Staff Reporter

ON Tuesday Wilf Paish – the highly respected British athletics coach who was brought to South Africa to prepare South Africa’s athletes for the Olympic Games in Atlanta – returned home two months before his contract was due to expire Paish had tendered his resignation just days before the Olympic team departed for Atlanta in […]

Lynda Loxton AFTER months of exhaustive negotiations, three important South African trade agreements are firming up and could be concluded in the first half of 1997. Although separate, the three are also closely linked and will affect each other in vital ways which will, hopefully, benefit not only South Africa but the region as a […]

Lynda Loxton LINKING up with Malaysian group Petronas and listing exploration arm Energy Africa have speeded up Engen’s drive into Africa. Chief executive Rob Angel told a recent media briefing that Petronas’s 30% stake in Engen gave the South African company the financial muscle at a time of squeezed margins to venture into downstream operations […]

The flamboyant socialite and claimed friend of African National Congress leaders is being investigated for `illegal possession’ of unwrought gold worth millions.Stefaans Brmmer reports PAUL EKON, the flamboyant young millionaire who claims African National Congress leaders as friends, is being investigated by police for his possible involvement in a gold- smuggling racket which a Supreme […]

Mungo Soggot THE series of transactions that have massively boosted black ownership of pay TV channel M-Net will inevitably prompt more black representation on its board, says chief executive Gerrie de Villiers. M-Net will soon represent one of the largest black empowerment transactions to date. The revolution in the company, which started life as a […]

CHARLES BESTER of Stutterheim (M&G November 1 to 7) surely has his head buried in the sand. If he listened carefully to my argument, he would understand why we need a navy. Our country has a 3 000km coastline, an Extended Economic Zone 200 nautical miles from our shores, which doubles our sovereign territory, fish […]

AT stake in this week’s court battle over the Independent Broadcasting Authority’s (IBA) recent licencing process is more than the question of the rightful buyer of Radio Jacaranda. Hanging in the balance is the authority and credibility of the IBA, already damaged by the admission that they were inquorate when they made crucial privatisation decisions. […]

Glynis O’Hara `MUSIC never made violence or a vandal,” says Lord Yehudi Menuhin, visiting South Africa to perform as part of a world tour celebrating his 80th birthday. The violinist and musical ambassador handed over 200 child-size violins for the South African Music Education Trust (Samet) training programmes to President Nelson Mandela (right) at a […]

to Minister of Land Affairs Derek Hanekom went to KwaZulu-Natal to give away land, but it turned out to be no easy task, as this week’s guest writer Pippa Green discovered WE are shooting north up the mountain pass to the dusty outpost of Jozini, which overlooks the shimmering plains of the Makathini Flats stretching […]

With the National Working Committee stepping in to take control of the Free State, Terror Lekota has been given a second chance to be a premier, reports Gaye Davis FREE STATE Premier Terror Lekota has been thrown a lifeline by the African National Congress national leadership’s dramatic intervention in the faction-torn region – but to […]

Following an anti-smoking editorial in The Star, R&R Tobacco have withdrawn their advertising, reports Jacquie Golding-Duffy THE Rembrandt International group’s tobacco arm, R&R Tobacco has decided to pull more than one-million-rand’s worth of advertising from The Star newspaper following an editorial written by editor Peter Sullivan. Gauteng Newspapers managing director Deon du Plessis said one […]

government’s heels Gaye Davis THE Democratic Party’s decision to reposition itself does not mean the terrier will stop snapping at the heels of government. But instead of just levelling criticism, it will also be offering solutions to problems facing the country, DP leader Tony Leon said this week. Its first offering – a strategy to […]

Stefaans Brmmer AS African leaders met in Nairobi this week to discuss the rapidly worsening crisis in the Great Lakes Region, South Africa’s envoy, Welile Nhlapo, had to sit outside and wait. The summit on Tuesday, attended by the presidents or prime ministers of Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda, and by Organisation of […]

Reserve Bank Governor Chris Stals talks to Max Gebhardt about the challenges he faces amid continued currency turmoil COMPARED to last week’s freefall, the rand enjoyed something approaching a settled week. The currency’s downfall, while uppermost in the minds of the public, is one of several fundamental concerns over the economy. Reserve Bank governor Chris […]

Minister of Defence Joe Modise takes a tough line on the `arrogant mindset of the old SADF AT the time of our first ever democratic election, the thought in everyone’s mind was whether the defence force would support change. The result thus far has been encouraging, bearing in mind that in defence, more than in […]

THEATRE: Andrew Wilson IF governance, current ideology and politics in Britain are supposed to be that society’s expression of its ideals and values, playwright David Hare is a disappointed man. Writing in 1991, he maintained theatre was in a unique position to illustrate “an age in which men’s ideals and men’s practice bear no relation […]

Surprised to be invited to this month’s SANDF `live firepower demonstration’, Sheen Duncan, human rights campaigner, wrote this letter to the defence force chief, Brigadier van Graan I HAVE received the invitation from General Georg Meiring to the fireworks display on November 16 (at the Army Battle School, Lohatle). I do not understand how my […]

Progress has been made in developing drugs to treat Aids. But much less attention has been given to developing a vaccine, writes Lesley Cowling TWO protease inhibitors – the “dramatically effective” Aids drugs – were registered in South Africa last week and a third is in the pipeline. Indinavir and ritonavir will soon be marketed […]

showprogramme SEBELITSO MOKONE-MATABANE, the co-chair of the Independent Broadcasting Authority (IBA), tried to persuade the SABC to feature her in a television programme instead of her colleague John Matisonn, whom she said represented a “small white constituency”. The Mail & Guardian learned this week of Mokone-Matabane’s efforts to meddle with the public broadcaster over last […]

ops THE introduction of continuous operations at Johannesburg Consolidated Investment’s HJ Joel gold mine played a major part in pulling the Free State operation back from the brink. Human resources director Andre Geldenhuys says Fulco has led to a 20% jump in employees on core operations – an additional 400 jobs – improved productivity and […]

Transnet has fired a key executive just four months after he was appointed. Are the surviving executives up to the job of managing one of the country’s biggest businesses? Stuart Hess reports TRANSNET has fired executive director Sipho Nyawo following an independent investigation into credit card abuse. The parastatal briefed Minister of Public Enterprises Stella […]

Jacquie Golding-Duffy Seven of the eight charges brought against the South African Broadcasting Corporation’s (SABC) general manager of television programme policy, planning and co- production, Melanie Chait, have been dropped. However, an SABC spokesman said Chait had received a written warning in connection with the eighth charge, which was “insubordination”, and was upheld. Chait was […]

Gaye Davis THE South African-born British Labour Party MP Peter Hain is to ask the Truth and Reconciliation Commission to investigate whether South African security police framed him on bank theft charges in London in 1975. Hain, who was a driving force behind the sports boycott of South Africa during the apartheid era, is in […]

John Glover in Milan THE privatisation of Stet, Italy’s telecom group, originally set for next March, now seems certain to be delayed. Meanwhile, IRI, the giant state holding company of which premier Romano Prodi was twice president and which controls Stet, is sliding fast toward disaster. Preventing IRI from going over the edge is vital. […]

CINEMA: Andrew Worsdale YET another dose of foreign film culture hits Gauteng this week with the Italian Film Festival at the Rosebank Mall in Johannesburg. Italian cinema has taken a bit of a dive since the halcyon days of master cineastes Fellini, Visconti, Antonioni and even Sergio Leone. It appears things could now be changing […]

The South Africans lost the vital match and the Titan Cup, but they can take comfort from the fact that one-day matches are quickly forgotten while Test matches are the ones that are remembered CRICKET:V Roger Prabasarkar AS magnificent as South Africa’s form was in the Titan Cup, although they fell at the final hurdle, […]

Andy Duffy FIRST NATIONAL BANK (FNB) has given ousted managing director Barry Swart a pay-off barely different to the salary he would have earned had he not been fired. The bank, which released its year-end results this week, is refusing to disclose terms of the settlement which were agreed to in September when Swart left […]

Mail & Guardian Reporter THE attorney general’s astounding decision to allow Absa’s senior counsel to help pen the criminal charge sheet against former Absa boss Bob Aldworth while acting in a related civil matter has had some record- breaking spinoffs. When Aldworth appeared in the Johannesburg Magistrates Court this week it emerged that his lawyers, […]

The new Labour Court’s president says the Public Works Department’s motto should be `we do not serve; we sleep’, report Marion Edmunds and Mungo Soggot THE Judge President of South Africa’s new Labour Court, Judge John Myburgh, has slammed the Judicial Services Commission (JSC) and has savaged the government for ineptitude in implementing the new […]

sales Mungo Soggot THE new government’s first privatisation deal – the successful sale of six SABC radio stations – took a severe blow this week when the Independent Broadcasting Authority (IBA)conceded in court its decision on one of the sales was invalid. Counsel representing the IBA, which is fighting claims by Naledi Media Investments that […]

Joshua Amupadhi Accused serial killer Moses Sithole had set up an organisation to campaign against the abuse of women and children, the Pretoria Supreme Court was told this week The man alleged to have slain 37 women and a toddler set himself up as a champion of the oppressed, using “official-looking” letters typed by a […]

Shaun de Waal CONTRARYto reports – including one in this paper last week – and information supplied by retrenched staff, Ravan Press is not closing its doors. Gerald de Villiers, executive chairman of Hodder &Stoughton Educational and Ravan, writes:”Yes, Ravan Press, in which Hodder has held a majority shareholding for several years, has recently been […]