Staff Reporter

Mature economies are battling to expand rapidly; while this may mean nirvana for some theorists, it could spell hell for Britain’s Labour Party, writes Victor Keegan in London LOOSEN your seat belts, the world is slowing down. According to the latest figures from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the 15 economies of […]

Stephen Bates in Brussels and Larry Elliott in London FEARS were growing in Brussels, Belgium, this week that Germany’s inability to tackle the costs of its mounting unemployment crisis could scupper the Maastricht timetable and delay the start of monetary union for at least a year. Despite official protestations that the single currency will happen […]

Stefaans Brmmer FLIGHT SA 232 from Johannesburg to London on February 6 1993, two months before Chris Hani was assassinated, had three passengers of note – the South African Communist Party leader himself; right-wing journalist Arthur Kemp, who was later arrested in connection with his murder; and Inkatha Freedom Party militarist Philip Powell. This “coincidence” […]

The struggle for democracy in Swaziland is becoming increasingly violent, reports Ruaridh Nicoll in Mbabane INTERNATIONAL trade union leaders flew out of Swaziland this week threatening to blockade the kingdom unless its monarch, King Mswati III, releases four of their colleagues from prison and reforms the archaic system of government. Four union leaders were jailed […]

Iden Wetherell in Harare ZIMBABWE’s human rights record has taken a hammering with a United States official report detailing violations ranging from police brutality to interference in the media. The US State Department’s 1996 Country Report on Zimbabwe criticises the government for failing to pursue past allegations of torture and refusing to prosecute police and […]

Grand Prix legend Jackie Stewart is ready to take a back seat in the pursuit of further honours MOTOR RACING:Adam Sweeting IN 1963, Ken Tyrrell received a life- changing phone call. “I was running what was then a Formula Junior team, before the name was changed to Formula Three, so I was always looking for […]

South African companies are under pressure to take a stand on the Swazi strike, reports Max Gebhardt SOUTHAFRICA’S Transport and General Workers Union has vowed to intensify its campaign against South African companies invested in Swaziland as the Swazi general strike moves into its fourth week. The union will meet shop stewards next week to […]

GLYNIS O’HARA speaks to the versatile Sibongile Mngoma, a young soprano who is riding the wave of opera in South Africa SUPERLATIVES fly for Sibongile Mngoma (25), the soprano whose voice has overwhelmed critics, conductors and the public. “I think she’s great,” says Robert Maxym, freelance American conductor and musician resident in South Africa. “She’s […]

Charles Krauthammer in Washington IN 1991 in the Dutch city of Assen, a perfectly healthy 50-year-old woman asked her doctor to help her die. Her two sons had died, one by suicide, one by cancer. She wanted to join them. After many hours of consultation, Dr Boudewijn Chabot consented. He was at her side when […]

With market sentiment on its side, now would be a good time for South Africa to act on exchange controls, a USeconomist tells Madeleine Wackernagel THE subject on everybody’s lips at this year’s Socit Gnrale Frankel Pollack investment conference was exchange controls. But the governor of the Reserve Bank wasn’t talking, and neither was the […]

Marion Edmunds THE government wants to weed out traditional leaders who were placed in their communities by the old apartheid regime. The Department of Constitutional Development is planning an investigation into the background of South Africa’s nearly 800 royals, which would include tracing family trees to try to determine which leaders are legitimate and which […]

churches While the Constitution promotes human rights, churches refuse to accept gays and lesbians into the South African clergy. Gustav Thiel reports THE religious fraternity is on a collision course with the Constitution over its continued ban on homosexuals. Constitutional and human rights law specialists say the Bill of Rights, formally adopted earlier this month, […]

Lesley Cowling THE Agricultural Research Council wants to recruit the nation’s flies to help track down murderers. The council applied for R140 000 this week to study forensic entomology – the use of insects to investigate death, particularly of people whose bodies are found outdoors. It was pitching, along with other science councils, for a […]

Fay Davids SOUTH AFRICA’S fastest-growing farmworkers’ union – the South African Agricultural Plantation and Allied Workers Union (Saapawu) – is meeting on Friday, February 21, in its first-ever congress. At the top of its agenda is a plan to counter the South African Agricultural Union’s (SAAU) lobby against the Security of Tenure Bill. Union representative […]

THE stench arising from the administration of rugby in South Africa is over-powering. If the coaching career of the Springbok coach, Andr Markgraaff, is the immediate casualty of this week’s rugby race row, the putrefaction which gives rise to the stink lies with the South African Rugby Football Union (Sarfu). It has been obvious for […]

The head of Durban’s port is accused of racist behaviour and using spy tactics against his fired deputy, reports Ann Eveleth THE head of South Africa’s busiest port is bugging the offices of his subordinates, undermining black empowerment and operating behind the backs of senior port management, according to allegations by port employees and suppliers. […]

Jacquie Golding-Duffy THE SABC has axed a string of high-profile sports commentators just days before a huge sports programme relaunch, in favour of veteran presenter Martin Locke. Topsport general manager Edward Griffiths said this week eight presenters are to go. They include athletics presenter Elma Neethling, the first female to conquer the all-male domain of […]

Glynis O’Hara GALLO Africa Limited is talking to Tusk Records about a takeover. A buyout of Tusk would give Gallo the largest share of the music market in South Africa, says Johnathan Park of the Association of the South African Music Industry (Asami). “But we’re talking 0,5 to 2% here – not a huge lead, […]

Marion Edmunds ROELF MEYER set off into the political wilderness this week to seek a black Messiah to lead a new movement capable of challenging the African National Congress in 1999, and salvaging the moderate faction of a fragmenting National Party. Talent-spotting for a new black leader, Meyer told the Mail & Guardian this week, […]

emerges Fay Davids IN the mining industry, the proof of the pudding is in productivity. And in an industry where production hit a 40-year low last year, the story of a newly qualified miner at Gengold’s Beatrix mine is inspiring. In a 24-shift month he achieved a face advance – the rate at which a […]

The resignation of Springbok coach Andre Markgraaff is bound to affect the players, which is good news for South Africa’s opponents in the tough season ahead RUGBY:Jon Swift AS the dust rises in ever thickening clouds to turn whatever hint there was of transparency in South African rugby into an even murkier soup, it is […]

Maria McCloy IF you’re one of the millions of South Africans who tunes in to any of an ever- growing number of music radio stations each day, it’s unlikely that many of the sexy, soothing, lively or witty DJ voices you hear belong to a woman. Or when you get down in the club of […]

fences Caitlin Davies in Maun THE Botswana government looks set to introduce “wildlife-friendly fences” – that control the movement of one species while allowing others to roam free – in the Okavango Delta. Mary Kalikawe, a biologist for the Wildlife Training Institute based in Maun, produced a manual on such fences in 1995. She says […]

Controversial film-maker Larry Clark is coming to SA to promote his film, Kids, reports CHARL BLIGNAUT ‘DAD, I’ve never seen anything like that before.” So said photographer and film- maker Larry Clark’s 12-year-old son after watching the premiere of his photographer father’s debut movie Kids. Hardly surprising, considering Kids is one of the most original […]

An advocate disbarred for cheating is forgiven because of `extraordinary circumstances’ in the closing days of apartheid.Mungo Soggot reports THE Pretoria advocate who was disbarred for cheating former defence minister Magnus Malan by charging him exorbitant legal fees has been reinstated by a trio of Pretoria judges including Transvaal Judge President Frikkie Eloff – the […]

Bongani Ndodana OPERA has long had the unfortunate stigma of being perceived as an inaccessible European holy cow. True, some of its origins can be traced back to the late 16th century in Italy, to a group of learned poets and musicians known as the Florentine Camerata, but it has come a long way since […]

Charl Blignaut IT was probably a song like Jong Dames Dinamiek (referring to a young women’s cultural group established under National Party rule) that did it. So upset we re the censors in 1990 that they banned the album Die Saai Lewe (The Tedious L ife) by Randy Rambo en die Rough Riders – the […]

Krisjan Lemmer Wear shades, the future’s so bright A South African man with a dream of a=20 bright future is about as scarce as a=20 politician driving a VW nowadays. Or so we=20 thought, until someone showed us a speech=20 made by the rector and vice-chancellor of=20 the University of Zululand, Professor CRM=20 Dlamini. What […]

THE ANGELLA JOHNSON INTERVIEW PULEEZE, do not call Basil Douglas a “so- called coloured”. It pisses him off. Like the k-word does black folk. He is Coloured, with a capital C, and proud of it. Heck, he is even prepared to fight for the right to be called coloured. The man who organised last week’s […]

The medicines control bureaucracy is being accused of denying people with Aids a chance to save their lives. Jim Day reports THERE are people with Aids in South Africa who want to take Virodene now – and they want no part of what they see as bureaucratic meddling by the Medicines Control Council. Patients interviewed […]

Caitlin Davies SWEET-TOOTHED elephants are going to have a field day if a sugar plantation gets under way in northern Botswana, in what conservationists call one of the most environmentally unfriendly schemes imaginable. The sugar plantation is reportedly to be built on the sand bridge behind the Chobe River and inside the Kasane Forest Reserve […]

Shyam Bhatia in Cairo EGYPT’S only two hard rock bands have abandoned rehearsals, hidden their poste rs and locked up their CDs after a police crackdown on heavy-metal fans brande d as Satanists. A satanic fever sweeping the country has prompted some Islamic leaders to warn that “deviants” deserve the death penalty, and Egypt’s opposi […]