RUGBY: Jon Swift TO call Auckland awesome is akin to predicting the onset of nightfall. It is on performance against the reigning Super 12 champions – even without skipper Zinzan Brooke – that other sides in the competition will be measured. Certainly, Helgard Muller’s Free State will be awaiting Friday’s opening game of a crowded […]
THEATRE: Sifiso Maseko SALAELO MAREDI, resident director at the Market Theatre for 1997, says: “I hope to make the Market more accessible to traditionally isolated persons. If I have my way, it will become like a home to these people.” His first production at the Market, Blackage, was inspired by an article on corruption in […]
Guest writer Pippa Green watches the truth commission catch fire THERE is a monument outside Pretoria’s vast municipal complex, a broken arch of triumph. Its dedication reads: “To all victims of terrorism.” It stands on the corner of Munitoria, a distinctly Pretorian name in a city where names like Cartoria for a major vehicle dealer […]
Marion Edmunds THE government is trying to revive the Presidential Review Commission, created to help reform the ailing public sector but paralysed by its own problems, which culminated recently in the resignation of its chairman. Professor Bax Nomvete, who by all accounts had a stormy relationship with the rest of the commission, has refused to […]
Indian film and music is reinventing itself, invading Western fashion and creating heated debate back home CINEMA: Derek Malcolm MOST in the West know little about Indian cinema, one of the oldest, most varied, largest and most glamorous entertainment industries in the world. The conception is that there was Satyajit Ray, a great director of […]
THE ANGELLA JOHNSON INTERVIEW LEGEND has it that Modjadji, the rain queen, is not only the most powerful of all traditional healers but is also immortal. Like the Dalai Lama, Tibet’s spiritual leader, she is said to be reincarnated in a different body each lifetime. Charmaine Modjadji, shebeen queen of South Africa, may deny any […]
There is something a little distasteful about the Independent Group’s “confession” to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission as to its sins during the apartheid era. Like its much-trumpeted “international advisory board” of consultants, the submission smacks more of a public relations exercise than a genuine contribution to South African journalism. The group’s apparent failure to […]
A hydro-electric project dam in northern Namibia could displace 2 000 people. Graham Hopwood reports from Windhoek THE Himba people in north-west Namibia are battling a plan to construct a hydro-power station and dam on the Kunene River which could flood up to 400km2 of their land. “We don’t want the construction of the dam. […]
bomb Aspasia Karras CRIME and unemployment grab the headlines, but an even greater obstacle to putting South Africa on the fast growth track is illiteracy. The fact that the National Economic Development and Labour Council (Nedlac) put the issue high on its agenda at its first meeting this year highlights the growing concern that without […]
FINE ART:Hazel Friedman LAST year’s Unplugged exhibition will go down in South African art history as a supreme example of the “buddy system” at its worst. Initiated by artist Kendell Geers as a riposte to the traditional curatorial process – whereby the curator determines the content and presentation of an exhibition – Unplugged set itself […]
Mungo Soggot TWO of Johannesburg’s elite schools went head-to-head this week, not on the playing field but in the somewhat seedier surrounds of the Randburg Magistrate’s Court, to settle a case of assault, with racial overtones and a sporting twist. The case stemmed from a fight at the Randburg Waterfront last year between two students, […]
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 […]
Lisa Buckingham and Alex Brummer A FRESH initiative to revamp bonuses and so stamp out the wildest risks taken by City of London derivative traders is expected to follow the $80-million scandal at NatWest Markets that this week helped to wipe nearly $900-million off the stock market value of the banking group. Anthony Bellchambers, chief […]
Catalyst Films is becoming the busiest and most respected production house in South Africa. ANDREW WORSDALE reports IN early 1986 Jeremy Nathan was doing his military service with the film unit of the Entertainment Corp – a virtual propaganda wing for the South African Defence Force. At night, though, he’d hang out with friends Matthew […]
Iden Wetherell in Harare PRESIDENT Robert Mugabe this week led a high-powered team to London to drum up investment in Zimbabwe’s faltering economy. Government sources in Harare have been upbeat about the interest shown by British companies. But it remains to be seen whether this will translate into money and jobs. Investment is vital to […]
In a conversation with Benjamin Pogrund, Harry Oppenheimer reflects on his life in business and defends his companies’ stance on apartheid HARRY OPPENHEIMER carries his 88 years lightly. “I feel well and I enjoy life so I’m very lucky at my age,” he says. He’s a bit stooped and says his hearing is not what […]
THEATRE:Andrew Wilson STEVE MARTIN’s award-winning play, Picasso at the Lapin Agile, currently running at the Civic Theatre, bears a marked resemblance to Nicholas Roeg’s brilliant 1985 film Insignificance, sharing not only the concept, but some of the characters. Working from Terry Johnson’s satirical script, Roeg’s film gathers together four prominent characters from the Fifties in […]
What exactly is South Africa doing in its new, state-of-the-art Antarctic research base? Lesley Cowling reports PICTURES of Antarctica show a pristine wonderland: stunning white snow and poster- blue seas, penguins in their zoot suits, the wildest cleanest place on earth. But it’s also the coldest, windiest place on earth. In winter there’s no light, […]
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, […]
Adrian Dawson in London A YOUNG playwright from Edenvale is currently earning interest in the West End of London, Britain’s theatreland. Backpay, by 24-year-old Tamantha Hammerschlag, is being staged at the illustrious Royal Court theatre, known for its pioneering of young talent. Hammerschlag is clearly delighted at having her work staged at the Royal Court. […]
As the Grand Prix season opens in Melbourne on Sunday, Villeneuve has the hot car while frustrated Hill needs heavenly help to defend the title MOTORRACING:Maurice Hamilton IT is at times such as this that grand prix teams, struggling to make final preparations for the new season, remember 1989. Nigel Mansell had joined Ferrari and […]
Is there a place in the South African media for institutionalised ethnicity? Jacquie Golding-Duffy reports ‘WE are not anti-white, but pro-black,” says Abbey Makoe, chair of the steering committee of the Black Journalists Forum (BJF) – the lobby group recently launched and endorsed by Deputy President Thabo Mbeki and SABC chief executive Zwelakhe Sisulu. The […]
A joint-venture deal with Naledi Petroleum has exposed Sasol’s policy of taking over petrol stations ahead of deregulation, writes Mungo Soggot SASOL has been quietly buying up prime petrol station sites in Gauteng in anticipation of a relaxation of regulations that bar it from retailing fuel, the synthetic fuel giant confirmed this week. Sasol communications […]
A departmental inquiry into Sarafina II has cleared three officials and slapped a fourth on the wrist, reports Jim Day FOUR officials investigated by the Department of Health for their role in Sarafina II, the ill-fated Aids awareness play that cost taxpayers several million rands, have escaped with their jobs. Responding to a request by […]
Sentiment has improved, but to capitalise on the turnaround, Trevor Manuel must define the strategy for implementing Gear, argues Madeleine Wackernagel SO, Trevor Manuel will get to present his first Budget after all, despite rumours of a Cabinet reshuffle earlier this year. Already he has quietened his detractors by showing the deficit target is on […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
Gustav Thiel A RASTAFARIAN is taking the Law Society of Cape Town to court over its refusal to allow him to qualify as a lawyer because he has a criminal record for cannabis possession. The Law Society says it cannot allow Garreth Prince, who completed his legal studies at the University of the Western Cape […]
Seventeen years after independence, white Rhodesians are going back to Zim in their droves, reports Iden Wetherell THE Rhodesians are coming! Thousands of citizens of rebel prime minister Ian Smith’s former white bastion who fled majority rule in 1980 to seek refuge in apartheid South Africa are now flocking back across the border. And they […]
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 […]
ancestral land Caitlin Davies in Maun A NEW initiative by the Botswana government to remove Bushmen from their ancestral lands in the Central Kalahari Game Reserve – to make way for tourism and mining – has backfired, with hundreds of Bushmen agreeing to accept cash in return for moving, but then changing their minds. “People […]