Staff Reporter

Hundreds have been harassed for being `witches’ in the Northern Province so far this year, and the number is growing. David Shapshak reports SOME looked sheepish, others defiant as 52 youths crowded into the Pietersburg Magistrate’s Court when the biggest-ever crackdown on witchcraft killings in the Northern Province began last Friday. The accused – all […]

There were fouls and off-the-ball incidents aplenty, and this wasn’t on the field of play but at the commission investigating administration irregularities SOCCER: Andrew Muchineripi IT had to happen at some point. With so many commissions doing the rounds in the new South Africa at the moment, it was only a matter of time before […]

While South African companies establish themselves in China, they should prioritise upholding human rights in that country, argues Nol van Breda SOUTH AFRICANS, and in particular the business community, should take stock of the atrocious human rights record of China, one of the permanent members on the United Nations Security Council, just as China is […]

WE live in a solar-powered world, yet nearly two-and-a-half billion people are desperately short of energy with which to improve their existence. There are two energy crises: the one we know about, in which 21% of the world’s population guzzles 70% of the world’s commercial energy output, mostly in the form of pollution-causing fossil fuels. […]

Controversial, offensive and bizarre are a few of the words used to describe the Benetton empire. Pauline Springett looks at the family behind the name LUCIANO BENETTON, 61-year-old president and co-founder of the eponymous Italian business empire, would almost pass as a traditional tycoon. The tweed suit is of perhaps a little better than average […]

Iden Wetherell in Zimbabwe AIR ZIMBABWE, once a profitable little airline with an on-time record, now has a reputation for delays and debt as poor management and political interference thwart viability. Part of the problem is President Robert Mugabe’s habit of requisitioning planes whenever he needs to travel abroad – often several times a month. […]

JUDITH WATT takes men’s corsets out of the closet and into the parade IN her book Fabulous Nobodies, Lee Tulloch had her protagonist give all her dresses names and characters. Tulloch says it’s not just about trying on frocks, but about becoming them: “When people criticise fantasy clothes on the runway, I always defend it […]

allegations Eddie Koch AN investigations team at the Transvaal attorney general’s office is working around the clock to probe at least 50 incidents of violence and murder in which security force generals and former Cabinet ministers have been implicated by Eugene de Kock. The barrage of allegations presented in De Kock’s testimony in the Pretoria […]

THERE is something about Sonia Combrink that drives men to protect her. Charles MacDonald resisted identifying her when he gave police the baby she had stolen and pretended was theirs for two years, and current lover Jaques Snyman is vowing to stick by her in the event of a prison sentence. Combrink (26) was found […]

Despite losing, Transvaal and Western Province proved they can still provide tough competition in the Currie Cup, but some of the lesser unions are not so fortunate RUGBY:Jon Swift IT IS perhaps one of the supreme ironies that so often mark man’s sporting endeavours, that the nub of last weekend’s rugby came from the performances […]

David Beresford IF the British lottery is not exactly immoral, as many churchmen would have it, the story of “Cheeky” Lee Ryan offers convincing evidence that Lady Luck is utterly amoral. Ryan, a used-car salesman, would have made even Richard Nixon look virtuous. Last year he was sentenced to 18 months for handling stolen vehicles […]

Judith Havemann and William Claiborne in Washington THE first provisions of the complex new federal welfare law took effect on Monday, requiring states to begin denying food stamps to non-United States citizens in the initial phase of a process that will ultimately strip benefits from half-a- million immigrants. Efforts to enforce the new law came […]

SAA is now a `global player in a global market’ and Zukile Nomvete is going to lead the airline into the 21st century, reports Max Gebhardt ZUKILE NOMVETE is working himself out of a job. If at the end of five years he is still leading the transformation of South African Airways (SAA), he believes […]

As the city of gold looks forward to Baba Maal’s concerts, our critic considers other recent shows HE was picked up from the airport in a limo, because that’s what he requested. And he’s over half an hour late for the interview. In fairness, his flight was delayed by three hours. He walks into the […]

Marion Edmunds PETER GODWIN, author of the bestselling book Mukiwa: A White Boy in Africa, has slated the TV series Rhodes for judging a man of yesterday by the morals of today. “Rhodes is a stirring and affecting television production, beautifully filmed, but it feels like a work overwhelmed by … the very worst interpretation […]

Madeleine Wackernagel THE European Commission has not blocked a $74-million loan to the Saldanha Steel project, merely reserved judgment, says Erwan Four, the European Union’s ambassador to South Africa. The EC has sent the file back to the European Investment Bank, says Four, for further consideration; the EIB will review the issue and then decide […]

PRESSURES for the reintroduction of the death penalty in South Africa continue to rise. With something of a campaign on the issue led by the National Party, The Star claims a survey it conducted shows that 93% of the population has joined the “hang ’em high” brigade – at least to the extent that they […]

feet ANDREW WORSDALE in Zimbabwe THE biggest grossing films in Zimbabwe this year are Waiting to Exhale and Showgirls. Sign of the times: Hollywood is still dominating world movie production. But at the opening ceremony of the 1996 Southern Africa Film Festival, Post and Telecommunications Minister Joyce Mujuru urged representatives to reduce dependence on foreign […]

Justin Arenstein PROVINCIAL ministers and political office bearers in Mpumalanga allegedly used R1,3- million from a low-cost housing budget to renovate their state houses, including the construction of a swimming pool and lapa. The expenditure, which was severely criticised in a confidential government report more than a yar ago, was allegedly made without Cabinet or […]

With advertising averaging R166-million, the local tobacco industry has refused to voluntarily withdraw its ad campaigns, reports Gillian Farquhar THIS week the Tobacco Institute of Southern Africa denied that the countries’ tobacco companies would voluntarily withdraw their advertising next year. It was speculated in advertising and marketing circles that this move, recently attempted by American […]

Joshua Amupadhi ROBERT SOBUKWE must be turning restlessly in his grave at the latest high-profile Pan Africanist Congress’s (PAC) failure to resuscitate his dream at its weekend convention in Pretoria. Speeches on the opening day stated how the PAC would be “totally overhauled” and “transformed” to become a “vanguard of the have-nots”. But critics said […]

Stefaans Brmmer WHEN the National Party walked out of the African National Congress-dominated Government of National Unity earlier this year, the Afrikaner Broederbond – now called the Afrikanerbond – lost its last members in Cabinet. A body that for almost half a century had direct access to the levers of Afrikaner nationalist government power, and […]

The UK tops a list of lender nations taking out more from the developing world than they put in, reports Richard Thomas in London Britain is squeezing cash out of the world’s poorest countries by demanding levels of debt repayment far outweighing new loans or aid, according to figures published this week. As representatives of […]

DANCE: Thule Malgas THE international showcase on the Arts Alive dance programme, celebrated United States company Donald Byrd and The Group, was received with resounding critical acclaim. A performance highlighting the marriage of American modern dance and classical ballet opened with a send-up of Giselle, a “romantic ballet”, and had a good part of the […]

Olympic 800m silver medallist Hezekial Sepeng was asked to sign a contract which stipulated how often, how fast and against whom he would race in South Africa, writes Julian Drew ATHLETICS SOUTH AFRICA (ASA), the body with overall responsibility for the sport in the country, tried to rig races for the forthcoming season involving Olympic […]

Stuart Hess AS the shattered community at Stilfontein started recovering from the violence which left at least 24 dead, it emerged that police at the miners’ settlement have been told to shoot any miners caught inciting violence. “Police have been given the right to kill,” said Sixtus Sethunya, senior hostel personnel assistant at Scott Hostel, […]

ART: Hazel Friedman IF there is one process with which South Africans are intimately, agonisingly familiar it is branding. Remember apartheid? You’d be hard pressed to find a more appropriate example of political cattle- branding. But the repetitive, mechanical action whereby a motif is burnt into an object as a sign of identity, ownership and […]

Damon Hill joins a list of great racing names when he attempts to clinch the world championship in the last race of the season MOTOR RACING: Richard Williams DAMON HILL’s long quest for the Formula One world championship will go down to the wire but at least the odds keep improving. By finishing second to […]

SOCCER:Andrew Muchineripi WITH no Premier League fixtures scheduled for this weekend, all attention will be focused on the Coca-Cola Cup, formerly known as the JPS Cup, which reaches the semi-final stage. Out of the four sides that have reached this stage of the competition, two – QwaQwa Stars (1994) and Bush Bucks (1993) -have already […]

This week Jean-Paul Akayesu became the first Hutu to go on trial for the genocide of Tutsis in Rwanda in 1994, reports Chris McGreal JOSEPHINE MUKANKUSI cannot even look back on her wedding with happiness for she remembers who was there. Her brother was just a young boy when she married in 1970. Even so, […]

approaching Greg Barrow in Zanzibar FOR more than 200 years, giant Aldabra tortoises have thrived on Prison Island, a small coral atoll just off the coast of Zanzibar that was once used as a detention centre for disobedient slaves. When explorer David Livingstone established his expedition headquarters in Zanzibar in 1866, he may well have […]

JAZZ: Gwen Ansell IT’S the Wednesday before his first Johannesburg concert and Courtney Pine shivers beside a wall outside the Parktonian Hotel as rain clouds loom. “The guys all brought shorts and stuff. Is the weather real?” Courtney Pine ambles out from side-stage at Mega Music, casually blowing soprano sax, about halfway through the first […]