Staff Reporter

OPERA: Coenraad Visser PACT OPERA first staged this astounding production of Wagner’s Der Fliegende Hollander in 1991. The Teatro Colon team, Roberto Oswald and Anibal Lapiz, created a visual spectacle the envy of any major opera house. The cast too, led by South Africans Wicus Slabbert and Marieta Napier, would have done any major artistic […]

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, […]

SA The North-West government is bracing itself for an outcry over a massive influx of Chinese immigrants, reports Marion Edmunds AN immigration consultancy is making preparations to bring 55 000 Chinese families into South Africa next year from Hong Kong, Taiwan and mainland China. The Gauteng-based company, Exec-Immigration, confirmed this week that they had landed […]

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 […]

Following an anti-smoking editorial in The Star, R&R Tobacco have withdrawn their advertising, reports Jacquie Golding-Duffy THE Rembrandt International group’s tobacco arm, R&R Tobacco has decided to pull more than one-million-rand’s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 […]

Max Gebhardt THE rand’s latest fall will push inflation higher, demanding the restrictive monetary policy which has previously forced up interest rates, Reserve Bank Governor Chris Stals warns. In an exclusive interview with the Mail & Guardian, Stals also says it is anyone’s guess where the embattled currency will settle. “Any person willing to predict […]

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 […]

GOLF:Jon Swift THERE is, so the talk goes, a job in professional golf that no one wants right now. It is the hole left by the departure of Brent Chalmers as the South African PGA tour commissioner. The public announcement of Chalmers’s departure came at the annual general meeting of the PGA this week, and […]

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 […]

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 […]

Rehana Rossouw HAROLD WILLIAMS was shot dead while carrying three dead chickens to his squatter home near Durbanville, outside Cape Town. T he chickens had been dumped by nearby chicken factories and were due to be burned. Williams, the father of two children aged 16 and 13, was shot as a trespasser while walking home […]

Eight new radio stations and a new television channel are some of the changes taking place in South Africa’s media industry, writes IBA councillor John Matisonn AROUND September next year, South Africa will have a newly licenced national television channel that will compete head- to-head with the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) for viewers and […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 – […]

Claudia Braude PRIOR to one of the lectures of the three candidates for the position of vice- chancellor at Wits last week, I bumped into Professor Alan Kemp, deputy vice-chancellor. The last time I’d seen him he was in the process of reviewing the continued viability of Wits University Press. “Have you succeeded in shutting […]

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 […]

Matric exam leaks have resulted in large- scale reshuffling within the Gauteng Department of Education, report Joshua Amupadhi, Stuart Hess and David Shapshak SECURITY for the matric exams was so lax and the loopholes so many that the Gauteng Department of Education this week replaced many of the 700 officials of its examinations unit. This, […]

Rehana Rossouw PEOPLE Against Gangsterism and Drugs (Pagad) campaign in Cape Town is beginning to affect police attempts to combat crime, the South African Police Service (SAPS) claimed this week. Western Cape police representative, senior superintendent John Sterrenberg, said between April and last week Pagad held 43 demonstrations and marches which have been policed by […]

Despite the loss of many familiar faces in the labour movement, unions deny a lack of leadership, write Jacquie Golding-Duffy and Anthony Kunda THE exodus in 1994 of many experienced unionists into the government and business dealt the labour movement a massive blow. When the likes of Jay Naidoo, Alec Erwin and Cyril Ramaphosa left, […]

FILM: Derek Malcolm IT IS difficult to imagine a sillier film than From Dusk Till Dawn, but the fact that it was written by Quentin Tarantino and directed by Robert Rodriguez, supposedly two of the most talented tyros Hollywood wants so badly to make its own, renders the enterprise the more absurd. Is this schizophrenic […]

Andrew Muchineripi sets the scene for the qualifying competition that will determine which five nations represent Africa at the 1998 World Cup finals in France THERE are five places available to Africa at the World Cup finals for the first time and competition for tickets to France is likely to be as fierce as the […]

At last, Cathy O’Dowd’s incredible story of the troubled expedition to Mount Everest, as told to David Beresford I USED to hate physical activities: school sports, organised games, teams, winning and losing and competition. But I love climbing. It is personal. The challenge is what you make of it. The complete physical and mental commitment […]

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 […]

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 […]

The parastatal and its main union have clashed over rights to a major stake in Johnnic, write Andy Duffy and Max Gebhardt TRANSNET’S pension fund has emerged as a major player in the Johnnic empowerment deal, fighting with the South African Railway and Harbour Workers’ Union (Sarhwu) for control over a large stake in the […]

SOCCER:Andrew Muchineripi `I’M a Pirate, I was born a Pirate and I will die a Pirate.” Those were the words of an ardent soccer fan when I enquired about the outcome of Saturday’s Bob Save Superbowl semifinal clash between Orlando Pirates and Kaizer Chief at the FNB Stadium in Johannesburg. And most certainly, the way […]

Policemen now before the truth commission shocked Harold Sefolo to death. His widow spoke to Stefaans Brmmer IT was 1965 in Witbank, and Lizzie liked Harold for his looks and his humility. They got married on April 27, a date not lost on Lizzie for its later historical value. But by the time that date […]

THERE is Hebron, and there is beyond Hebron. At the moment the Israeli-Palestinian talks are bogged down on the first item dividing them, let alone the other issues still ahead. Israel claims that it is not seeking to alter the agreement already reached (but not implemented) on withdrawal from the last of the seven West […]

A new Johannesburg studio is moving body- piercing and fetishism into the mainstream. DROR EYAL pops by for a prick EVERYWHERE you go nowadays there are little techno babes in uncomfortable shoes, trying to score E, flashes of bare midriffs revealing discreet little navel rings. The happy shiny kids of tomorrow. Faceless techno music blasting […]