Staff Reporter

James Lamont tells Jacquie Golding-Duffy that fellow editors cannot afford not to take him seriously, despite his age He is young and overly cautious, say some. Others argue that his track record is unimpressive and does not qualify him to sit at the helm of Business Report. But 28- year-old James Lamont, the newly appointed […]

Amid new allegations from air force officers, the defence force responds to reports on racism, writes Rehana Rossouw SOUTH Africa’s black top guns have blasted their commanders, claiming the air force is as racist as the army. Last week, a report in the Mail & Guardian highlighted problems in the integration of the South African […]

Marion Edmunds President Nelson Mandela last year considered sending Dr Ivy Matsepe-Casaburri to Burundi as a special envoy, to dispense advice and represent South Africa in the Great Lakes crisis. Instead, he sent her to a trouble-spot nearer home – to the Free State as premier, to pour oil on the troubled waters there. Matsepe-Casaburri […]

Apple is arming itself to fight future commercial wars. Jack Schofield reports from London IN 1991, Macintosh evangelist Guy Kawasaki wrote in his Macworld column: “Our greatest technical challenge is creating a computer that leapfrogs Macintosh just as Macintosh leapfrogged the IBM PC … In the next five to seven years Macintosh technology will be […]

several instances in which executives get their way for no apparent reason other than their high status, with lesser status executives showing the same deference of young roosters making way for the cock-of- the-walk. One study reported that when managers of a company targeted for a takeover had lower status than outside directors of the […]

Boris Becker is devoted to tennis and to his family. While one is threatened by age and injury, the other is threatened by racism and hate. Stephen Bierley reports THERE is a thin stream of fear that constantly trickles through the minds of all the world’s top sportsmen and women. Pressure, stress, anxiety, apprehension, loss […]

The truth commission has released details of the Steyn Report, concealed since 1992 – and it contains startling disclosures. Stefaans BrUmmer reports FORMER state president FW de Klerk entrusted action on the elusive Steyn Report, which linked the apartheid military to “third force” activities, to three top military officials who were themselves implicated – including […]

the past? Brandon Hamber The kitchen of a small house in downtown So Paulo, Brazil, is the meeting place of the Comisso de Familiares de Mortos e Desaparecidos Politicas (Commission of the Families of Political Murder Victims and the Disappeared), an organisation of family members whose loved ones were killed during the military dictatorship in […]

It’s no use just shouting from the sidelines about the threat to the National Symphony Orchestra, argues Bongani Ndodana ONE of the sad legacies of apartheid cultural policy was the false sense of security it brought to the arts. Provincial performing arts councils were formed and theatres, opera houses and concert halls erected as if […]

The making of Evita turned a country upside down. Is it any wonder Madonna and Alan Parker tried to stop CLAUDIA NYE exposing their shenanigans? HOME sweet home. I was back in Argentina to make a documentary about Alan Parker’s Evita. It was a dream come true. Eva Peron was the most important woman in […]

The svelte HAZEL FRIEDMAN goes out and gorges herself on Feedback Andrew Buckland’s mother would be forgiven for thinking that maybe, just maybe, her multi-talented son harbours repressed feelings of hostility towards her. I mean, carving up your mother’s corpse and turning her anatomical parts – breasts, boep, bum ‘n’ all – into gastronomical delights […]

Charl Blignaut SOUTH AFRICAN music videos have once again emerged in competition as the cream of the crop in Africa. Six of the nine videos nominated for the R57 000 Best Music Video/Clip from Africa prize (Francophone countries excluded as they have their own award) at the highly influential annual Cannes Midem awards, hail from […]

What do falling sperm counts mean for human survival? Robin McKie and Euan Ferguson report from London IF there’s a subject guaranteed to raise a puerile snicker, then sperm – and its fate – have been sure-fire winners down the years. Yet sperm is the stuff upon which our survival depends. Recent confirmation that supplies […]

If you want to stick your fingers up the nose of the biggest guy on the block, you must at least have a good reason for risking a bruising. Pious declarations about the sovereign right to sell weapons of destruction to whomsoever we choose, or solidarity with that noted democrat Hafez al-Assad, do not justify […]

BRETT PYPER argues for and against maintaining and funding national symphony orchestras in South Africa An outcome to the question of how South Africa’s existing symphony orchestras will relate to the imperatives of a multi- cultural democracy has been a long time in coming. Last week’s announcement that the SABC will discontinue its funding of […]

Only one research body managed to avoid a government funding cut, reports Lesley Cowling The Foundation for Research Development (FRD) has been rated top of the science councils for its research support division, and the Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC) has ranked last. The ratings, in points out of 10, were determined by a panel […]

HAZEL FRIEDMAN reports on a stormy debate raging in Grahamstown around the appointment of a foreigner as the new head of Rhodes University’s fine arts department ‘The Department of Foreign Relations.” That’s what angry staff and students have dubbed the Fine Arts Department at Rhodes University. They are reacting to the controversial appointment of British […]

A clash between Kaizer Chiefs and Orlando Pirates is always full of drama SOCCER: Andrew Muchineripi IN Glasgow it’s Rangers and Celtic, in Liverpool Everton and Liverpool, in London Arsenal and Tottenham, in Milan AC and Inter, in Cairo Zamalek and Al-Ahly, and in South Africa Kaizer Chiefs and Orlando Pirates. There is nothing to […]

Amid the changes in the judiciary, an old- style attitude still exists among some judges. Three months as an acting judge was a learning experience for academic and commentator Dennis Davis THE demand for the transformation of the South African judiciary has become almost as plastic a concept as that of the rainbow nation. That […]

The controversial Syrian arms deal seems to have been leaked in an attempt to scupper it, reports Stefaans Brmmer THE government’s handling of the partially approved R3-billion arms deal with Syria has exposed deep divisions in official thinking on the crucial foreign policy area of arms control – and the leak of Cabinet minutes appeared […]

difference CRICKET: Jon Swift THERE is no real mystery about an umbrella being turned inside out by a sudden, unexpected gust of wind. Cricketing fortunes surely must work on this same inverted parabola. So it has been with the current test series against Sachin Tendulkar’s Indian tourists that reaches its finale at the Wanderers this […]

Jimmy and Louise Warner, both 53, are about to start new careers. He will work from their Rondebosch home for Cape estate agents Steer & Co, and she will help with the typing. In Eldorado Park, Johannesurg, Anthony Swartz (50) is also starting afresh, going into a business which he doesn’t want to talk about […]

DESIGN: Hazel Friedman THE undisputed winner of the Mail & Guardian’s Not the Pirelli Calendar Prize for 1997 is the calendar put out by the women’s support group, Powa (People Opposing Women Abuse). A collaborative project between the organisation and the Fine Arts Department at the University of the Witwatersrand, the calendarconsists of provocative images […]

Our critics look at movies to be produced in South Africa this year, and the most hyped of the international releases Andrew Worsdale THIS year promises to be the brightest in years for South Africa’s film industry, with loads of movies in development and several sure to see their first day of shooting some time […]

Golf: Jon Swift It is one of the inevitable facts that, having placed the focus on making the FNB Tour part of the European Circuit, that the major focus on professional golf will centre on three weeks in February. In truth, there is little else that the South African PGA could have done but to […]

THE first time I saw a Gibson Kente production was some time in the 1970s. Instead of dispatching my siblings and me to grandmother for their night out, my parents decided to take us along to the theatre. The play was called I Believe. I recall the name of the play; of the plot I […]

turbojav ATHLETICS: Julian Drew Africa has never won a medal at Olympic or world championship level in the throwing events. Some theorists – no doubt from the same school of thought which once asserted African physiology was not suited to running – have claimed that this is as a result of anatomical differences. The exploits […]

Stefaans BrUmmer investigates the suspects behind the Worcester and Rustenburg blasts The Boere Aanvalstroepe (Bat), which claimed responsibility for the Worcester and Rustenburg bomb attacks, appears to link directly to the Afrikaner Weerstandsbeweging. AWB leader Eugene Terre’Blanche this week told the Mail & Guardian in an interview that Bat consisted of members of his organisation, […]

Ann Eveleth Crime along Durban’s beachfront was at an all-time low this Christmas season, according to city officials. Fear of beachfront violence saw several businesses close on certain days and surround their premises with razor-wire in advance of the holiday season. While the local press shrieked “Bloody beachfront” headlines during the holiday period, SAPS director […]

National Parks Board CE Robbie Robinson has chosen to retire on a matter that could split the board, reports Anita Allen The imminent departure of Dr Robbie Robinson as chief executive means that the 17-member National Parks Board is going to be put to the test. Not only does it have to choose a successor […]

Jonathan Romney HERE’S the bad news: 1997 promises to be pretty much like 1996 all over again. Wall- to-wall space aliens and natural disasters. If you can’t face the prospect, you could always hibernate all year with a stout volume of Henry James. But that won’t help you forget the movies – he’s this year’s […]

The test series against India has once again revived all that is magical about cricket Cricket: Jon Swift THE last fortnight has shown that perhaps the greatest thing about this wonderful game of cricket is that it constantly redefines the parameters that ordinarily constrain the edges of sporting excellence. How else would you define the […]