Staff Reporter

As the Springboks face a French backlash in Paris, South Africa’s cricketers attempt to clinch a series triumph CRICKET:V Roger Prabasarkar ON Sunday December 8 the South African cricket team will take the first step to immortality. If Hansie Cronje becomes the first captain in the history of Test cricket to achieve the most difficult […]

Frederick Chiluba’s new government is increasingly embroiled in controversy, reports Anthony Kunda in Lusaka EVIDENCE has emerged from election results released by the government-constituted Zambian Electoral Commission that the outcome of the polls on November 18 may well have been fixed before the polling day. There are several instances of strange and inexplicable uniformity in […]

Dan Wylie LIGHT VERSE AT THE END OF THE TUNNEL by Gus Ferguson (David Philip, R29) WITH a bit of selective quotation, you could even argue that Gus Ferguson is a serious poet: Life is but a gift of time Spent in gathering evidence Against the summons for the crime Of wasting that inheritance. Or, […]

end accounts Andy Duffy THE Independent Broadcasting Authority (IBA) has been ordered to rework its year-end accounts after the auditor general uncovered glaring errors in its figures. The auditor general’s office, which is also investigating allegations of financial mismanagement at the organisation, told the IBA it would be futile to present its March 1996 figures […]

The intitiative to form a new Afrikaans organisation drew the support of the Afrikaans establishment – but not its traditional critics, writes Rehana Rossouw CONRAD SIDEGO, former South African ambassador to Denmark, assured the last speaker at a meeting of Afrikaans people at the weekend that the colour of her skin had nothing to do […]

Zimbabwe faces embarrassment over illegal ivory sales, reports Iden Wetherell in Harare ZIMBABWE’S record of ivory management has been described as “grossly inadequate” by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (Cites) just six months before the Geneva-based organisation is due to hold a major conference in Harare. The Zimbabwean government has said it […]

Genetically engineered vegetables may make the scientists and farmers happy – but do people want to eat them? Michael Durham reports from London AFTER years of tinkering in vast laboratories and locked greenhouses, agrochemical companies are ready to unleash their discoveries on the world: genetically changed plants and vegetables, programmed by the addition or subtraction […]

Ann Eveleth KING Goodwill Zwelithini pulled out of a consortium bidding for KwaZulu-Natal’s new private sound radio station last week because he didn’t know what he was getting into, say royal family members. Zwelithini mysteriously dropped his 5% stake and yanked his endorsement for Radio One – one of two consortiums bidding for the station […]

Suzy Bell WHETHER it’s the tender image of Katrina Thomas gathering her goats or the anxious look in Freddie Bosman’s eyes on the bus journey towards his beloved home, Riemvasmaak, after spending 20 years in the Ciskei, some pictures do speak a thousand words. Winner of a Mother Jones International Documentary Award (1993) for his […]

Mungo Soggot AS the consumer’s best friend, Isabel Jones has always been powerful. But with the help of a new Act that was quietly passed by the Gauteng legislature in September, the consumer journalist will now be able to shut down a business, strike down contracts, and impose fines of up to R200 000 and […]

The Minister of Public Enterprises is seeking direct control over Eskom’s equity, raising concerns of a backdoor attempt at nationalisation. Max Gebhardt reports THE Ministry of Public Enterprises has set the ball in motion to bring Eskom under direct government control, despite admitting that such a move could raise doubts among foreign investors over the […]

case Safety and Security Minister Mufamadi has been landed in another potentially embarrassing legal situation, reports Mungo Soggot T HE lawyer who defended Eastern Cape killer policeman Gideon Niewoudt has been hired by Sydney Mufamadi’s Safety and Security Department to fight a civil claim lodged by the three widows of Niewoudt’s victims. The widows, Doreen […]

Graham Hopwood in Windhoek NAMIBIA has defended plans to pump 20- million cubic metres of water each year from the Okavango River, despite protests from environmentalists and tourism operators in Botswana’s Okavango swamps, which are annually filled by the river. Richard Fry, Namibia’s deputy permanent secretary of water affairs, said this week that the severity […]

REALPOLITIK forced South Africa’s recognition of mainland China and its decision to cut off official ties with Taiwan. Those who suggested the decision reflected the influence of the South African Communist Party on the government were missing the point. No serious international player can continue without ties to a country of China’s size and growth […]

At the heart of Italy’s largest industrial grouping, profits and reputations are being damaged, writes John Glover IN the opulent surroundings of Turin’s snooty Circolo del Whist (whist club), Republican Italy’s version of a royal family met for its annual dinner last week. The meal was hosted by Avvocato Gianni Agnelli, the patriarch of the […]

More research is urgently needed into the effects of cellphones on the brain, reports Ben Potter from London ‘EAR, what’s all this fuss about cellphones? Are cellphones bad for the brain? The possibility that they could be is cause for serious concern, says Australian writer and commentator on the communications industry, Stewart Fist. He argues […]

Charlene Houston argues the land and money planned for the Olympics could be put to better use THE Development Action Group monitors the Olympic Bid because we work with poor people in Cape Town to address their housing needs and we are worried about the impact of the bid on the availability of well-located land […]

The Million Dollar Challenge is a unique event, and this year the play was of an exceptionally high standard, but the spectators’ behaviour wasn’t GOLF:Jon Swift T HERE are many things that are very different about the annual Nedbank Million Dollar Challenge at Sun City … and not all of them have to do with […]

Lynda Loxton AS the provinces gear up to grant much- sought-after casino licences, Safren is hoping that it will not be left out on a limb with its massive investments in casinos in the former homelands. Chairman Buddy Hawton admitted to shareholders at the group’s annual general meeting this week that uncertainty about the future […]

DANCE: Jann Parry in London THE studio where the choreographer Ashley Page is rehearsing seems to be full of teenagers, their lankily graceful limbs swathed in a kind of innocence. In fact, the dozen or so dancers are in their early 20s, junior members of the Royal Ballet’s corps de ballet. They look gorgeous, yet […]

created Julian Drew finds out about benefits the Bid company believes the Olympics will bring WHEN Cape Town began developing a philosophy to underpin its bid for the 2004 Olympic Games it realised the Games would have to make a significant contribution towards redressing the imbalances of the apartheid era. “If it was simply about […]

Omar’s failure to get any concessions from Pagad has cast doubt on his ability to hold his present positions. Rehana Rossouw reports JUSTICE Minister Dullah Omar’s failure to rein in Pagad is fuelling fears that he cannot juggle his ministerial position with his role as ANC leader in the Western Cape. Political observers believe Omar’s […]

stage Andrew Clements in London TEN singers, 16 actors, a hundred musicians, three film screens and a theatre space divided into several acting areas … No wonder it took three decades for Bernd Alois Zimmerman’s landmark contemporary opera Die Soldaten to premiere in London. First staged in Cologne in 1965, the widely celebrated opera has […]

The Hitch-hiker exhibition bristles with bizarre ideas and dazzles with techno- wizardry. So what’s new? HAZELFRIEDMAN didn’t find the challenge AT the very least, Hitch-hiker will probably go down in the annals of contemporary art as one of the most aggressive – and effective – inter-media marketing blitzes ever undertaken by the local artworld. It […]

Fiercely independent Ethiopian film-maker Haile Gerima spoke to ANDREW WORSDALE about the travails of making films the African way VISIONARY film-maker Haile Gerima is a handsome, rotund man with a silver, close- shaved beard, a baseball cap hiding hair- loss and features held in place by some pretty hip spectacles. The Ethiopian-born and Washington-based film-maker’s […]

Chris McGreal in Kigali ZAIREAN rebels say they have launched an assault against the main diamond-mining region, threatening a major source of the elite’s wealth and potentially providing the insurgents with an important means of funding their war against ailing President Mobutu Sese Seko’s regime. The Rwandan-backed insurgents are headed toward the regional capital, Mbuji-Mayi, […]

The Cape Town Bid company will be rolling out the red carpet for the International Olympic Committee’s evaluation commission this week. But not everybody in the city welcomes the bid Julian Drew THE International Olympic Committee’s (IOC) Evaluation Commission is due to fly into Cape Town at 7.35 on Friday (December 6) – its last […]

test As Korea and Japan eye the World Cup, John Gittings in Seoul reports on a game of two halves IT SAYS “2002 World Cup Korea” in shop windows, over bank counters, and on the in- flight screens of Korean Air. The official title of the event, carefully negotiated with the international governing body for […]

A few years ago you could have counted SA’s independent music producers on one hand. Today, reports GLYNIS O’HARA, the industry is booming THEIR products are legendary, the stuff of teenage dreams and, sometimes, adult enjoyment, yet few people outside the music industry would know the names of producers Thapelo Khomo and Don Laka. Youngsters, […]

More international music stars are heading our way. Our reporters preview the Def Leppard and Tevin Campbell tours MUSIC: Hazel Friedman and David Goldberg. THE trouble with interviewing rock stars who have lived the success-excess myth in extremis is that you tend to want to accompany them all the way down the same drain, time […]

Jonathan Watts in Tokyo `AT first I wasn’t sure if I ought to. After all, everything was so valuable. But once I got started … well, I just let rip and it felt fantastic.” When Mr Watanabe, who describes himself as an ordinary Japanese businessman, and three of his female colleagues entered the stress- relief […]

1 All Quiet on the Western Front (Lewis Milestone, 1930). Archaic acting, yet still the mother of all battle films. Episodic, random; candid about mud, rats and lice … 2 La Grande Illusion (Jean Renoir, 1937). The father of all anti-war films. Prison camp escape drama, acute about the behavioural artifices necessary to war. 3 […]