Staff Reporter

Iden Wetherell reports on the political=20 crisis facing Zimbabwe’s tourism industry ZIMBABWE’S National Parks Department, due=20 to host a summit of the Convention on=20 International Trade in Endangered Species=20 (Cites) in Harare in June, is facing a=20 leadership crisis which has badly dented=20 its reputation as one of Africa’s most=20 effective wildlife managers. The department […]

Lesley Cowling THE scientific community in South Africa=20 and internationally are speculating that=20 the active ingredient of Virodene is an=20 industrial solvent called dimethylformamide=20 (DMF). DMF is used in laboratories to=20 “denature” DNA, a process that releases it=20 from its double strand shape. Medical researchers say DMF is also the=20 agent used by Pretoria researcher […]

AT the Dante Alighieri Society in=20 Johannesburg this week, an Italian book on=20 the new South Africa was launched. The=20 collection of10 essays, Il Nuovo Sudafrica,=20 was edited by Itala Vivan, professor of=20 literature at the University of Political=20 Science in Milan.=20 The volume contains essays about this=20 country’s transition to democracy,=20 including contributions by […]

The Black Editors Forum is adamant Sanef will not undermine its black interests. Jacquie Golding-Duffy reports EFFORTS by the South African National Editors Forum (Sanef) to unite editors, irrespective of colour, are being overwhelmed by the increasingly high profile and growing influence of the Black Editors Forum (BEF). Sanef, founded in October last year, aims […]

THE ANGELLA JOHNSON INTERVIEW PAM WHYTE has the mind of an exuberant=20 five-month-old Dobermann pinscher. Well,=20 that’s what she says. “I try to think like=20 the animal I’m helping,” explains the 55- year-old dog psychologist. “Actually, I=20 prefer the term dog communication=20 specialist,” she corrects briskly, giving=20 me a blast of the no-nonsense tone used […]

Hazel Friedman THE future of dance at the Performing Arts=20 Council of the Transvaal (Pact) – South=20 Africa’s largest arts council – is in=20 jeopardy after a spate of shock=20 resignations by senior ballet staff and=20 dancers. This comes amid growing panic over=20 the future of the Pact ballet and=20 contemporary dance companies. =20 At […]

Caitlin Davies THE Okavango Delta, mainstay of Botswana’s=20 tourism industry and home to a breathtaking=20 array of wildlife, is about to be fenced=20 in, although no environmental impact=20 assessment studies have been done and local=20 communities have not been consulted. An outbreak of cattle lung disease – a=20 fatal airborne bovine pneumonia – in the=20 […]

Mungo Soggot PLANNING some cosmetic surgery, but you=20 don’t want anyone to know about it? Why not=20 throw in a trip to South Africa, visit the=20 Kruger Park and see the fairest Cape – all=20 for half what you would pay in Europe? This is the pitch Carrie Globisch, a=20 beautician, plans to make when […]

opposed Marion Edmunds THE Welfare Ministry faces mounting=20 opposition to its recommendation that state=20 maintenance payments – which under=20 apartheid were available only to white and=20 coloured mothers – be limited now to the=20 poorest of the poor. =20 The recommendations, which came out of last=20 year’s report by the Lund Commission, were=20 well received […]

Chris McGreal reports from Kibungo prison=20 on the desperate hopes of Hutus facing the=20 firing squad for their part in the genocide=20 IF anything shakes Deogratias Bizimana’s=20 misplaced belief that he will live to see=20 his 39th birthday, it is the business with=20 his wife. Leaning against the wall of Kibungo=20 prison’s condemned cell, the […]

airport Mungo Soggot ISRAELI national Zif Falk narrowly failed=20 this week to set a new record for “body- smuggling” diamonds out of South Africa.=20 Apprehended by police on Saturday night in=20 the departures lounge at Johannesburg=20 International Airport, Falk was found to=20 have uncut gems worth R2,4-million packed=20 carefully in a condom in his rectum. […]

TELEVISION: Bafana Khumalo IF you’re ever up beyond 11pm on Sunday you=20 have probably been through the arty fare at=20 varying degrees of taking itself far too=20 seriously on SABC3. At this time you might =20 have had an experience called Our Voices.=20 This is a talk show in true talking-head=20 fashion. It is no […]

DR HILLARY CARMEN was at the forefront of=20 the movement to get skin-lighteners banned.=20 She says some of the first skinlighteners=20 available worldwide had mercury in them,=20 which was absorbed into the bloodstream=20 and caused kidney damage. Lotion containing=20 mercury was banned in 1975 and instead=20 hydroquinone was used. According to Carmen=20 this caused “an […]

JEAN MICHEL FRODON speaks to Woody Allen=20 about his new film Mighty Aphrodite When you begin a new script, do you know in=20 advance how the narrative is going to work=20 out? “Yes, always. If you just have a good idea=20 but don’t develop it, you end up with a 20- page script, and you’re […]

John Daniszewski in Cairo SUDANESE rebels claimed this week to have killed hundreds of government troops and pushed to within 65km of a key hydroelectric dam in a mushrooming military campaign to topple Sudan’s Islamic government, long criticised internationally as a sponsor of global terrorism. The offensive that began two weeks ago has spread quickly […]

SABC this week hastily unbanned a Prophets of da City video after it won a prestigious international award.Charl Blignaut reports CAPE Flats hip-hop outfit Prophets of da City scooped the prize for Best Music Video/Clip from Non-Francophone Africa at the prestigious annual Cannes Midem international music awards this week. But, while in France a clip […]

Mark Tran in New York Banc One, one of the United States’s top regional banks, this week vaulted into the top tier of US credit card companies by announcing the acquisition of First USA for $7,5-billion. The deal will make Banc One the third biggest credit card issuer behind Citicorp and MBNA with $33-billion in […]

`I don’t think I’ve ever seen a player at 20 have so much’ – Bobby Robson on Barcelona’s boy wonder Ronaldo, who this week was named world player of 1996 SOCCER: Christopher Clarey RONALDO may or may not be the next Pele, Diego Maradona or Marco van Basten. How can anyone know for certain what […]

Squatters at Cape Town’s Waterfront could go to the Constitutional Court to fight their eviction, reports Gustav Thiel NEARLY 300 squatters living next to a proposed new entrance to the upmarket Victoria & Alfred Waterfront in Cape Town could force the Constitutional Court to assess the constitutionality of the Prevention of Illegal Squatting Act. According […]

Max Gebhardt FEARS are growing that South African Breweries (SAB) may have to offload troubled retail subsidiary OK Bazaars after years spent trying to turn the operation around. The group, whose interests also include beer, windscreens and men’s clothing, attempted this week to scotch growing market speculation that the OK is flying a For Sale […]

In which NATHAN ZENO gets to grips with the rarefied world of Cape Town models and their photographers 1. A picture … (in which Nathan tries to understand the reality of being a fashion photographer in South Africa) It’s not so much that the standard of fashion photography in South Africa is bad, it’s just […]

Israel’s political storms have put radical economic changes on the back burner, writes Alex Brummer ISRAEL’S economy appears intent on mimicking the Italian model. Despite political assassination, terrorist bombings and reprisals, a soldier running amok on the West Bank and a government, under Binyamin Netanyahu, apparently determined to win prizes for impetuousness and incompetence, the […]

BASKETBALL: Ian Katz TO the uninitiated spectator, basketball often seems like a game in which scoring points is simply too easy. With teams typically sinking more than 40 baskets per game, individual feats of brilliance tend to get lost in a blur of attacks and counter-attacks. There is hardly time to savour a gravity-defying dunk […]

AMONG all the miniscule creatures that live around us, invisible to the human eye, is a strange, rod-shaped bacterium called Thiobacillus ferrooxidans. It does not cause disease, cannot pollute the environment and is happiest in an extremely acidic environment where it can “eat” the minerals in rock. It is these creatures (and their relatives) that […]

Experts wonder why researchers did not come to them with their startling find. Science editor Lesley Cowling reports THREE Pretoria scientists broke every rule of scientific method this week when they took their research to a Cabinet meeting, saying they might have a cure for Aids. But the man representing them says they did this […]

Julia Grey Measuring the reach of the goggle box HOW do TV broadcasters figure out audience ratings for their programmes? – Laura, Gauteng * SOME theories about how broadcasters measure the number of people watching each programme really tickle the imagination. “The waterboard,” say some. “The sudden surge of water supplied to households during ad […]

Gustav Thiel GIANT wine co-operative KWV’s bid to be converted into a company is becoming increasingly controversial as industry stakeholders accuse it of trying to hang on to more than R1,6-billion worth of assets, accumulated during apartheid years. KWV’s members – 4 751 wine farmers – form an exclusive white club with an enormous stake […]

chequebook Labour is debating investment schemes and how they can benefit union members.Eddie Koch and Jim Day report When Neil Aggett, the union activist who died in a John Vorster Square prison cell in early 1982 after being tortured by men from the special branch, was busy mobilising workers into the African Food and Canning […]

Gillian Farquhar DURING the past six months the Broadcasting Complaints Commission of South Africa (BCCSA), which consists of 14 committee members and operates on an annual budget of just less than R500 000, has received a total of 130 complaints. Some of these complaints are listed below: Biased reporting: SABC 3 – The Chief, August […]

plan Mungo Soggot THE SABC has temporarily frozen plans to drop the National Symphony Orchestra (NSO) because the corporation’s actions apparently breach key sections of the new Labour Relations Act. Radio chief Govin Reddy admitted this week he had erred in his execution of the decision. He confirmed the SABC had not taken legal advice […]

Executive Outcomes is the world’s first corporate army and – some argue – an effective peacekeeping force, report Khareen Pech and David Beresford EXECUTIVE OUTCOMES has fought many gun battles in Africa. Today the controversial company, having brought new meaning to the concept of the “corporate state” by mustering what is arguably the world’s first […]

RESEARCHERS at Onderstepoort Veterinary Institute are working on a new vaccine that could open up South African horse-racing to international competition. South Africa is home to a virus called African horsesickness, which is endemic in most of sub-Saharan Africa. Horses are infected by a species of blood-sucking midges called Culicoides. In trekker days, it led […]