Staff Reporter

A CONFIDENTIAL briefing document sent to African National Congress organisers warns that sacked deputy minister Bantu Holomisa intends mobilising support against the decision to expel him and suggests urgent action to “neutralise” his campaign. And it emerged this week that senior ANC members tried to warn President Nelson Mandela that his decision to axe the […]

With Alan Greenspan changing his views on inflation, a split in the Federal Reserve may be a possibility, reports Mark Tran in New York It is time to reassess Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan’s image as a party pooper. The usual view of Greenspan is that of an anti-inflation hawk, quick to tighten and slow […]

Angella Johnson Police say they are beginning to make significant inroads in the fight against organised crime, following the arrest of a seven-man gang in connection with the manufacture of mandrax tablets. The men, including a British chemist, were nabbed last Monday after a month-long police surveillance operation in Lichtenberg unearthed a major drug- making […]

Happy Tom Thousands of poor people in the Eastern Cape are benefiting from cattle and sheep rustling which is devastating commercial farmers in the region. “Thandi”, a 45-year-old woman who lives in the Joza township, Grahamstown, has three hungry children to feed. Tonight they will feast. Thandi has a whole sheep in her fridge. It […]

Loud music eased the tension for Jean-Jacques Terblanche before his big race in Atlanta, and it inspired him to win gold, writes Julian Drew PARALYMPIC champion Jean-Jacques Terblanche is not an athlete who succumbs to big match nerves. As he sat in the call-up room waiting for his 200m individual medley final at the Georgia […]

Alex Brummer in London The decision by the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) the Basle-based central bankers’ club, to widen its membership to include nine emerging market countries, represents a critical milestone for the global economic order. It has been evident since the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) 50th anniversary meetings in Madrid in 1994 that […]

South Africa have lost twice to Australia and coach Clive Barker will want to rectify that, but he also has Ghana and Kenya to worry about SOCCER: Andrew Muchineripi HAVING already established their reputation on South African rugby and cricket fields over the years, Australia will make their soccer debut in the Simba Four Nations […]

Ann Eveleth MBONGENI NGEMA’S musical career has not fallen apart in the midst of the Sarafina II controversy, but the financial uncertainty around the future of the Aids education musical has angered some of his friends in the entertainment industry. Ngema, whose production company Committed Artists was evicted from its Durban offices last month after […]

Jacquie Golding-Duffy provides a first taste of Comtask’s findings on the South African Communications Services and the print industry Deputy president thabo Mbeki’s task group on government communications — Comtask — will recommend that the South African Communications Services (Sacs) be dissolved and replaced with a new and much leaner government structure. This will allow […]

Out-of-touch white media planners are touring the townships to get in touch with black consumers, writes Jacquie Golding-Duffy TAKE a taxi to Soweto if you want to get in touch with your black market base. This is the message from Taxinet, a leading media company responsible for advertisements flagged solely in the taxi industry. As […]

A great Springbok victory over the All Blacks was the first ingredient needed in the recipe for a rugby revival RUGBY: Jon Swift SOMEONE had to say it, and All Black coach John Hart did not disappoint. One foot on the plane? A New Zealand Test team? Pull the other one. There has never been […]

Nineteen-year-old Tebogo Lerole is bringing the joyful rhythm of the pennywhistle to a new generation. KAREN DAVIS speaks to him – WHEN Elias and Aaron Lerole were small boys, they were already to be found on the streets and at Johannesburg’s Zoo Lake every Sunday earning a living as pennywhistlers. Now, Elias’s children are carrying […]

The battle for District Six in the Land Claims Court promises to be as bitter as the fight against the forced removals from the area, writes Rehana Rossouw THEY’LL be on opposing sides in the Land Claims Court (LCC) in October, but Basil Davidson and Anwar Nagia agree on a fundamental issue: the Restitution of […]

The last of SABC-TV’s big budget drama series comes to our screens this week. ANDREW WORSDALE reports – HOMELAND, the new 13-part-series on SABC3, is quite possibly the most engrossing drama series yet produced for local television. Full of well-judged performances and cinematic flair, it contains all the qualities that, up until now, one believed […]

South Africa faces the prospect of segregated urban slums, where people are separated not by race but by the way the sewerage flows in post-apartheid cities, with social and environmental conditions worse than those created by the old government’s housing policies. This hard-hitting argument is contained in a critique by the National Institute for Economic […]

WHEN it was announced that the SABC was to sell six of its regional radio stations everybody cheered. Government rubbed its hands in anticipation of receiving a huge whack of much needed revenue. Potential bidders were finally in with a chance of becoming rich as well as famous. Even the public agreed that 70 years […]

Police have been implicated in the assassination of two fellow officers, reports Mungo Soggot THE latest victims of South Africa’s bitter taxi wars are Detective Sergeants Richard Khosa and Michael Baloyi, two of the Pretoria township Soshanguve’s most experienced officers, with more than 20 years service behind them. On the eve of giving crucial testimony […]

New car-tracking technology may lead to more fatalities, reports Angella Johnson HAVING an anti-hijack tracking device on your vehicle may help get it returned but it could also get you killed. A Johannesburg businessman discovered this paradox after he was kidnapped and left for dead along the roadside. Ian Mirk, managing director of Panasonic Business […]

The new head of the secret service, and his deputy, will be looking out for the dangers and opportunities facing the country, reports Gaye Davis THEY’VE been described as student radicals, and they’ve certainly got the T-shirts earned during careers which took them from student activism to jail, exile and working underground for the African […]

David Macgregor MORE than 28 000 cattle valued at about R75-million have been stolen in the Eastern Cape this year as organised syndicates increase their supply of cut- price meat to the townships. Several farmers have thrown in the towel as the cattle-rustling figures have already doubled what they were for the whole of last […]

Stuart Hess TWENTY members of the elite police reaction unit in KwaZulu-Natal stand accused by family members of murdering a 23-year-old Inanda man who was shot as he lay sleeping in bed with his girlfriend. The family of Thulani Nzuza say the group of uniformed officers burst into the house in the early hours of […]

Mungo Soggot THE rise in international oil prices triggered by the United States missile attacks on Iraq could have important ripple effects on the South African economy, analysts warned this week. Increases in key international oil prices are expected to boot up the petrol and diesel pump prices next month, which will hit inflation and […]

A crime wave will lead to calls for blood, just as some silly piece of provocative art will bring calls for censorship, and some foolish action by a single female will bring calls to withhold rights from all women. But the whole purpose of a Bill of Rights is to immunise certain basic human rights […]

Marion Edmunds SOUTH AFRICAN BROADCASTING CORPORATION journalists, along with about 250 of their colleagues from around the world, were holed up in a compound in Libya this week, unsure when they would be allowed to leave the country to return to their homes. According to Current Affairs Executive Producer Freek Robinson, a producer, Kotie van […]

Ann Eveleth CAUGHT between the rock of its abolitionist principles and the hard place of a constituency ravaged by crime and clamouring for revenge, the African National Congress seized control of the death penalty debate this week. A recommendation from the ANC’s crime summit last weekend asked its leadership to “consider reconsidering” its long-standing opposition […]

Minister of Welfare and Population Development Geraldine Fraser-Moleketi responds to a recent M&G article AS in other parts of the world, the issue of whether to provide social assistance to permanent residents has come to the fore in South Africa. The article entitled “No pensions for permanent residents” by Marion Edmunds (August 16 to 22) […]

THE cruise missiles have flown again, with even greater accuracy, it is said, than before. They have certainly had a devastating effect on what remains of the alliance which mustered against Saddam Hussein in the Gulf War. United States President Bill Clinton has described the operation as in defence of US national interest and as […]

Crash is set to take South Africa by storm. JONATHAN ROMNEY first saw the controversial movie at the Cannes Film Festival – THROUGHOUT the Cannes press screening of Crash, someone in the row behind me muttered a refrain of “Sick … sick …” There was a whiff of scandal in the air a full week […]

Pressure to change the Usury Act is growing now that the government has called on the public to suggest improvements to the law, writes Tebello Radebe THE “David and Goliath” battle concerning overcharging by the banks, spearheaded by the Financial Research Foundation (FRF), rages on even though the principals do not seem to differ on […]

Jane Badham THE travel brochures show you pictures of the big five, stretches of pristine beaches, luxury hotels and smiling faces. The picture of peace and harmony, but allow me to paint the real picture … We have long known that we are living in the most violent country (with the exception of Bosnia) in […]

Yunus Momoniat CITIZEN AND SUBJECT: CONTEMPORARY AFRICA AND THE LEGACY OF LATE COLONIALISM by Mahmood Mamdani (James Currey/Fountain/David Philip, R79,95) – UGANDAN academic Mahmood Mamdani, who worked in South Africa for a time, has written a wide-ranging and highly theoretical book which attempts to discern a pattern in the process of colonialism in Africa. He […]

SOCCER: Andrew Muchineripi THE arrival of Nigerian champions Shooting Stars this week heralds the start of a hectic period of international activity involving Bafana Bafana and Orlando Pirates. On Sunday at the Free State Stadium in Bloemfontein, the Buccaneers continue their defence of the African Champions’ Cup with a quarter-final tie against highly-rated Stars. The […]