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 […]
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 […]
I WISH to bring to your attention certain inaccuracies in two articles in the M&G of June 28 to July 4 1996. In the first article on the sale of six SABC regional radio stations, it was stated that the Cabinet had approved the amendment of the Independent Broadcasting Authority Act to expedite the sale […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
Jacquie Golding-Duffy A Cape Town-based Muslim community radio station is being hauled before the Independent Broadcasting Authority following an alleged contravention of its licence conditions. Voice of the Cape, which shares air-time with Radio 786, is to appear before the IBA’s Broadcasting Monitoring and Complaints Committee (BMCC) on July 9 for allegedly failing to inform […]
Joe Chilaizya The Tazara railway line, a key rail link between Tanzania and Zambia is under threat, and may be privatised and sold off to South African interests. If Tazara is not rescued thousands will lose their jobs, and people all along the route will lose their incomes. Few Tanzanian or Zambian officials are likely […]
RUGBY: Jon Swift Boy Louw said it best. “Looks for the scoreboards” was his superbly unique and ungrammatical reply to criticism of how the Spingboks played. So it should be with the 43-18 scoreline from this week’s test against Fiji at Loftus Versfeld. This was not an inspired perfomance. But it was a winning one, […]
Muslim members of Mozambique’s Parliament are trying to pass a law recognising the days of Eid as public holidays. Andrew Meldrum reports from Boane Sabati Omar breaks from his work building a mosque to explain how Islam is growing in Boane, a rural area in southern Mozambique. “Every month we see somebody convert,” says Omar, […]
M&G Crime Correspondent Angella Johnson, who spent 10 years working on papers like The Guardian, London Times and Los Angeles Times, finds herself at loggerheads with the SAPS `Precision of communication is important, more important than ever, in our era of hair-trigger balances, when a false, or misunderstood word may create as much disaster as […]
David Beresford President Nelson Mandela’s tendency to “shoot from the hip” on foreign policy matters — a trait which is the despair of diplomats, but admired by others as straight talking — was on display again this week when he panned the British prime minister on the eve of his state visit to the United […]
Julian Drew At the colourful and emotional send-off for the South African Olympic team last Sunday, the Olympic oath was read on behalf of the team by modern pentathlete Claud Cloete. While it is true that Cloete is only in the team courtesy of a wild card granted to athletes from developing countries to ensure […]
Vietnam, with its frequent changes in policy and bureaucratic rule, has left investors confused and wary. Nicholas Cumming-Bruce reports from Hanoi An 18-storey hotel, soaring above a jumble of low- rise Hanoi houses and construction sites, is a landmark to the rapid changes rattling this once- sleepy capital of faded colonial villas and lakes. Foreign […]
Mountaineers question whether the South African Everest team ever really reached the summit. Justin Pearce and Gaye Davis report A row is brewing over who owns the still-unpublised photos of the South African Everest team at the summit. Everest expedition leader Ian Woodall says he is holding on to the photos of the South African […]
“During the apartheid era there was no channel for negotiation. Now that there is such a channel, students don’t have to protest immediately, when something is wrong” — Benedict Radebe, 19, BSc first year “A lot of the protesting isn’t justified. Here at Wits, it hasn’t been about genuine student grievances, but more about a […]
HOME Affairs’ highly paid special adviser Mario Ambrosini has been taking some time off during the past two weeks to keep tabs on KwaZulu-Natal’s progress at the Constitutional Court. (Perish the thought that either he or his boss, Mangosuthu Buthhelezi, would do party work on government time). Last week he was popping in and out […]
Singing along with Mariah Carey is no challenge, as Brian Logan discovered at her first-ever concert in London MARIAH CAREY once said about her video for the single Fantasy: “It’s difficult wearing all those hats, but the positive results were worth it.” By this standard, the UK debut of the top-selling recording artist of the […]
The excitement this week over the release of Greg Blank seems to have less to do with the merits, or otherwise, of the parole system than the general sense of frustration in the country over crime and punishment. As Blank himself has complained, he is “white and rich” and as such a ripe target for […]
Bronwyn Jones EVERY year the Sahara Desert expands its arid boundaries and the population of Africa grows. And while big plans are afoot to tap the waters of Zambia and Lesotho to quench South Africa’s industrial thirst, none of it will prove enough unless tied with long-term protection of water sources and a sharp curb […]
The Mark Gevisser Profile Since the Market Theatre opened in 1976, Janet Suzman has come home to do a play three times — almost exactly once a decade. And that, says theatre boss John Kani, is just about as much of her as they can take: “She’s a monster! An absolute monster! She presents a […]
Patrick Donovan in London The mysterious Yasuo Hamanaka, the disgraced chief copper dealer at Japan’s Sumitomo Corporation, has found himself cast in the sinister role of “Mr Big” in what appears to have been a worldwide attempt to rig the global commodities markets. For more than 10 years, he has apparently carried out more than […]
Lynda Loxton Boland Bank, based in Paarl, has been transformed over the last year from a relatively small, mostly Western Cape bank into a more sophisticated market player serving the country as a whole. Not surprisingly, the process has placed some strain on management and revealed weaknesses in bad-debt control, which it is working hard […]
BORIS YELTSIN urged Russian voters not to allow their “grievances and tiredness” to sway the vote. But what if Boris himself is too tired? It may only be a sore throat, but Yeltsin’s backers must be on their knees and praying hard. They are faced with an unpalatable scenario. What happens if Yeltsin’s sore throat […]
Andrew Wilson WOZA ALBERT 15 years on? If it was Brecht, there would be no question: the German’s works had sufficient form and structure to carry them decades into the future — something the loose, informal construction of Woza Albert doesn’t have. Brecht is offered to students as an example of didactic, political theatre; commentary […]
BOXING: Gavin Evans THE first and last time Sugarboy Malinga and Vincenzo Nardinello met it was all hugs, kisses and fun and games in foreign accents. Fun’n’games, in fact, is one of the things this Italian enjoys most about the fight game, even when he is on the wrong side of a beating, as he […]
Gaye Davis THE media are in danger of becoming unwelcome guests in Parliament. Speaker Dr Frene Ginwala has ordered an inquiry into the justification for the R1-million paid out by taxpayers each year to accommodate journalists in its precincts. Attempts by the Mail & Guardian to get a copy of the report on the investigation, […]
1 NATIONAL EMBLEM. Outstanding win in the Premiers Cup, and a good third in this race last year. Better than last run when 8th at Clairwood (1 600m) but should run a couple of lengths off them under top weight. Rating: Fair Minus 2 COUNTER ACTION. Queen’s Plate winner with the “guv’nor” Jeff Lloyd aboard. […]
Justin Pearce A schoolteacher seeking paternity leave, a group of prisoners claiming to have been assaulted and a schoolboy defending his right to have long hair are among the stories told inside the cardboard folders stacked on the desk of Human Rights Commission (HRC) member Pansy Tlakula. Upstairs in the stately Houghton office suite occupied […]
Rehana Rossouw TRADITIONS steeped in centuries of British history will change next week when Queen Elizabeth II pulls out all the stops to honour her guest for a week, President Nelson Mandela. Even Oxford University’s ceremonial pomp will have to travel to Buckingham Palace to join seven other universities in the garden next Wednesday to […]
A seasoned politician remarked this week that “there is no message like the one delivered by the electorate”. For some of the thousands of candidates who contested last week’s local government polls in the Durban Metro, that message must be a bitter pill to swallow. Poor Kathuravaloo Vallaraman, who contested the sparsely-populated Hawaan Nature Reserve […]
Mark Tran in New York Billionaires from the tiger economies of the Far East are gaining on Bill Gates, chairman of software giant Microsoft, and Warren Buffett, America’s super investor, as the world’s richest individuals. While Gates and Buffett are still lording it for the second year running in Forbes magazine’s 10th annual ranking of […]