Staff Reporter

Molo Fish! is the most hyped SA TV drama of 1997. MARIAMcCLOY reports on the h ighs, lows and political breakthroughs of the production AT a time when some people are trying to bury South Africa’s murky past and op t for rainbow nation escapism, Molo Fish!, a 13-part series that debuted this week on […]

Helena Smith in Tirana THE road to Albania’s economic integration=20 in Europe is potholed. The furore over=20 pyramid investment schemes has exposed the=20 fragility of free enterprise in a country=20 emerging from one of the world’s most=20 centralised political systems. Their collapse highlights how criminality=20 has become a way of life. Five years into=20 democracy, […]

Expenditure was up in the last financial=20 year, but so was revenue. The government’s=20 target deficit of 5,1% will still be met,=20 reports Lynda Loxton THE government has revised expenditure in=20 the 1996/97 Budget by R3,4-billion to=20 R176,5-billion and is confident that it=20 will still achieve a deficit of 5,1%,=20 Finance Minister Trevor Manuel said […]

Julia Grey CHRISTA MEDERI has happy chickens. They have “a nice house”, where they come and go as they please, according to their own fowl habits. They are fed mainly on a diet of organically grown greens, freshly picked. These stress-free and healthy chickens produce eggs that have an extra yellow yolk and greater nutritional […]

This week’s guest writer, Zakes Mda, speaks to skilled black professionals about why they’re planning to leave the country `I DON’T feel guilty at all,” says Wilson Mokgadi. “I feel angry instead. This is not a chicken run. This is a second exile.” We are in a restaurant at the Johannesburg International Airport. He is […]

Gwen Ansell NOSTALGIA and the recycling of old legends dominates the public face of South African jazz and audiences might be forgiven for fearing that’s all there is. But while we have, as yet, no coherent new jazz movement in this country, a ha ndful of players are striking out in fresh directions – there […]

edge Suzy Bell THERE’S a new generation of journalists=20 emerging and they’re not simply bristling=20 with the cockiness of youth, but have a=20 reassuring sense of social realism, and=20 equally a sense of business sass charging=20 through their veins. A group of trainee student journalists=20 sensed an editorial niche in the market=20 place to produce […]

M&G reporter JUDITH EDSTROM, the World Bank’s resident=20 representative in South Africa, is keen to=20 dispel fears surrounding the operations of=20 the institution in this country. In a=20 recent briefing to the South African=20 Institute for International Affairs, she=20 emphasised the partnership aspects. “The relationship between the bank and=20 South Africa has in many respects […]

Marion Edmunds KMMT BREY, a black Cape Town-based=20 accountancy firm, has won a R3,4-million=20 contract to market eight of South Africa’s=20 nine provinces abroad in a drive for direct=20 foreign investment. According to Rafiq Bagus, chief executive=20 officer of Investment South Africa, which=20 awarded the contract, KMMT Brey is working=20 with a United States-based consultancy, […]

“Speak not ill of the dead” is a maxim which has long been honoured more in the breach. Those who would attribute lack of respect for the dead to modern fashion — the cowardice of the tabloids (the threat of libel action having been consigned to the worms), or the trend towards “obitchery” — might […]

Structural adjustment policies are=20 interventionist and destructive, warns an=20 economist. Gwen Ansell reports AMID the soft-mouthed apologists for=20 structural adjustment policies – who=20 concede that its conditionalities may be=20 “too harsh” or its social safety nets “too=20 loose” – economist Michel Chossudowski is=20 refreshingly blunt.=20 The failures of structural adjustment, he=20 contends, have been masked […]

Panos Eliades took on Don King and the boxing establishment to get Lennox Lewis another shot at the world title. Roy Collins reports HE calls himself the Greek godfather. A fitting enough moniker for a man who has made a fortune liquidating people and, by way of a hobby, sending round his boys to bash […]

action Tangeni Amupadhi JULIA BOPAPE was the mother of an alleged criminal. Last week a crowd of 4 000 in Mamelodi, Pretoria, stoned her to death for the deeds of her son, Handsome Bopape. She was killed at a meeting during which the community accused her of encouraging her son to commit crimes, and of […]

From carpets to computers, the public register reveals what gifts MPs have received – or in some cases what they haven’t received. Rehana Rossouw reports ALMOST all the visitors to room V121 in Parliament this week were journalists eager to peek at the assets of South Africa’s elected leaders. If they were hoping for evidence […]

GOLF:Jon Swift NICK PRICE has gone winless for 14 months. It is not the first time that he has gone through a barren spell as a professional golfer. But Price’s eventual elevation to the ranks of the major winners and the world’s No 1 spot were as much a token of his ability to accept […]

Chris Mihill OVERWEIGHT women have less chance of surviving breast cancer than thinner colleagues, researchers announced in the United Kingdom this week. Scientists from the Cancer Research Campaign (CRC) say a woman past menopause in the early stages of breast cancer has a better chance of survival if she weighs less than 60kg. The study […]

`revenge’ Stuart Hess MORE than a week after rioting to protest=20 high taxes, residents of Johannesburg’s=20 coloured areas remain defiant of the=20 government, saying that an old oppressor=20 has merely been replaced with a new one. The rates row which sparked the rioting -=20 in which police have confirmed two people=20 died – is only […]

Local journalists have been asked to lobby support for US prisoner Mumia Abu-Jamal. Rehana Rossouw reports SOUTH AFRICAN media workers, academics and journalists have been asked to add their voices to a growing clamour to save a journalist from execution by lethal injection in the United States. Supporters of Mumia Abu-Jamal, president of the Black […]

The bizarre life of the man who bombed ANC headquarters in London, and who was crushed to death last week, is recounted by Phillip van Niekerk WHEN a spy dies, one is left guessing what knowledge he has taken to the grave with him. Peter Casselton, London spymaster of the apartheid government, resident of Vlakplaas, […]

action Tangeni Amupadhi JULIA BOPAPE was the mother of an alleged=20 criminal. Last week a crowd of 4 000 in=20 Mamelodi, Pretoria, stoned her to death for=20 the deeds of her son, Handsome Bopape. She was killed at a meeting during which=20 the community accused her of encouraging=20 her son to commit crimes, and of […]

A flurry of injuries, a James Small row, a huge fixture list and the singing Blue Bulls – it’s the start of a long, gruelling rugby season RUGBY:Jon Swift THERE is the distinct feeling that the rugby season has come upon us all too quickly. More so when a quick glance at the calendar shows […]

Stellenbosch University `top-bestuur’ faces revolt over secret pay-outs and management style. Marion Edmunds reports THE administration at Stellenbosch University, bastion of Afrikaner education, is facing a rebellion from its academics and students over its management style and secret pay-outs to five senior staff. It also emerged this week that the university has been fined R90 […]

Wherefore art thou, Leonardo? America has gone crazy for Romeo and Juliet, as interpreted by two hot young stars. HOWARD FEINSTEIN reports YOU can imagine how the media played it up: “Shakespeare’s Number One at Unite d States box office.” Romeo and Juliet, directed by Baz (Strictly Ballroom) Lu hrmann, opened in the United States […]

bashing Mail & Guardian Reporter GAY-BASHING has spread to Namibia with Swapo and President Sam Nujoma saying homosexuals are white and perverts. Two years ago human rights organisations were horrified when Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe said homosexuals were worse than pigs and dogs. Now Nujoma has slammed gays and the ruling party Swapo has come […]

Last week we reported on links between senior women in the African National Congress and a privately run deportation centre contracted to the Home Affairs Ministry. On Tuesday the ANC reacted with a statement defending the “rights” of its members to “seek a stake in the mainstream of the economy of our country”. On Wednesday […]

Shaun de Waal HOMOSEXUALITY: A HISTORY by Colin Spencer (Fourth Estate, R69,95) TAKING on an almost ludicrously broad field, Colin Spencer whizzes through man ifestations of same-sex love from prehistory to the present day. His overviews of ancient societies and the Renaissance, particularly, are interesting and u seful, but he seems unsure of which theory […]

SOCCER: Andrew Muchineripi ANYONE mentioning the words government intervention to a South African football official would be well advised to run for cover from a tirade of verbal abuse. Only last weekend, Kaizer Chiefs managing director Kaizer Motaung had few kind words to say about Steve Tshwete, suggesting that the sports minister should direct his […]

Dow Jones’s share price shows it does not=20 practise the economics preached by its own=20 Wall Street Journal, reports Mark Tran in=20 New York THE Wall Street Journal has waged a=20 relentless campaign for free-market=20 capitalism on its comment pages throughout=20 the years, priding itself for having=20 provided the redoubt for the shock troops=20 of […]

Middle-distance runners were dismayed at the samll number of events there were at which they could qualify for the world championships – but help is at hand ATHLETICS: Julian Drew WHEN Athletics South Africa (ASA) suspended all athletics activities in the Boland at the end of January the ramifications of its action hit home far […]

A UN report has revealed mismanagement and breaking of rules by officials at the Rwanda genocide tribunal , writes Chris McGreal A UNITED NATIONS report says the international Rwanda genocide trials have been crippled by chaotic management, underqualified legal staff and indifference at UN headquarters. The UN inspector general, Karl Paschke, said that unless there […]

TENNIS: Jon Swift IT must be more than satisfying to captain Danie Visser that the 3-1 victory over Russia in the Durban Davis Cup tie was built on the success of the less heralded players rather than on the often overworked talents of Wayne Ferreira. And, in the analysis, only Ferreira came out on the […]

As Western consumers move toward natural foods, organic farming in South Africa is confined to small-scale believers and subsistence farmers Julia Grey THE Michael Mount Organic Market in Bryanston, Gauteng, features immaculate wooden stalls stocked with nature’s elixirs and healing stones, the soothing sounds of an acoustic guitar wafting over piles of purple aubergines and […]