Staff Reporter

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 […]

Rehana Rossouw THE campaign against gangsterism and drugs will intensify in the next few weeks and Cape Town’s Waterfront could see more protests, People Against Gangsterism and Drugs (Pagad) said this week. Last weekend, Achmat Najjaar, the brother of a prominent Muslim scholar Sheikh Thafier Najjaar, was shot and killed during a clash with the […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

Mungo Soggot A JOHANNESBURG businessman who fled from his R205-million marathon fraud trial to Australia could become the second alleged foreign exchange fraudster this month to be reeled in from exile. Edward Dutton (38), former managing director of hardboard company Interboard, will appear in court in Sydney on November 18 to fight a South African […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

Mungo Soggot THE selection of Professor Sam Nolutshungu as the University of the Witwatersrand’s new vice-chancellor may have grabbed the headlines in South Africa, but it passed by the United States university town of Rochester. The local newspaper had not heard of Nolutshungu, a political science professor at Rochester, never mind his sensational victory before […]

Mungo Soggot THE shortcomings of state-sponsored accident insurance were highlighted this week in a case in which a paraplegic told a tragic tale of her struggle against avaricious relatives while her lawyer slammed the state’s controversial pay-out practices. Judge Neil MacArthur implored Renia Motloung, 30, who was turned into a paraplegic in a collision in […]

A student’s refusal to pray has highlighted religious and racial discrimination at Stellenbosch, writes Marion Edmunds A PETITE 21-year-old Stellenbosch University student says she has been repeatedly heckled, abused and imtimidated by fellow residence students because she refuses to pray after meals. Lawyers’ letters are flying between the student, Yvonne Malan, and student leaders of […]

John Hooper in Rome ITALY’S most celebrated dramatist, Dario Fo, has been left partially blind by a stroke, he revealed in an interview published last week. For several months he had also had problems with his speech and memory. In July 1995, Fo called off a tour of Europe. At the time, he was reported […]

CAPTAIN Winston Scott, pilot astronaut, epitomises the new breed of astronaut now working at Nasa. His resum lists a set of intimidating accomplishments, from a first degree in music to a masters in aeronautical engineering, a career as a navy pilot, and then a mission specialist aboard the Endeavour for a nine-day space flight. He […]

Suzy Bell IT’S based on the premise that the spirit of ubuntu meets advertising on a hot and heady Apple Macintosh keyboard with a manic mouse tripping on orange juice spiked with the wicked realism of raw design. Seldom before has there been such a brilliant collaboration of skilled and raw talent as seen in […]

Short of funds to fight his court battle, Bantu Holomisa has asked the president for his Transkei military pension, reports Stefaans Brmmer BANTU HOLOMISA, gearing up for a bruising and expensive court battle to be reinstated as an African National Congress member, this week asked President Nelson Mandela to give him his Transkei military pension. […]

Telford Vice IN SEARCH OF WILL CARLING: AN EPIC JOURNEY THROUGH AFRICA TO THE RUGBY WORLD CUP by Charles Jacoby (Simon & Schuster, R90) RUGGER-BUGGERS who buy this book before spotting the subtitle may believe they are getting 343 pages of Rugby World Cup 1995 as distilled through the pen of an erudite Englishman. The […]

The truth commission’s Alex Boraine said the confessions would start. Last week, the perpetrators began to tell their stories. In the latest in our guest writer series, poet Antjie Krog listens to the different voices FOR six months the Truth Commission has listened to the voices of victims. The first narrative, focused and clear, cut […]

The soldiers of Five Recce have never hesitated when it comes to charging into battle, but the regiment has been more tentative in adapting to change in South Africa, writes Stefaans Brmmer PHALABORWA is the type of mining town where streets are still named after the likes of presidents Steyn and Kruger. Its burghers give […]

Alex Bellos AFTER indie rock comes Hindi pop. Bally Sagoo, who made history last week with the first Hindi language single in the United Kingdom Top 40, has been invited to meet the Indian president to be blessed for his success. Sagoo, from Birmingham, but already a household name in the subcontinent, will meet Shankar […]

BOOKS: The latest from the literary world Courageous anti-apartheid publisher Ravan is no more. TONYMORPHET pays tribute to those who first published JM Coetzee and others RAVAN Press has finally closed its doors. Not even the name could be saved as it was swallowed by Hodder &Stoughton Educational. It’s no use mourning the loss – […]

The anti-abortion campaign will not die down after the passage of the Choice on Termination of Pregnancy Bill, pro-life groups vow. Rehana Rossouw reports AMERICAN-STYLE demonstrations outside hospitals and clinics where abortions are performed will be the norm in South Africa, the country’s biggest pro-life grouping warned this week. Glynnis Newbury, of Pro-Life, said the […]

Not Quite Friday Night is back on our TV screens with a change of name.ANDREW WORSDALE talks to the director ON entering the room I notice an ashtray crammed with stompies and half-sucked cough sweets; a soundtrack features some eccentric interviewee and I catch the end of a sentence, ” … the heat then starts […]

Marion Edmunds TWO former intelligence agents – a man and his wife – who were fired after refusing to take a prescribed oath of loyalty to the 1994 transitional authority, are suing the government for more than a million rands for unfair dismissal. Papers have been filed in the Pretoria Supreme Court by Susan and […]

No Bjork and a lacklustre foreign line-up drove DROR EYAL to the second stage at the year’s biggest concert I WAS converted. I went down to see this over-hyped monument to PC rock, the 5fm Birthday Concert at Kyalami last weekend, plunging myself into an audience of 40 000 odd people and their collective sweat […]

Glynis O’Hara WHILE prisons may no longer accuse people with artistic ideas of being “pansies”, and open their doors to a range of creativity projects, they most certainly do not want to pay for them. “We’ve been forced to shut down,” says Gary Friedman of Puppets In Prison. “We’ve worked for the past seven months […]

CAROLINE SULLIVAN thought live hip-hop was boring – until she saw the Fugees play in London HOW big is “big”? In the Fugees’s case, big enough that Sony had to stop making their number-one single, Killing Me Softly, because it wouldn’t get out of the charts over the summer to make way for the next […]

GROUP 1 NIGERIA Previous appearances: 1962, 1970, 1974, 1978, 1982, 1986, 1990, 1994 Record: Played 50, won 23, drawn 15, lost 12, goals for 82, against 52 Best result: Sierra Leone 6-2 Worst result: Ghana 1-4 Key player: Midfielder Augustine Okocha Coach: Amodu Shaibu Rankings: 13 Africa, 63 world Nickname: Super Eagles GUINEA Appearances: 1974, […]