pupils Dawn Blalock RONL BURGER is a businesswoman of the year who can barely turn a profit. Burger is the headmistress of Malvern Primary School, Johannesburg. She is also the owner of a privately run hostel that houses up to 35 of the school’s children. Wearing her two hats – one as a government servant […]
FRIDAY, 4.00PM: THE African National Congress today offered its warmest congratulations to the British Labour Party and its leader Tony Blair for their landslide victory in the UK parliamentary elections. “The scale of the victory is indeed very rare in democracies today,” the party said in a statement. The ANC said it believes the victory […]
CINEMA: Charl Blignaut As I was leaving Mike Leigh’s Secrets and Lies, it occurred to me that the impact of the movie pretty much depends on how screwed up your mother was. Or, for that matter, exactly how much it screwed your mother up to give birth to this life that would become a shadow […]
Amid all the horrors of Matabeleland one name stands out as being particularly synonymous with human depravity: Bhalagwe camp. It was originally a base for ex-Zipra troops incorporated into the Zimbabwe National Army. But in 1982 the troops there were accused of being dissidents. The camp was surrounded by paratroop and commando units and shut […]
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: 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 […]
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, 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, 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: 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 […]
TV personality Saira Essa’s R1-million wedding has been slammed as a publicity stunt, reports SUZY BELL in this week’s Cultural Sushi column A WICKED quote doing the rounds in Durban: “Following Saira Essa around India is like being trapped in a cupboard with a postcard of the Taj Mahal.” The words come from a television […]
If playing in the Super 12 is like playing a Test every week, then the matches this weekend are the series decider for three South African teams RUGBY:Steve Morris INTERESTING that South African Rugby Football Union (Sarfu) supremo, Louis Luyt, would pick this week to espouse his enthusiasm for the Super 12 series. True, Luyt […]
HAZELFRIEDMAN looks at photographer Jo Ractliffe’s studies of the ephemeral `I HAVE a curiosity about what photographs don’t do. What they leave out, their silence and the spaces they occupy between reality and desire.” Jo Ractliffe is treading on uncertain turf. She’s talking about subverting the very basis of a medium whose status, particularly given […]
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 […]
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 […]
Gwen Ansell on Sipho Gumede, Best Producer nominee `IT’S funny,” says bassman Sipho Gumede on the phone line from Durban, “the industry is only checking me as a producer now, when I’ve been a professional musician for 26 years.” Gumede is commenting on his nomination at this year’s Sama awards for Best Producer for his […]
A culture of reckless driving is creating havoc on the roads, but what is the government task team doing to put the taxi industry on the road to recovery? Dawn Blalock reports MPHO MAKHAYA, one month shy of her 17th birthday, is recovering in Leratong Hospital from neck and leg injuries she sustained when the […]
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 […]
Mungo Soggot WHILE the Independent Broadcasting Authority reeled from financial scandal this week, two of its councillors were tasting the joys of New York and Geneva. Co-chair Sebilitso Mokone-Matabane was attending a conference in New York, while councillor Lyndall Shope-Mafole was representing South Africa at the International Telecommunications Union in Geneva. Both councillors were accused […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
`decent death’ What do you do when a patient asks for `help at the end’? Bert Keizer gives his response THERE has always been a mad fringe around the euthanasia debate, which could make you forget that behind all the nonsense there must be the possibility of a sensible conversation about the subject. About a […]
The South African government cannot be seen to take sides, but it must still protect domestic business interests, reports Stefaans Brmmer SOUTH AFRICA faces a dilemma in its role as peace mediator in Zaire: as “honest broker” the government cannot be seen to take sides, yet South African companies – chiefly mining interests -stand to […]
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 […]
Sanco is struggling to survive amid tensions between its socialist stalwarts and newborn capitalists,reports Mungo Soggot ONE of the bulwarks of the anti-apartheid struggle, the South African National Civics Organisation (Sanco), has virtually ground to a halt, crippled by debts of R1,5- million. A report read by former Sanco secretary general Penrose Ntlonti at the […]
Glynis O’Hara on Tsepo Tshola, Best Male Vocalist nominee HIS music may have captured the imagination enough for his legions of fans to dub him the Village Pope, but gravelly singer/composer Tsepo Tshola has never yet been nominated for or won a music award. And, surprisingly, neither did his former group, Sankomota, win anything. Which […]
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 […]
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 […]