in an isicathamiya competition that lasts through until late Sunday […]
FRIDAY, 5.00PM FORMER Civil Co-operation Bureau operative Wouter Basson, alias Christo Brits, was questioned by members of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s investigative unit on Friday. He was the third CCB member to be quizzed by the commission this week. Basson and CCB “managing director” Joe Verster and CCB operative Abraham “Slang” van Zyl were […]
Maria McCloy: Design of the Week `It’s like going to the Zoo Lake, taking a shit photo and slapping it on.” This is how designer Nicholas Hauser describes the way in which music posters and covers are usually put together. He sure as hell is having none of that, judging by his work for some […]
Bridget Hilton-Barber: Unspoilt places `This is a dead dog tree,” says our game ranger, stopping near a fallen, sun- bleached trunk in the yellow grass. A frisson of uncertainty ripples through our group. We are five minutes into our “tree walk” on the first morning of a weekend bushcamp trail – and feeling a little […]
Craig Bishop Beyond the flea markets and street vendors, the Sandton cities and the hypermarket, a new breed of “shopping centre” is taking shape: multipurpose community centres – “one-stop development shopping malls” – promise to provide information-starved communities with free access to a wide range of services. In the heart of Alexandra, at Alexsan Resource […]
country Julian Drew: Cycling Ask any South African sports fan to make a list of the success stories from last year’s Olympic Games in Atlanta and you can bet your bottom dollar that the name of JP (Jean-Pierre but nobody calls him that) van Zyl will not feature on many of them. True, he didn’t […]
Andrew Muchineripi: Soccer The cheers greeting Bafana Bafana’s qualification for the 1998 World Cup in France have barely faded when South African football finds itself preparing for another international assault. This time the heroes in black, white, green and gold must take a back seat as Orlando Pirates assume centre stage this weekend when the […]
Alan Henry : Motor racing Damon Hill’s second place in the Hungarian Grand Prix may turn out to be a crucial result in his seven-year Formula One career. Although it is too soon to say whether it will open the door to a place in one of F1’s top teams, it was certainly a timely […]
FRIDAY, 12.30PM: The United Cricket Board of South Africa’s director of development, Hoosain Ayob, will leave at the end of September to join the International Cricket Council. This follows his appointment to spearhead the development of the game in Africa. Ayob’s task is to spread cricket in 14 African countries where a sound base had […]
THURSDAY, 11.00AM COSATU’s week of one-day regional strikes in support of its demand for changes to the draft Basic Conditions of Employment Act moves to Gauteng and Northern Province on Thursday. THURSDAY, 6.00PM Cosatu-organised marchers in Johannesburg and Pretoria went off peacefully on Thursday. In Johannesburg, about 12 000 marchers presented a memorandum to the […]
FRIDAY, 12.30PM: THE Johannesburg City Council is threatening to cut off the water supply to the Reserve Bank’s Newtown headquarters unless a claimed R46 600 in arrears is not paid by the weekend. Bank manager Mike Smith denied that Bank is in arrears with its water payments. However, a council source confirmed that the Bank’s […]
Melvyn Minnaar Moveable feast The label on the outside is the thing. That, all shoppers know and only naive socialists will contradict. But it is sadly ironic that the once ber Bro of our wine industry – who should have kept the flag flying in all circumstances – have such little faith in what is […]
Robert Kirby: Loose cannon One of the most revealing moments of the Atlanta Olympic Games was the comment made by a middle-city indigent. With about three weeks to go before the games began, the Atlanta city fathers had suddenly realised that something needed to be done about the stockpile of vagrants, panhandlers and bag- ladies, […]
THURSDAY, 12.30PM: AMALGAMATED Banks of South Africa (Absa) on Wednesday announced a R44-million sponsorship deal of Athletics South Africa (ASA) over a period of five years. An excited ASA president Leonard Chuene said: “This is empowerment for us and we don’t have any excuse for not producing medal winners for both Sydney and the 2004 […]
THURSDAY, 12.30PM: NATAL Rugby Union is taking the South African Rugby Football Union bosses to court in a row over the plan to regionalise next year’s Super-12 rugby competition. Natal claim that Sarfu’s decision has already cost them R3,5-million in revenue from sponsors. According to the plan, Natal will be grouped together with Border and […]
THURSDAY, 11.00AM: ISCOR is to mothball its ageing Pretoria steel mill, the comapny said on Wednesday, a move that will result in the loss of more than 1 000 jobs. Iscor MD Louis van Niekerk said the closure of the group’s oldest steel mill will cost about R1-billion, but he added this will not have […]
THURSDAY, 12.30PM: THE Congolese soccer officials, who left South Africa on Sunday right after their squad lost to Bafana Bafana in a crucial World Cup qualifier, have lodged a complaint with Egyptian match commissioner Fathy Nossier, claiming that their players were assaulted during and after the match. They alleged that missiles were thrown at their […]
THURSDAY, 3.30PM: TRADE among members of the Common Market for East and Southern Africa (Comesa) has grown from under a billion US dollars in 1985 to about $2,2-billion today, acting Secretary-General Erastus Mwencha said in Harare on Wednesday. “This translates into an average annual trade growth rate of 11,1%, compared with an average annual trade […]