Pirate CD producers in Eastern Europe could bring the European recording industry to its knees, reports Stuart Miller from London THE European recording industry has launched a frontal assault on the large- scale illegal production of pirate compact discs in Eastern Europe, which is costing companies and their artists billions of dollars in lost revenue […]
Would this year’s Bandslam follow the triumphs of last year? MALU VAN LEEUWEN was at the River Club concert APOLOGISTS for the so-called South African Music Explosion are probably going to hate me for this, but it’s so corny it’s worthy of a Leon Shuster gag – except the man has more taste than to […]
Stuart Hess THE Gauteng health department could save R1-billion if it accepts cost-cutting proposals made by health workers’ unions, including centralising services, eliminating private nursing in public hospitals, and scrapping private security, the unions said this week. The figure is almost double the R550- million the Gauteng health department said it could save when it […]
Frederick Chiluba and Kenneth Kaunda are allegedly involved in a deal to quash court cases involving their nationality. Anthony Kunda reports ZAMBIAN President Frederick Chiluba and former president Kenneth Kaunda are allegedly involved in secret negotiations which could result in the petition against Chiluba’s nationality and re-election being withdrawn from the supreme court. The petition […]
The hunt is on for informants in the ANC, report Ann Eveleth, Rehana Rossouw and Peta Thornycroft THE African National Congress is sitting on information linking one of its prominent provincial members of Parliament in KwaZulu-Natal to the former South African Security Police. The allegations about the MPP first surfaced in 1994 following the death […]
The CNA Literary Award is no more. SHAUN DE WAAL looks back at its successes and failures, and asks some questions about a future prize AFTER 35 years, the CNA Literary Award has come to an end. Some might accuse this paper of having helped to kill it – after all, Sarah Ruden, who won […]
Stefaans Brmmer TRANSKEI Attorney General Christo Nel will prosecute casino magnate Sol Kerzner – provided Kerzner’s pre-emptive attempt to stop him fails. Nel, who has waged an often single-handed campaign to have the R2-million bribery and corruption charges against Kerzner tested in court, was restrained in an 11th-hour interim interdict this week from arresting Kerzner […]
Rebels are advancing on Zaire’s third- largest city but sceptics in the West are resisting France’s calls for an intervention force, writes Chris McGreal FRANCE is pursuing a lonely campaign to revive plans for an international force in Zaire to halt the rebel advance and prevent what it says is a genocide in the making. […]
As we speed towards the new millennium, popular culture is being invaded by psychoses, conspiracies, warnings of digital chaos – and little grey creatures. In our heads and on our TV screens we are watching the invasion. Believe. Dror Eyal GREYISH skin, elongated oval head and huge wraparound eyes. It’s an image that heralds the […]
GWEN ANSELL talks to a new generation of jazz composers involved in Our Music Our Voices at the breakthrough 1997 Windybrow Arts Festival IN a tiny, sweaty rehearsal room at the Windybrow Theatre an improbably large band of musicians pounds its way through McCoy Mrubata’s Sangoma Blues. In the middle, in the few square feet […]
`Peace’ initiators are said to be holding peace to ransom, reports Ann Eveleth THE decision by the KwaZulu-Natal government to sit on a damning report linking key politicians in the province to hit-squad activity has raised fresh concerns about the region’s embryonic peace drive. A South African National Defence Force (SANDF) report leaked last week […]
The selectors are right to bring in some young blood against the Australians, but they also need the coolness of experience in the heat of battle CRICKET:Jon Swift IN times of crisis, it is a very human response to bring in the strength and exuberance of youth. Here, you feel, is the next link in […]
Robin McKie in London ON the North Sea floor, off the Farne Islands, scientists have discovered a mysterious gathering place for grey seals. It is the aquatic equivalent of a favourite country pub. Some seals will swim hundreds of miles through murky seas just to visit it. The discovery has baffled researchers, who cannot explain […]
Gustav Thiel A WEDGE has been driven through Western Cape cricket over the decision to drop an investigation into Western Province Cricket Association vice-president Percy Sonn. Sonn, who is also Western Cape deputy attorney general, told the Mail & Guardian last month that he often drank heavily, had told SABC commentator Martin Locke to “fuck […]
HEADLINES in some South African newspapers this week – “Madiba back from Asia with billions” – reflect the obsession South Africa has with the quick fix. Faced with massive social problems the country longs for a magic formula, or simply a magician, to conjure up instant solutions. The Sultan of Brunei is the richest man […]
Denis Staunton in Berlin and Ian Traynor in Bonn A SENIOR adviser to Chancellor Helmut Kohl has called on him to admit that Germany would not pass the test this year for a single European currency and urged a delay in the launch of European Monetary Union (EMU). But as Herbert Hax – head of […]
Gavin Dudley THE first second of the year 2000 will see your personal history vanish forever. At least as far as your bank, government and insurance company are concerned. And perhaps it is typical that these bureaucracies do not seem disturbed at this prospect. More than 80% of the computers controlling the obvious and invisible […]
Hazel Friedman A MILESTONE in educational programming on television and radio has been reached with the SABC’s new Learn `N Live initiative, giving independent producers an unprecendented opportunity to make their mark by replacing the SABC’s traditionally stodgy fare. Learn `N Live, a joint initiative between the SABC and the Department of Education, not only […]
Enriched uranium once intended for South Africa’s nuclear weapons is now helping medical science, writes Lesley Cowling THE Atomic Energy Corporation (AEC) is using enriched uranium to fuel a research reactor that now produces medical isotopes for international export and local use. But the uranium was enriched in a process designed by AEC scientists in […]
Thomas Mallon SELECTED STORIES by Alice Munro (Chatto & Windus, R110) ALICE MUNRO’S deeply imagined, almost awesome Selected Stories turn William Faulkner’s famous musing about the past’s not really being past into an understatement. In Munro’s world, the present is scarcely present; the moment we live in is just a flask in which the past’s […]
Lynda Loxton FINANCE MINISTER Trevor Manuel this week took the bit between his teeth and announced a sweeping relaxation of exchange controls, much to the delight of the markets. “The changes in the exchange control regime … are profound,” Manuel said in his Budget address on Wednesday. In a joint statement with Reserve Bank governor […]
The financial magazine has threatened to sue Business Day and M&G for publishing allegations of unethical behaviour about its owner, reports Mungo Soggot THE battle of the media industry’s financial gurus intensified this week as Finance Week threatened legal action against its rival Business Day and vowed to publish a personal attack on its editor […]
Charl Blignaut LEADING music concert promoter Attie van Wyk said this week he wants to bring international actors to South Africa in an effort to rejuvenate the country’s languishing theatre industry. He disclosed plans to add an International Theatre Division to his already successful Big Concerts promotions company. To be headed by Bernard Jay, entertainment […]
‘WE believe Afrikaner/ Boere reporters should stand together. We all have a common goal of self-determination and as the media we can disseminate our information to the Afrikaner people and exert a great influence,” says Henk van der Graaf, chair of Die Mediaklub – the group officially formed about two weeks ago in reaction, it […]
A series of sensational allegations against SABC bosses about a top-selling TV show will result in arbitration, reports Peta Thornycroft THE heads of SABC1 and 2 have been accused of illegally removing property from the offices of an independent television producer. This is one of a series of sensational allegations involving prominent television and media […]
JONATHAN ROMNEY speaks to cult Hollywood director Tim Burton about his freaks, frailties and fame – and his latest film Mars Attacks! TIM BURTON’S Mars Attacks! seems like a sure-fire recipe for box-office success – hordes of evil aliens, a cult director with a berserk visual imagination, and a prodigally illustrious cast (Nicholson, Close, DeVito, […]
Stuart Hess and Mungo Soggot finally got to see the report that caused all the trouble THE dossier which prompted a government inquiry into rugby and this week’s high court battle between rugby supremo Louis Luyt and Sports Minister Steve Tshwete contains little more than press clippings and court papers. Documents handed to Tshwete by […]
Need computer information in a readable form? Try these PCReview books, writes BARBARA LUDMAN THE boffins who write the Mail & Guardian’s PCReview supplement have now turned out an entertaining series of guides to the computer age. First up is Irwin Manoim’s Buying the Right Computer (R49,95); next comes Mish Middelmann’s The Lowdown on Windows […]
Was Finance Week publisher David Gleason a hired gun? Mungo Soggot reports THE feud between Times Media Limited and former employee David Gleason exploded into the public domain this week, as TML’s Business Day newspaper published long- rumoured allegations about Gleason’s ethical behaviour. The newspaper on Wednesday published a carefully worded but wounding article alleging […]
John le Carre is credited by some with originating one of the most powerful analytical tools since sod’s law: the explanation of human endeavour and its frustration in terms of the conspiracy and the cock-up theories. It is perhaps time it was brought to bear on South Africa’s most critical problem: crime. Over recent months […]
Running at altitude, South African athletes are going to struggle to beat the qualifying marks for the world championships ATHLETICS:Julian Drew SOUTH AFRICA’S top athletes go to Potchefstroom’s peculiarly shaped Kenneth McArthur Oval this weekend knowing that a national title along with a performance which betters Athletic South Africa’s (ASA) qualifying standards will automatically gain […]
Ann Eveleth THE Durban High Court ruled this week that President Nelson Mandela has the right, if he chooses, to appoint biased and partial commissions of inquiry, and that citizens have no legal recourse to oppose them. The ruling by Judge Ron McLaren followed the leak of documents from a secret October 1996 meeting between […]