Anna Tack Nothing is for free, or so the trusim goes. But in these days of high-tech toys like music samplers and computer scanners seamlessly colonising everyone else’s ideas through a superimposition here or a misrepresentation there, the question of who owns what has assumed paramount importance worldwide. And on the cyber highway the issue […]
Madeleine Roux: Moveable Feast In our part of the Klein Karoo, called the Koo Valley (yes, like the tin of jam), fruit is often so plentiful you can’t give it away. Comes the apricot season, new residents to the town delight in paying a rand or two for a bagful. Two weeks later crates of […]
Charlene Smith South African unskilled labour is pricing itself out of the market, and while professional and technical staff in Gauteng earn less than the global norm, industries that could create jobs will simply not come to the region because of high wages. “Labour is simply too expensive,” conceded Jabu Moleketi, Gauteng Minister of Economic […]
Mungo Soggot The Legal Aid Board has revoked its controversial funding of Allan Boesak’s defence after it emerged that he has other financial backing, drummed up by South Africa’s ambassador to the United States, Franklin Sonn. The decision to withdraw Boesak’s funding was taken at a board meeting on Monday on the grounds that the […]
FRIDAY, 12.30PM: SPRINGBOK rugby coach Carel du Plessis is likely to retain his job until the end of the year. No decision was taken on his future in the coaches meeting called by SA Rugby Football Union president Louis Luyt at Ellis Park on Thursday, but the plans set in motion reinforced his position. The […]
Julian Drew: Athletics Like a javelin out of nowhere is how Marius Corbett arrived on top of the victory rostrum at the World Athletics Championships in Athens last week. The forgotten man of South African athletics, who improved considerably earlier this year to rank 14th in the world going into the championships, he added nearly […]
Tanya Nel A formal request to extradite Dr Andre Rwamakuba, former minister of education in Rwanda and currently employed by the Namibian Ministry of Health and Social Services, was made to the Namibian government last week. The Rwandan government asked for his extradition on the grounds that it has documented proof of his involvement in […]
Any working mother could have told the scientists for nothing, but now it is official – kids stress you out. Researchers have found that employed women with children produce far higher levels of stress hormones than those who are childless, although the same does not appear to be so for fathers. The doctors found that […]
All the elements of theatre, comic and tragic, attended this week’s Hani amnesty hearing, writes Swapna Prabhakaran Clive Derby-Lewis does not look like a man who has been in prison for four years. At his amnesty application in Pretoria this week, he looked like a man who has been sleeping comfortably and he spoke like […]
Gaye Davis Tom Sebina, who has died aged 60, was for years the public voice of the African National Congress and one of the last of the organisation’s cadres to return from exile. His office, little more than an agglomeration of desks and chairs crowded into a tiny room at the ANC’s rudimentary headquarters off […]
FRIDAY, 12.30PM: SOUTH African Football Association (Safa) CEO Danny Jordaan on Thursday said Congo’s refusal to accept local hospitality is unacceptable and he will report their attitude and conduct to soccer’s controling body, the International Football Association (Fifa). Congo on Wednesday refused to board a bus provided by Safa; instead they hired six private cars […]
David Davies in New York: Golf Nick Faldo has thought the unthinkable. After a season in which he has been consistently inconsistent, he knows there is a real danger that he might not be in the Ryder Cup team that plays the Americans at Valderrama at the end of next month. He admitted to the […]
Gaye Davis Rape may be re-defined to include forced anal intercourse involving both male and female victims if a call this week by the Western Cape Attorney General, Frank Kahn, for new legislation is heeded. As a common-law offence, the definition of rape centres on the penetration, against her will, of a woman’s vagina by […]
In the early days of South African music, many stars sold their rights to record companies for a flat fee. Today they say they were exploited and are looking for compensation. Glynis O’Hara investigates A recent visit to South Africa by The Manhattan Brothers’ Joe Mogotsi has brought an old music industry issue to the […]
Janet Smith SA Fashion Week 1997 Designers who’ve paid fees of between R10 000 and R40 000 each to present their ranges are pinning their sumptuous fabrics on what could be a renaissance of fashion for fashion’s sake at South Africa’s first ever fashion week. Sponsors like Audi have invested R80 000 for each of […]
In the week that Bophuthatswana’s former president Lucas Mangope went on trial for fraud and theft, John Seiler argues for effective financial management to prevent corruption Another R25-million stolen in the apartheid-era Bophuthatswana has been revealed by the auditor general’s office. A report issued last week refers to a R19,5-million payment which the South African […]
FRIDAY, 3.30PM THE East Rand municipality of Sporings in Gauteng said on Friday that it is in dire financial straits and might not be able to meet its salary obligations at the end of the month. Springs municipality executive committee chairman Tatis Phasha said the council had already defaulted on R12-million owed to electricity utility […]
FRIDAY, 4.30PM: THOUSANDS of terrified civilians are fleeing across the Congo river to Kinshasa following renewed heavy fighting around the Congolese capital of Brazzaville between forces loyal to President Pascal Lissouba and the militia of former dictator Denis Sassou Nguesso. Most of those fleeing the recent surge in fighting are women and children from Brazzaville […]
Government has reduced tariffs over a wide range of goods without considering the broader consequences for industry, writes Charles Millward In January 1943, a commentator in The Times of London noted: “Next to war, unemployment has been the most widespread, the most insidious, and the most corroding malady of our generation: it is the specific […]
Greg Bowes: Music He’s widely regarded as the father of house music, the four-to-the-floor style that currently eclipses all others on the world’s dancefloors. He’s remixed or worked with some of pop music’s biggest guns. His deejaying skills are legendary. He is Frankie Knuckles, and he’s on his way to South Africa next month to […]
Mail & Guardian Reporters The Inkatha Freedom Party hardliner Walter Felgate, who defected to the African National Congress this week, had been a trusted member of the ANC’s underground who worked alongside Oliver Tambo and CF Beyers Naude for several years. Felgate, who was probably Inkatha’s most vocal and energetic negotiator, and a stumbling block […]
A US businessman is trying to broker a deal in Angola in a bid for profit and peace, reports Chris Gordon Maurice Tempelsman has the ear of presidents, American and Angolan, as well as the Unita leader. Now the president of Lazare Kaplan International (LKI), who was Jackie Onassis’s partner for the last 15 years […]
THURSDAY, 11.00AM THE Johannesburg Stock Exchange repeated its Wednesday performance on Thursday as it continued following international trends. Only gold shares benefited from the uncertainty on equity markets. In a flat day’s trade, one of the only notable features was the rand’s loss of more than 2,5c to the dollar, ending the day at R4,6855 […]
Ellen Bartlett More than 100 000 years ago, probably on a rainy day, a human walked in wet sand near what is now Langebaan Lagoon. The footprints he, or more likely she, left behind were covered in more sand, in succeeding layers blown in on the sea winds, and then preserved as the dunes slowly […]
Ex-Drum photographer Jrgen Schadeberghas won the battle for ownership of his photographs, reports Hazel Friedman Legendary photographer Jrgen Schadeberg has finally won his David versus Goliath battle against publisher Jim Bailey. The long, bitter war waged by the ex-Drum photographer against the former owner of the pioneering African magazine in the Fifties and Sixties, centred […]
Sechaba ka’Nkosi The Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) wants to target certain companies for a pilot project where union officials would sit on the board to allow co- determination and decision-making. The suggestion is made in the report by the September Commission, appointed to consider new strategies for the union movement. Cosatu says […]
Athol Fugard’s latest play, The Captain’s Tiger, is currently on at the Pretoria State Theatre – to mixed reviews. Playwright Charles Fourie speaks to him, and Andrew Wilson gives his views on the play The first time I encountered Athol Fugard was in print. As a first-year student I was given a copy of a […]
The death of Hillbrow Hospital is bad news for patients from the city centre, writes Angella Johnson A senior doctor at Johannesburg’s Hillbrow Hospital warns that people will die from lack of immediate medical care when it closes at the end of the year. But Gauteng health officials are adamant there will be no reprieve […]
Foreign traders flocked to South Africa in the hope of making their fortunes, but have found crime instead, reports Anna Georgiou From Timbuktu to Tripoli, traders from across Africa have flocked to South Africa to strike gold and have been met with hostility by locals. Saturday business at the Market Theatre flea market in Johannesburg […]
THURSDAY, 5.30PM AUDITOR-General Henri Kluever on Thursday responded to allegations by Mineral and Energy Affairs Minister Penuell Maduna that he had dishonestly accounted for R170-million missing from the Strategic Fuel Fund by saying his office’s handling of the SFF accounts was honest and above board. “I have been in the civil service all my life […]
As the deadline nears, the government and labour are urgently seeking a compromise on variations, reports Sechaba ka’Nkosi Last-minute attempts to ensure that the Basic Conditions of Employment Bill is passed in this parliamentary session are at a crucial stage. Sources close to the process say government and labour are exchanging new positions behind the […]
FRIDAY, 12.30PM: SOUTH AFRICA’S Wayne Ferreira beat his countryman Grant Stafford 6-4 7-6 (7/4) at the RCA Championships in Indianapolis, Indiana on Thursday. Ferreira, who came to the championships not expecting much after suffering an ankle injury, advanced to the quaterfinals. Stafford earlier caused an upset when he eliminated eight seed Cedric Pioline of France. […]