Benjamin Pogrund joins the debate over the Jewish community and its role in apartheid A HAUNTING memory as a child in Cape Town is of my father weeping when news reached him in the 1940s about the murder of our relatives in Lithuania. They were among the more than 260 000 Jews wiped out in […]
Jacquie Golding-Duffy KAGISO Educational Television (KET) is a new production company that promises to make an impact on educational viewing this year through innovative ventures. Headed by dynamic duo Leora Rajak and Coco Cachalia, the production company has clinched a deal to produce a 13-part television series called Educator Express for the SABC and the […]
CLASSICAL ON CD: Coenraad Visser THE new Decca diva is American soprano Renee Fleming. Two years ago she was a last-minute replacement for Georg Solti’s live recording of Cosi fan tutte. So enthusiastic was the critical reception that Decca immediately signed her as an exclusive artist. That spurred a publicity campaign last launched to place […]
Fifty years ago Jackie Robinson kept a date with destiny to defy the bigots. Pat Putnam celebrates the historic day when a major talent stepped up to bring baseball’s race barriers tumbling down IT has been a Lincolnian two score and 10 years since the time when sport was an all- white domain in the […]
Jim Day ADMINISTRATIVE problems and computer glitches have delayed the results of Census ’96 by six months, and pushed costs beyond its R365-million budget. Preliminary results from the population survey were first expected in January – then February, then March. Now, officials say it is too early even to tell when results may be ready, […]
In the first of a series of articles on economic policy, Asghar Adelzadeh of the National Institute for Economic Policy looks at industrial development South Africa’s industrial development has been and remains deficient, with serious problems: a lack of capacity in intermediate and capital goods; an aged capital stock, reflecting limited investment in the past; […]
The probe which prompted Van Zyl’s suspension is far from complete, raising suspicions of a witch-hunt, reports Mungo Soggot SOUTH AFRICA’S top state oil official, suspended last week, is taking the blame for a sanctions-busting deal cut for the former government. No evidence has yet been found that he personally benefited from the deal. It […]
DROR EYAL found himself between racists and radicals at this year’s controversial Klein Karoo Nasionale Kunstefees `KAFFIRS wil alles oorneem; kyk hoe lank speel hulle!” [Blacks want to take over everything; look how long they play!] screams a man to my right. Short brown hair, clean shaven, T-shirt, shorts, Metlife Kaktus op die Vlaktes stick-on […]
The trade department is set to launch its Competitiveness Fund, which draws on specialists to help small businesses grow, reports Madeleine Wackernagel THE Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) is to seek tender applications for an operator to run its Competitiveness Fund by the end of this month. The fund, established to help small businesses […]
SWAPNA PRABHAKARAN speaks to Calvin Hunt about the upcoming visit to South Africa of the famous Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre Company CALVIN HUNT does not stay in any one place for very long. As the general manager of the renowned Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre Company, his job is to travel ahead to various […]
The most senior members of the ANC’s former liberation army, Umkhonto weSizwe, are mobilising against racism in the SANDF, reports Rehana Rossouw DEPUTY Defence Minister Ronnie Kasrils has acknowledged there is racism in the South African National Defence Force (SANDF) and has extended his sympathies to lower- ranking soldiers who are victims of discrimination. The […]
stakes Mail & Guardian Reporter THE British mercenary company which subcontracted South Africa’s Executive Outcomes to crush a rebellion on Papua New Guinea’s island province Bougainville asked for a stake in the large Panguna copper mine after its recapture, a judicial inquiry was told this week. Counsel assisting the commission, which is probing the ill-fated […]
Organising Jo’burg’s streets is crucial to new investment, but street traders are taking issue with the new laws, reports Ferial Haffajee THE implementation of state-of-the-art by- laws to streamline hawking on Johannesburg’s streets has been indefinitely delayed as the Johannesburg Metropolitan Council hurries to start a hawker education programme, meant to have been completed by […]
Phillip van Niekerk visited the refugee camps of Khartoum, capital of Sudan, and found ethnic rifts to rival the old South Africa THERE is a jarring familiarity to the way the Sudanese refer to “them” – the tall, dark strangers now found in abundance in their northern cities. Any discussion with an Arab about independence […]
The Johannesburg child protection unit has failed to act on a seemingly watertight case, reports Stuart Hess HE stands on a Hillbrow street corner, selling sweets to children. To the unsuspecting, Isaac Tshipe is just another street vendor; but to four-year-old Thembi (not her real name) he is the man who raped and assaulted her […]
Zaire’s president has reinstated a dictatorial governor he removed four years ago. Chris McGreal reports from Lumbumbashi IT is four years since Kyungu wa Kumwanza tried to revive an independent Katanga with the brutal ethnic cleansing of one million people. He even went so far as to declare secession from Zaire. It cost the demagogic […]
Mark Milner and Christopher Zinn in Sydney AUSTRALIA is facing one of the biggest share flops in its history after investors cold-shouldered an innovative package aimed at financing the building of the Sydney 2000 Olympic stadium. Final figures for the A$364,4-million (R1265-million) issue, which closed on Thursday last week, have not yet been released, but […]
Robben Island rape victim Nomboniso Gasa speaks out on police foul-ups and a carefully orchestrated campaign to smear her through the Afrikaans-owned media, reports Gustav Thiel LEADING feminist Nomboniso Gasa believes she has been raped twice: first by the man who attacked her on Robben Island, and then by police who botched the investigation, and […]
This year’s Rustlers Valley Easter Festival became a battle between the ravers and the hippies, reports SUZYBELL A WOODPECKER screeched as 900 Gemini twins howled at the half-eaten moon. Yup, the rave scene has infiltrated this once laid- back hippie pastoral happening – Rustlers Easter festival. “It’s just thud, thud, thud, thud,” moaned the hippies. […]
Ann Eveleth THE Inkatha Freedom Party is planning to strip all political powers from its secretary general’s post in an effort to prevent future holders commanding the influence over the party enjoyed by past incumbents. Ben Ngubane, the KwaZulu-Natal premier and IFP acting national chairman, told the Mail & Guardian this week that party officials […]
Morals have no role to play in the drive for trade, report Marion Edmunds and Carien du Plessis SOUTH AFRICA’S international trade is being buoyed by soaring business with some of the world’s leading violators of human rights. Latest figures show South Africa is enjoying much of its strongest growth in exports and imports from […]
A touring photographic exhibition is at last telling the truth about Hitler’s reluctant army. And some Germans don’t like it, reports STEPHEN PLAICE THE honourable German soldier coerced and corrupted by the Nazis has become one of the century’s most powerful icons, an everyman for an age mired in moral ambivalence. It has been perpetuated […]
It is four years since Chris Hani’s death, and speculation is growing that assassin Janusz Waluz was not alone, reports Stefaans Brmmer WHEN Polish immigrant Janusz Waluz was arrested shortly after he gunned down Chris Hani, his only words were that the murder weapon – found in his getaway car – had been “planted”. After […]
Lynda Loxton ANOTHER black empowerment deal emerged this week when black-controlled LA Retail Stores announced it had bought branded clothing and footwear marketer Skye Products for R115,6-million. Gauteng-based Skye, best known for distributing international brands of running shoes and clothing to stores and independent retailers throughout the country for the last 32 years, will treble […]
IT has been observed that it is as well to be remembered after one’s death, but better not to be found out before one’s death. Chris Hani has been blessed in both respects. Hero-worshipped by millions before his assassination, he has now been remembered in perpetuity — or something approaching it – by having the […]
Glynis O’ Hara GILLIAN SLOVO and I are sitting in a hotel lounge discussing her new book, Every Secret Thing: My Family, My Country, when a couple walk in, throw themselves on a couch nearby and say: “Have you read Gillian Slovo’s new book? It’s really good.” The woman looks over at us and recognition […]
Ann Eveleth STATE-OWNED port operator Portnet has donated taxpayers’ money to Durban’s top cultural centre in a mysterious deal arranged by a former member of Umkhonto we Sizwe. Bartel Arts Trust (BAT) says it still has to establish where it is supposed to invest the R50 000 it received in February from Portnet’s Reconstruction and […]
Gustav Thiel THE war between Cape Town’s drug lords and People Against Gangsterism and Drugs (Pagad) is heading for the ballot box. Notorious gangster Rashied Staggie has announced that he will contest the 1999 elections, while Pagad is said to be forming a political party for the elections. Staggie, the twin brother of Rashaad Staggie […]
Falilat Ogunkoya’s bronze medal at the Olympics inspired her Nigerian teammates to their best performance ever, and now she’s aiming even higher ATHLETICS:Julian Drew WHEN Falilat Ogunkoya, in South Africa at the moment for the Engen Grand Prix series, returned home last year to Lagos with the most successful Nigerian team in Olympic history she […]
With his experience of African conditions and solidity in defence, Gavin `Stability Unit’ Lane looks the right man for the job in South Africa’s vital clash with Congo SOCCER: Andrew Muchineripi GAVIN LANE could complete a fairytale rise to international football this weekend when South Africa play Congo in a crucial qualifying match for the […]
* Iran: Total trade has grown more than 25 000% since 1993, and last year stood at R5,7-billion. Main South African exports include cereals, iron, steel and machinery including nuclear equipment. Main imports are oil. Amnesty International says Iranian authorities detain thousands of political prisoners, and often punishes offenders by public flogging, amputations and executions. […]
Huge losses in revenue to pirates have goaded the music industry into constructive action, reports Glynis O’Hara IN China, eight people were executed last year for music piracy. “Just like that,” says Mike Snow, drawing a line across his throat with his finger. The trouble is, they weren’t the big guys. And, according to overseas […]