Governments and consumers must learn a new lesson: price rises are no longer automatic, thanks to technological advances and global integration. Roger Bootle discusses his theory with Madeleine Wackernagel Inflation is dead, RIP. At least in the industrialised world. South Africans may not be immediately convinced, but if Roger Bootle’s thesis is valid, we may […]
IT’S common cause that the first desire one has on hitting the Grahamstown Festival is to get the hell out of there. Nervous breakdowns also tend to happen with alarming regularity. No one knows why. But most of us tend to stifle the onset of culture-phobia, don thermal underwear and join the heterogeneous hordes on […]
CINEMA: Derek Malcolm JEAN-PAUL Rappeneau’s bustling Cyrano de Bergerac was thought a considerable risk to make, but turned out to be one of the most successful European films of recent years. That, however, is nothing compared with the risk taken with his latest film, The Horseman on the Roof, probably the most expensive French film […]
Anna Borzello A recent Cabinet reshuffle in Uganda was a disappointment for anyone hoping fo r an injection of fresh faces and new ideas. The overriding impression was of a cautious President Yoweri Museveni creating a loyal and trusted team to push through his pre-election promises. The top jobs of vice-president, prime minister and the […]
Business attacks labour clauses The prospect of renegotiating the constitution gives the ANC the jitters, repo rts Marion Edmunds The African National Congress’s constitution-makers are increasingly jittery t hat opposition parties will want to unravel large chunks of the constitution, should it fail certification, and be thrown back at the Constitutional Assembl y (CA) by […]
ELIZABETH DONALDSON previews the four half-hour television films selected for M-Net’s annual homegrown film competition AFTER two years, M-Net’s clumsy duckling has emerged a glorious swan. Gone is the fluffy, ungainly waddle of the annual New Directions competition; the baby is fast maturing and is set to take flight across your TV screens this winter. […]
Jacquie Golding-Duffy Mduduzi ka Harvey (31), a local government reporter at Business Day and former Mail & Guardian trainee died on Tuesday from respiratory failure in the inten sive-care unit of Hoogland Medical Clinic in Bethelem. Ka Harvey suffered head and chest injuries in a car accident near Harrismith o n June 21. Ka Harvey […]
A Constitutional Court decision is a boon for debt collectors, writes Mungo So ggot DEBT collectors are cashing in on the legal havoc caused by a Constitutional C ourt judgment last year which effectively robbed the courts of the power to ja il debtors. Several attorneys claim debt collectors — both registered debt collection a […]
For the workers carved up with machetes last week, genocide happens just once. Chris McGreal reports from Bujumbura There is a difference of opinion in Burundi about the cement factory manager w ho burnt 22 of his workers to death, and sold tickets to their fellow employee s to watch. The manager is a Tutsi, […]
An edited version of Mark Behr’s speech, made at a writers’ conference entitle d ‘Fault Lines — Inquiries Around Truth and Reconciliation’ It is with the profoundest regret that I acknowledge that as a student I worke d as an agent of the South African security establishment. From the end of 198 6 to 1990 […]
Did the AWB kill Vickus Swanepoel because he was a traitor — or was he kill ed in a car crash? Stefaans BrUmmer reports FOR two years Martha Swanepoel kept quiet about the death of her husband, who she believes fell victim to an Afrikaner Weerstandsbeweging (AWB) plot becaus e he “ratted” on the organisation […]
The police have finally said there may have been a plan behind the Shell House violence, reports Angella Johnson Police have finally accepted the argument that there may have been a conspirac y to attack the African National Congress’s headquarters in Johannesburg, whic h led to the shooting of eight Zulu marchers by ANC security […]
Philippa Garson PROFESSOR Njabulo Ndebele appears to be out of the race for one of the country ‘s top academic jobs — the post of Wits University vice-chancellor. Ndebele, a keen favourite among a broad spectrum of academics and students, ha s neither applied for the job nor accepted any nomination. If Ndebele remains out […]
Madeleine Wackernagel Contrary to popular opinion, global, not regional, trade is the key to economic growth in South Africa, says Professor Jeffrey Herbst of Princeton University. “The Southern African market,” he says, “is just too small to provide the kind of trading opportunities this country needs to fuel substantial growth. “Over the last 25 years, […]
Philippa Garson A small-time bus company owner claims he has been ruined by transport giant Pu tco for daring to compete with it. Sam Joga, owner of Jika Bus Services, has the police and Putco after his blood and a team of mineworkers and criminal lawyer Lawley Shein on his side. Joga claims he has […]
Although we cannot help but regret the delays in its formulation, the governme nt is to be congratulated on its approach to the abortion issue manifest in th e Termination of Pregnancy Bill which is to be put to Parliament before the en d of this year. The Bill is in line with the philosophical […]
SOCCER: Michael Walker THE flow of money and talent into English football continued at bank-bursting speed this week with Middlesbrough’s breathtaking announcement that they had signed Fabrizio Ravanelli from Juventus for 7- million. It made the 27-year-old Italian international striker, who has signed a four-year contract for a reported 1,3-million per year, the fourth most […]
Despite a weak signal, Radio Today claims to have a substantial following and is looking forward to an even better future, writes Sia Sanneh Buried deep beneath the static of the airwaves and pushed right to the edge of one’s tuner is a radio station which is a blast from the past, catering for the […]
Jacquie Golding-Duffy The threatened strike in the clothing industry over wage increases will be disastrous for the already crippled sector, says labour analyst Gavin Brown. The industry is on its knees, having suffered from massive closures, resulting in about 20 000 job losses in the past five years, he says. With the industry in the […]
IT is axiomatic that editorial charters designed to preserve the independence of newspapers are “a good thing”. But we cannot help but feel uneasy about the draft charter published by Times Media Limited this week. The main problem with the charter is its timing. The fact that it is being cha mpioned by white editors […]
Rehana Rossouw WHILE the rest of South Africa shivered in sympathy with Kwazulu-Natal as it l ay buried in snow, most farmers there were revelling in the icy weather. The province’s agricultural union was surprisingly upbeat on Wednesday. “It’s been a long time since we had good winter rains, and it will definitely have g […]
With the formidable Australians and then the awesome All Blacks ahead, the Springboks cannot be expected to remain unbeaten RUGBY: Jon Swift THE thing that impressed so much about Kitch Christie as the coach of our national rugby team was that air of calmness about him. Christie, you felt, always had a game plan, a […]
President Mandela is in Britain seeking more investment in South Africa. Marti n Woollacott gives the view from London IT is only 12 years since the apartheid regime began tentatively conferring wi th the imprisoned Nelson Mandela. It is only 10, to show how much times have c hanged, since the Commonwealth Eminent Persons Group […]
Rehana Rossouw THE Ministry of Health is still refusing point blank to lift the veil of secre cy shrouding the name of the donor who is bailing out its beleaguered Aids pla y Sarafina II. “There’s nothing sinister about it; anonymous people make contributions to cha rity organisations for the benefit of the public all […]
The Charlie Chaplin of Hong Kong action, Jackie Chan, has crossed over to the West. ANDREW WORSDALE reports WITH Rumble in the Bronx, Jackie Chan has taken the peculiar brand of “slapstick kung-fu” which has made him the undisputed king of Asian cinema and finally smashed his way into the American box-office. His first major […]
SA musicians performed for President Mandela and the Queen of England at a concert in London this week. KAREN DAVIS attended a rehearsal WHILE President Mandela was busy persuading the British to invest in South Africa and that all would be fine back home in Thabo Mbeki’s 1999, some of the country’s top musicians were […]
Prize-winning author Mark Behr’s confession that he was a police spy is an aud acious attempt at seduction, argues Nic Borain PEOPLE who worked secretly or otherwise to undermine the movement against apar theid should be given every encouragement to to say what they did and why. I a m all for listening to them […]
Antonio Ole deserves the prize for the best one- person “production” in Grahamstown. Less an installation than a poignant piece of theatre, his mixed-media opus, Breaking Boundaries, spans virtually the entire spectrum of colonial history, and simultaneously engages in the most pertinent discourses of contemporary art, without sacrificing the specifics of time, place or personal […]
Eddie Koch Revelations that South Africa continues to import hazardous chemical material — even though the Cabinet has assured the public it will ban such consignme nts — appears to have thrown government policy on the international toxic w aste trade into confusion. Green Party politicians in the European Parliament this week informed local en […]
BOXING: Gavin Evans in London THE morning after the fight before, Thulane Malinga was on the blower to his promotional boss, looking for a way to recuperate the R3-million he had just squandered. “When can you get me my return? Have you got a date yet?” he pleaded to Rodney Berman. And though it wasn’t […]
Novelist Mark Behr knew he couldn’t keep his spy activities secret forever, re ports Justin Pearce Threat of exposure at the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and in the media was hanging over the head of author Mark Behr when he confessed to having spi ed for the South African Police at Stellenbosch University in the […]
THERE’S a rumour doing the rounds here that the Grahamstown Festival will be renamed the Grahamstown Dance Umbrella next year. But before you uncork the champagne, don your gumboots and organise a tickertape parade in celebration of a discipline that has finally come of age, it should be mentioned that dance wins the “flavour of […]