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/ 18 July 1997

Bullets in the bulletins

Journalists in Somalia have to be wary … before publishing by photocopier. ALEX BELLOS reports from Mogadishu THE press in Britain is often referred to as the fourth estate. In Somalia – where uniquely there has been no government for six years – it is definitely the first. Mogadishu is an unlikely place to have […]

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/ 18 July 1997

Mobutu fell to US-trained troops

THE United States helped train the troops who spearheaded the overthrow of Mobutu Seso Seko. US defence and state department officials revealed this week that crack US troops had begun training the Rwandan army in 1994 – just after the rebellion which led to the ascent of that country’s Tutsi-dominated government. The Rwandan army went […]

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/ 18 July 1997

Battling Europe on African terms

The EU is happy to sell its highly subsidised products to Africa but is less happy if Africa asks for a similar free- trade deal. Lynda Loxton outlines Alec Erwin’s battle TRADE and Industry Minister Alec Erwin left for Europe this week determined to persuade the European Union (EU) that any trade deal with South […]

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/ 18 July 1997

Frits books late for trip to Athens

ATHLETICS:Julian Drew FOR Frits Potgieter it was never a matter of if but rather when he would break into the big time – and that moment arrived somewhat unceremoniously at a low key athletics meeting in Sheffield, England on Tuesday night. Potgieter added more than two metres to his previous personal best of 61.98m in […]

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/ 18 July 1997

Jo’burg launches renewal strategy

FRIDAY, 8.00AM DEPUTY PRESIDENT Thabo Mbeki called on Johannesburg to become a “truly African city” on Thursday when he launched a R2 billionrevitalisation plan called “Masakhane”, aimed at reversing urban decline and the flight of business from the inner city. Mbeki said the renewal strategy for southern Africa’s largest city should “shift resources from the […]

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/ 18 July 1997

Visual and verbal

FINE ART: Brenda Atkinson TITUS MATIYANE stood in the middle of the gallery at a microphone, turned his lips into a pitifully squeaking trumpet, held a tune with his vocal chords and delivered a stinging parody of both South African national anthems. Knowledge to the Visitor opened at the Rembrandt van Rijn Gallery with a […]

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/ 18 July 1997

Ghetto Diaries award

Andrew Worsdale AT a home-spun award ceremony this week held at the SABC, Mail & Guardian Television’s Harriet Gavshon, Dingaan Thomas Kapa and miner Lucky Mnceke, as well as SABC1’s commissioning editor for documentaries Pat Kelly, were presented with awards by acting manager of SABC1, Theo Erasmus. Ghetto Diaries, that enabled ordinary people to record […]

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/ 18 July 1997

New mining union may be insurance scam

FRIDAY, 11.00AM THE Workers’ Mouthpeace, the trade union involved in a running war with the National Uniuon of Mineworkers at Anglo American Platinum Mines that has so far claimed eight lives, may have been set up as an elaborate insurance scam. The union, which first appeared after the crippling illegal strike at Amplats last year […]

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/ 18 July 1997

Nigeria’s great charade

With Nigeria’s elections dead before the voting has even begun, Wole Soyinka warns the world against falling for the hoax of `democracy’ propagated by Sani Abacha RARELY has so much self-deception been hidden behind doublespeak, as we have been made to marvel at, in the business of commentators on General Sani Abacha’s record in power […]

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/ 18 July 1997

No fences, but Hutus are in prison

Burundi’s government calls it `regroupment’, but to the thousandsof Hutus chased from their land these places are concentration camps. Chris McGreal reports from Nyarurama, Burundi AMELIE MUVUNI is not a prisoner in the conventional sense. There is no fence to keep her confined to the squalid, overcrowded hillside camp she was herded into by Burundi’s […]

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/ 18 July 1997

Shortlist for airports restructuring adviser

FRIDAY, 10.30AM TRANSPORT Minister Mac Maharaj and his Public Enterprises counterpart Stella Sigcau on Thuesday announced a shortlist of three for the position of adviser on the restructuring of parastatal Airports Company. The shortlisted candidates are: SBC Warburg in partnership with accounting and consulting firm Gobodo; Standard Corporate and Merchant Bank with Morgan Stanley and […]

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/ 18 July 1997

Knife-edge as Liberia polls begin

FRIDAY, 11.00AM: SOME 800 000 Liberian voters head for the polls on Saturday to choose a parliament and a president to govern Africa’s oldest republic, ravaged by a bitter seven-year civil war that has killed more than 150 000 people. A huge West African peacekeeping force from 10 nations has been stationed in Liberia since […]

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/ 18 July 1997

Famous old Bailey

Hazel Friedman SO what’s a scumbag Eastender like yourself doing in a place like this? I don’t actually get around to asking this of world-famous photographer David Bailey. But on eyeing his jet-lagged lids I get the feeling that he’d much rather deal with inane queries than those of the gee, gosh, wow kind. But […]

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/ 18 July 1997

Mobutu couldn’t afford SA mercenaries

Peta Thornycroft STORIES are emerging about the dying days of Zaire, now the Democratic Republic of Congo, and how South African mercenaries and desperadoes tried to make a quick buck out of the tottering regime of Mobutu Sese Seko. As rebel leader Laurent Kabila’s men prepared their final march on Kinshasa, Mobutu loyalists were in […]

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/ 18 July 1997

Cashing in on tragedy

LOOSE CANNON: Robert Kirby BOTH of my liberal friends have again gone into moral shock. This recent disaffection is no result of conventional stimuli. It has a more specific aetiology than the vaguely defined silts of the apartheid system. These two people are disturbed for very compact reasons. They have been watching and listening to […]

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/ 18 July 1997

Cruel and kind

Ken Barris RUDE SHELTERS by Robert Kirby (Jonathan Ball, R79,95) RUDE SHELTERS is a collection of Robert Kirby’s columns and articles that, judging by the content, span a three-year period from 1994 to 1996. It includes selections of his work as a television critic for The Star Tonight, satirical columns in the Sunday Times and […]

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/ 18 July 1997

Close contest for premiership

Deciding on a Gauteng premier is likely to be a nerve-racking process, writes Wally Mbhele TWO candidates are tied in a neck-and-neck challenge for the premiership of Gauteng – and the final outcome is expected this weekend at a meeting of the leaders of the province’s African National Congress and its alliance partners. Arriving at […]

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/ 18 July 1997

Financial watchdog keeps calm under fire

The office of the auditor general has come under attack from the old guard as well as the new – for doing its job properly. Henri Kluever is standing his ground, reports Mungo Soggot THE auditor general, Henri Kluever, has not had much luck with the Ministry of Mineral and Energy Affairs. As he took […]

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/ 18 July 1997

New-look arts on eM&G

FROM today, you’ll find a slick new look to the Electronic Mail & Guardian’s arts section, with easier navigation, archives of popular features and reviews that haven’t yet appeared in print. Find it at: http://www.mg.co.za./mg/art/artmenu.htm * READ Arthur Goldstuck’s authoritative WebFeet guide to the Internet each week on PCReview Online. This week: what you can […]

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/ 18 July 1997

PSL signing season continues

FRIDAY, 1.00PM: JOMO COSMOS have signed Cape Town Spurs defender Sebastiao Rodrigues for R70 000. Rodrigues will fill in the gap left by Andrew Rabutla, who joined an overseas club recently. “Sebastiao is physically strong and skillful. That’s the reason I went for him,” said Cosmos chairman Matsilele Jomo Sono. Meanwhile, Orlando Pirates have signed […]

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/ 18 July 1997

SA’s boxing weekend

FRIDAY, 1.00PM: SOUTH AFRICAN and International Boxing Federation champion Mbulelo Botile defends his title against American Tim Austin on Saturday night at the Nashville Arena. A victory for Botile will earn him a fight with International Boxing Federation and World Boxing Organisation champion Naseem “Prince” Hamed of Britain. Botile is reported to be in good […]

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/ 18 July 1997

House prices continue decline

FRIDAY, 11.00AM ABSA Bank, in its Quarterly Housing Review released on Thursday, says that house prices in SA declined by an average 3,7% in real terms during the first half of this year and, given high interest rates and high levels of household debt, the situation is not likely to improve. Another factor contributing to […]

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/ 18 July 1997

Insurance scheme behind mine wars

Three white men with a briefcase of insurance policies are the leaders of a union at war with the NUM, writes Ferial Haffajee THE new union whose running battle with the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM)has claimed eight lives may have been set up as an elaborate insurance scam. The organisation, called Workers Mouthpeace, is […]

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/ 18 July 1997

EDITORIAL: Surviving the optimists

It is hard to reconcile the current upheaval on the African continent with the optimistic scenario of imminent revival put about by the Clinton administration and its South African variant, Deputy President Thabo Mbeki’s notion of an African renaissance. Angola is poised to go back to war. Hutu refugees are being slaughtered in Eastern Congo […]

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/ 18 July 1997

Media bosses who played the apartheid game

In investigating the press, the truth commission must discover who collaborated with the Nationalist government – and who did not, argues Ken Owen A GOOD place for the Truth and Reconciliation Commission to begin its quest for the truth about the media under apartheid, if I may venture a suggestion, is a small matter concerning […]

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/ 18 July 1997

Ngema investigated for fraud

The sound of scandal from the controversial Aids musical continues to reverberate around its creator Mbongeni Ngema. SUZY BELL reports NEW evidence has emerged in a fraud investigation into controversial director and playwright Mbongeni Ngema. The investigation concerns allegations, made in February, that Ngema used R3-million advanced to him from the R14,2-million spent on Sarafina […]

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/ 18 July 1997

Paragons of dumb

FILM OF THE WEEK : Johnathan Romney IN the great debate about cultural dumbing- down, cartoon cretins Beavis and Butt-head are often singled out as Anti-Christs, emblems of all that’s most debased in contemporary pop culture. But at the press preview of their debut movie, the cinema was crammed with more highbrow cultural journalists and […]

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/ 18 July 1997

Torture was `not a very nice habit’

JEFF BENZIEN’s torture of former Umkhonto weSizwe guerrilla Peter Jacobs was, he said, “robust and very long”. “The normal interview with you carried on for quite a while … It was obvious you were playing for time. It was then that I resorted to using the wet bag on you,” Benzien told his amnesty hearing. […]

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/ 18 July 1997

Kenyans arrest 10 Rwandans for genocide

FRIDAY, 3.30PM KENYAN police on Friday arrested 10 Rwandans, including a former prime minister, on genocide charges related to the 1994 civil war in Rwanda. Seven of the arrests were confirmed by the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, based in Arusha, northern Tanzania. The arrests in the Kenyan capital came two days after a visit […]

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/ 18 July 1997

New culture of hope in KwaZulu

Political rivals could be discovering a way to peace through a growing sense of Zulu nationalism, writes Eddie Koch IT may just be that the troubled people of KwaZulu-Natal will find their peace not through delicate diplomacy or a tough approach to law and order, but because the ebb and flow of two less tangible […]