Glynis O’Hara on the Sama Awards THE FNB/Sama (South African Music Awards) may have opened well with a gracefully orchestrated medley representing different South African music forms, but by the time it was nearly over and Dr Victor led a line-up in a sentimental anthem about not doing crime, a lot of that promise had […]
investors Mail & Guardian Reporter Money-market funds, which will be launched this week, may sound like just another banking mouthful. But they probably represent some of the best news for consumers. Popular overseas, the funds combine some of the best elements of a current account and unit trusts. And they could be good for business. […]
In an extract from his new book, Golf Dreams, acclaimed American novelist John Updike celebrates the grace and frustrations of an addictive game GOLF:John Updike A CAMPAIGN is afoot to bring back the caddie to American golf courses. In Golf Digest and elsewhere you can read of the many benefits: it is better for the […]
FRIDAY 11.00AM FIRST quarter electricity consumption in SA was up a seasonally adjusted 1,2% compared to the last quarter of 1996, according to latest figures from the Central Statistical Service. The quarterly increase came in spite of a 1,4% seasonally adjusted month-on-month decline from February to March. The average index of electricity production increased 1% […]
DJ Taylor BABEL TOWER by AS Byatt (Vintage, R57,95) AS BYATT’S novel The Virgin in the Garden (1978), a chronicle of the self-absorbed Potter family and its two contending sisters, Stephanie and Frederica, showed every sign of turning into a kind of symbolist masque. Still Life (1985), its successor, was less experimental but still managed […]
Comet Hale-Bopp is a rare visitor to our solar system, writes Swapna Prabhakaran The comet Hale-Bopp has made a spectacular entry into southern skies, 4 300 years since its last visit. The first sighting in South Africa was at Sutherland Observatory, at sunset on April 21. Cape Town spotted it two days later, and now […]
THURSDAY, 12.00NOON: HELLENIC beat QwaQwa Stars 3-1 last night in a Premier League clash, after leading 1-0 at half time. The score was not a true reflection however, as the hardworking Stars blew several scoring chances that might have changed the outcome. Stars’ defence was always impeccable and goalie Jacob Maikwoso pulled off an excellent […]
THURSDAY, 2.00PM: PEACE talks between Zairean president Mobutu Sese Seko and rebel leader Laurent Kabila will take place on Saturday aboard the SA Navy supply ship SAS Outeniqua. The talks were originally scheduled for Friday, but were delayed due to logistical problems. The talks will take place in international waters off the coasts of Zaire […]
THURSDAY 10.30AM THE SA Municipal Workers’ Union has accused Water Affairs and Forestry Minister Kader Asmal of engaging in secret negotiations with UK multinational Biwater, which has offered R12-billion to privatise SA’s entire water and waste services. Samwu representative Anna Weekes said yesterday: “The fact that this sum is not public knowledge and that it […]
THURSDAY, 1.00PM: THE CABINET Wednesday approved a Bill prohibiting South Africans from rendering military services abroad without government authority. The Bill provides for a fine of up to R1-million or 10 years’ imprisonment for offenders. The new law is clearly aimed at curtailing the activities of mercenary outfit Executive Outcomes. The Foreign Military Assistance Bill […]
THURSDAY 10.30AM TELKOM’S MD and CEO Brian Clark yesterday announced his resignation with immediate effect. A Telkom statement said Clark left “to pursue other interests”. However, Telkom sources suggest his resignation had more to do with a dilution of his powers following the sale of a strategic equity stake in the parastatal to a US-Malaysian […]
THURSDAY, 12.30PM: The slow pace of entries for this year’s Comrades Marathon has made a sudden turnaround and organisers are now expecting a record entry for the June 16 downhill race after a last-minute rush of entries last week. From just over 1 000 entries the previous week, total entries soared to 4 410 by […]
THURSDAY 12.00NOON The trade and industry department yesterday announced the early termination of the controversial General Export Incentive Scheme due to budgetary constraints. The scheme will cease on July 11 The scheme was introduced in 1990 to offer financial incentives to local manufacturers to increase exports after years of apartheid isolation. Payouts in terms of […]
THURSDAY, 12.30PM: SOUTH African tennis international Wayne Ferreira seems set on a career as a serial loser after bowing out of a major tournament once again. The third seed and world number 10 opted out of the first round of the $425 000 BMW Open yesterday with the same 6-3 6-4 score against the same […]
THURSDAY, 2.00PM: TWO stock thieves were shot dead and several people were injured yesterday afternoon when a group of rustlers on horseback attacked a group of SA and Lesotho security force members rounding up stolen livestock at Qubenga on the Lesotho border. About 60 horsemen surrounded the group, firing on them and attacking them with […]
The SA Law Commission has recommended the legalisation of euthanasia in South Africa, a move that could end the suffering of terminal or chronically ill patients Euthanasia could have saved her mother from terrible suffering, writes Ellen Bartlett TEN years ago, on April 10 my mother killed herself. On a sunny morning early in the […]
It was Cool Eddie for a change during the Argentine Grand Prix, but the hot passions his nationality arouses made him ask for a neutral flag MOTOR RACING: Maurice Hamilton WHEN Jacques Villeneuve goes to Imola for the San Marino Grand Prix this weekend, he may feel like taking time out to thank the Italian […]
An internal police inquiry has found a John Vorster Square captain guilty of harassing three colleagues. Ferial Haffajee reports FOR 27-year-old Christine Appelgrein, working for the South African Police Service (SAPS) guaranteed neither safety nor security. Instead, for more than a year, Appelgrein was sexually harassed by a police captain who also abused two other […]
Stuart Hess MMABATHO THIBEDI (29) is astonished to learn that the government pays child maintenance to some single mothers. “They [the government] didn’t introduce that policy [child maintenance] in this community,” she says. “If the government offers us the grant, it will make us much happier, the children can get a better education and I’ll […]
FINE ART: Shaun de Waal ANDREW VERSTER has been busy. One of South Africa’s best-known and most successful artists, it was his exhibition that opened the new Natal Society of Arts Gallery in Durban in May last year. Then he spent a few weeks at the 1996 Grahamstown festival, as artist in residence, in a […]
In an historic moment last weekend the wheelchairs and cameras rolled in unison as the first fully sponsored and televised sports event for the disabled got under way, writes Julian Drew THERE was an extra edge to the tension among the players as they warmed up for the first round of the SuperSport Wheelchair Basketball […]
South Africa is battling to contain a criminal economy whose roots lie in the covert war and cross-border struggles of the past, reports Stephen Elli SOUTH AFRICA has become a democracy, but the country is now witness to a level of crime which causes deep concern to its citizens and its government. The notion that […]
Durban playwright and author Ronnie Govender got the best first book award in this year’s Commonwealth Writers Prize. He spoke to SUZY BELL RONNIE GOVENDER, director of Durban’s Playhouse Company, recently won first place in the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize in the category for best first book for his collection At the Edge and other Cato […]
South Africa can influence human rights abusers by maintaining contact, writes Deputy Foreign Minister Aziz Pahad IN an article under the heading “SA open to business with anyone who pays” (April 4 to 10), the Mail & Guardian presupposes that South Africa has a one-dimensional approach to developing relations with certain countries where human rights […]
Gustav Thiel YOU can get away with smoking dope in Cape Town – if you do it at the Rainbow Temple. The temple, in a house in the upmarket suburb of Oranjezicht, is dedicated to “the holy weed”, otherwise known as cannabis or dagga. Although the illegality of cannabis is common fact, it is also […]
Bestselling author Kathy Lette recently visited South Africa. MADELEINE WACKERNAGEL met her ONE morning spent eavesdropping in Sandton Square was enough to convince Kathy Lette that her next book had to have a South African element. “What great material! I actually overheard someone saying `Ja well, no fine’!” She describes her discovery of that great […]
have entered their second year – with the same vigorous criticism from the new school as last year. Our journalists look at several of the categories and profile some of their favourites Who does he think he is? Maria McCloy on Joe Nina, Best Township Pop nominee `I DON’T want to give people Ding Dong […]
RUGBY:Steve Morris THE one surprising aspect of the positive dope tests on several top players is that anyone should be surprised by them having turned up. Northern Transvaal’s Springbok lock Johan Ackermann and the Gauteng Lions pair Bennie Nortje and Stefan Bronkhorst tested positive earlier in the season and now a specimen from Northerns prop […]
Andrew Meldrum in Harare ZIMBABWEAN Cabinet members are accused of looting a huge fund meant to compensate independence war veterans, a scandal that has come to a head just as the country marks its 17th anniversary of independence. Many Cabinet ministers, MPs and others closely connected to President Robert Mugabe’s ruling Zanu-PF party, have claimed […]
Stuart Hess MURIEL JACOBS has received R565 in child maintenance from the government since April last year to look after her two children. The grant, she says is not enough: “I can’t cope with R565, things are getting more expensive. Where must I get money from for everything I need at home?” Jacobs has two […]
Despite the regular births of Siamese twins in South Africa, medical experts still can’t explain the syndrome, writes Rowan Callaghan THE birth of Siamese twins Monde and Nomonde last week seems yet another in a long list since Mpho and Mphonyane Mathibela first stole South African hearts some eight years ago. Reports of Siamese twins […]
NOW that Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin “Bibi” Netanyahu has skirted political disaster over the Bar-On scandal, the focus of attention in the Middle East will shift back to a potentially larger disaster that he has succeeded in generating: deadlock in the peace talks. Like a bull in a china shop, Netanyahu has, in 10 months […]