Treaties are stealthily being enacted to empower transnational companies to take financial decisions out of the democratic arena, political theorist Noam Chomsky warned in a speech to the University of Cape Town GLOBALISATION is not all that it is claimed to be. It is punted to be about the miracles of the markets – and […]
There will be no grand release when the truth commission’s final report is tabled, writes Antjie Krog THE commissioner spreads the photos on the table. A slope of tamboekie grass, a wind- blue sky, some fresh soil. “He shows us the place … we dig … we find red topsoil mixed with black subsoil … […]
IN the intellectual sense there is something about our Deputy President, Thabo Mbeki, which reminds us of Baroness Orczy’s hero: “We seek him here, we seek him there … that damned elusive Pimpernel.” Once again this week we had a fleeting glimpse of the man who, for all intents and purposes, is running South Africa. […]
A billion-rand Wild Coast tourism development project must benefit the local communities while being eco-friendly, reports Craig Bishop JUST 30km of coastline separate Port Edward from Mkambati, but as holiday destinations they are oceans apart. Port Edward is linked to Durban by 200km of flat coastal road allowing easy access for hundreds of thousands of […]
Steady shifts are happening as mainstream South African radio hones in on an increasingly competitive market Hazel Friedman on Radio 702 PERCEPTION is reality, reality is a mind thing, and minds tend to change. Understand this principle and you’ll get a handle on the law governing 702-land and the drastic programme changes that took place […]
Why do Pedi men wear Scottish kilts in their traditional dress? MARIAMcCLOY listens to some tall stories THE Lesedi Cultural Village in the Magaliesberg offers an expensive and contrived African experience. Visitors can “sing, dance and taste traditional Africa”. This includes them getting to see a group of Pedi, Zulu, Mosotho and Xhosa. They can […]
FRIDAY, 3.30PM SOUTH Africa on Friday motivated for a strictly controlled legal trade in rhino horn and other products, arguing that this will reduce illegal activities. Addressing the 10th conference in Harare, Zimbabwe, of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species, Natal Parks Board CEO Dr George Hughes argued that the availability of a […]
Ann Eveleth JOHN MARINGA is 25 and he is trying to write matric for the third time. He lost three years of schooling during the 1980s because of his anti-apartheid activism and has since twice written, and failed, the exam. He pins his hopes on studying at the Tembisa Technical College on the East Rand, […]
Sarah Boseley in London PRE-MENSTRUAL syndrome (PMS), often blamed for turning women into murderers and arsonists, is all in the mind, according to new research from Australia. Psychologists monitored women who said they had PMS, together with two control groups – women who did not claim to suffer and men. They found all three groups […]
FINE ART: Dennis Mair AT an event that took place a few weeks ago, at the Obz(scene) Cafe in Observatory, Andrew Putter set up for a work-in- progress. It was a performance piece where he invited family, friends and people off the street to pass around and fit on a set of false teeth, while […]
The biggest art shows in the world get under way this month. BRENDA ATKINSON on William Kentridge, South Africa’s most notable player THERE are few South African artists who can claim as expansive a career curve as William Kentridge, nor as consistently impressive a body of work. It seems that 1997 will consolidate his international […]
An insurance company is criticised for using a lie-detector test before paying claims, reports Faizel Cook `IS today Monday?” “Yes” “Are you planning to lie to me during this test?””No” “Did you submit a fraudulent claim to your insurance company?” “No!” And if you’re telling the truth, that should be the end of what is […]
It was from within the ANC itself that the opposition to child grant cuts came, forcing the minister of welfare to reassess her proposed scheme, writes Marion Edmunds PRACTICAL problems and criticism from within the African National Congress have driven Minister of Welfare Geraldine Fraser- Moleketi to back away from key parts of her controversial […]
Robin McKie in London SCIENTISTS are developing the ultimate in designer genes: genetically engineered plants that produce naturally blue cotton. The aim is to make denims that can be manufactured without dyeing. The blue-gene project, created by United States chemical giant Monsanto, reveals the flourishing power of crop geneticists. Last year, this resulted in a […]
hot air Will the airship called Nelson ever get off the ground? It’ll be surprising if it does, writes Dawn Blalock JONATHAN HAMILTON has a dream: to transport people in gas-filled airships. Others suggest he is full of hot air. The 31-year-old Sandton entrepreneur is the founder of The Hamilton Airship Company, a business he […]
In the fight between belief and science, an open mind should be the winner, writes Steve Jones LAST week, an Australian judge intervened in a matter of belief. In the creation versus evolution debate, he took the side of the angels. Ian Plimer, a Melbourne geologist, faces huge costs for taking creationism to court – […]
Marion Edmunds ROELF MEYER is to test support for his new movement in the Western Cape next week, hoping to win over the hotly contested coloured community. Meyer’s Athlone-based organiser, former Labour Party member Ken Lategan, said this week: “There has been unprecedented interest in the last two weeks. People are looking for something new, […]
Angella Johnson BRITISH AIRWAYS (BA) took what it described as a major step in consolidating its position as a “global airline” when it became the first national carrier to dump its country’s flag from the corporate logo to broaden the company’s appeal. Instead of a single identity, BA’s planes will sport 50 different images created […]
bloods Rehana Rossouw AGE has made way for youth in the Nasionale Pers (Naspers) media stable. Their executive chairman Ton Vosloo and Rapport editor Izak de Villiers will retire in October. De Villiers said this week there was no coup: Naspers’s retirement age for editors was 61 and he reaches that age in July; Vosloo […]
New charges of conflict of interest point to further irregularities in the province’s Housing Department, increasing the pressure for a full-scale commission of inquiry, write Justin Arenstein and Mungo Soggot FRESH revelations surrounding the Mpumalanga housing scandal emerged this week, increasing the likelihood that the government’s current probe will be widened into a full-blown commission […]
JULIE BARKER enjoyed the vibrance and variety of the performers at the FNB Vita Community Theatre Festival THIS year saw the seventh FNB Vita Market Theatre Lab Community Theatre Festival bursting at the seams. At the opening ceremony, the FNB general manager of group communications said that the pursuit and promotion of excellence within the […]
Shaun de Waal BORN IN THE RSA: FOUR WORKSHOPPED PLAYS by Barney Simon (Witwatersrand University Press, R39,95) LIKE Joan Littlewood, with whom he worked, and Athol Fugard, to whom he was close, Barney Simon made theatre out of a process of bringing real life as directly as possible to the stage. Simon’s actor-collaborators would be […]
FRIDAY, 3.30PM THE Forum of Black Journalists on Friday accused the English and Afrikaans press and the SA Broadcasting Corporation of knowingly colluding with successive apartheid governments. The accusation formed part of a submission handed to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s Johannesburg offices. In a statement outlining its submission, the FBJ said it will seek […]
ONE of the telling ironies of the KWV champagne swindle was the whereabouts of the managing director of the co-operative’s international division when the scandal broke. J “Kobus” van Niekerk, identified in KWV documents as having given the go-ahead for the manufacture of fake champagne for export, was himself abroad last week – leading a […]
Foreign runners are flocking to the Comrades Marathon but the locals are still very much in the rush for gold ROAD RUNNING:Julian Drew LAST year it was won by a Russian. This year it takes place on June 16, a day remembered for the Soweto uprising of 1976 and now known as Youth Day. Comrades, […]
FRIDAY, 12.00AM: SPORTS Minister Steve Tswete will launch a Sports Against Crime initiative on June 26. The R8-million project will be a joint effort by the National Sports Council, the National Olympic Committee of South Africa and the Department of Sports. As part of the launch, a march against crime will proceed through Johannesburg, and […]
An American institute is offering to raise us from the dead – at a price, writes Sue Nelson ACCORDING to legend, every 500 years the phoenix, a mythical Arabian bird, would fling itself on to a funeral pyre. But instead of dying, it would rise from the ashes with renewed vigour. It’s an appealing tale. […]
Malcolm Bradbury THE FAREWELL SYMPHONY by Edmund White (Chatto & Windus, R110) UNDER one possible gaze, we can consider Haydn’s extraordinary Farewell Symphony as a musical tragedy. Performances flower but then fade; in the last movement, the musicians leave the stage one by one, extinguishing their candles, till only a single violin is left. Under […]
There’s more to Jean Paul Gaultier than funny bras and Eurotrash. He talks to SUSANNAH FRANKEL about styling The Fifth Element JEAN PAUL GAULTIER’s peroxide blond crop is resting on a sea of puffed up, chintz- covered pillows in his decidedly genteel hotel suite. Clad in the requisite matelot T-shirt, stove-pipe trousers and ugly shoes […]
FRIDAY, 3.00PM FORMER Zimbabwean president Canaan Banana is to be charged with at least nine counts of homosexual rape, the daily Herald newspaper reported on Friday. The newspaper was quoting acting police chief Philip Mhike, who said the charges arose out of information volunteered by complainants during police investigations into allegations by Banana’s former aide-de-camp […]
Armed gangs of ‘Zulus’ and ‘Khoikhois’ roam the streets fighting for the control of Brazzaville, reports Dalal Magan GANGS of armed youths roam the rutted streets. Some as young as 12, who can barely handle their automatic rifles, engage in sporadic fighting for the control of Brazzaville. As the battle rages, travellers who have managed […]
adventure-seekers Stefaans Brmmer investigates one of the most successful and audacious projects in Umkhonto weSizwe’s armed fight against apartheid “UNDERSEAT storage for food supplies, camping equipment, tools, spares, etc,” was how a brochure touted the ample luggage capacity of the safari truck. What the brochure did not mention were the extra compartments – so secret […]