There is always a suspicion, when one offers a fond farewell to a man who is a rival, that tributes are born more of relief at seeing the back of him than respect for his achievements. It is therefore a measure of our admiration for Ken Owen that we express the hope his formal retirement […]
Stefaans BrUmmer TRANSVAAL Attorney General Jan D’Oliveira will go ahead with plans to charge some of the 22 policemen who approached the Truth and Reconciliation Commission this week, saying their offer to co- operate with the truth body may “well be” an attempt to pre-empt prosecution. D’Oliveira confirmed there was a “significant overlap” between the […]
The banks may yet repent if money market stability does not hold, writes Madeleine Wackernagel A volatile interest rate climate is not conducive to long-term investment planning, either by individuals or big business. And while the surprise rate cut by Amalgamated Banks of South Africa (Absa) this week — closely followed by the other leading […]
Hunger striking is an ancient Celtic tradition. In the Middle Ages it was given recognition in the Irish legal system. An individual who had a complaint against another would hunger strike on his doorstep, either until the dispute was settled, or until he died. If he died, the law recognised the justification of his grievance […]
TENNIS: Frank Keating THIS is the last Wimbledon for the evocative and singular No 1 Court. Architectural change is sometimes imperceptible, other times terminally dramatic. It will be the latter when the bulldozers grind in to ransack the Centre Court’s democratic and friendly old semi-detached neighbour as soon as the last doubles finals are over […]
Hazel Friedman `Love sandwiches” are among the sizzling “snacks” being sampled in Biodanza, a series of caress sessions being held at a martial arts centre in Parkhurst and the latest feel-good fad to hit South Africa. Biodanza’s devotees describe it as “dances with passion and vitality” and a means of getting in touch with the […]
Superb training facilities and southern hospitality at the LaGrange camp will help the South African team acclimatise before Atlanta, writes Julian Drew WHEN South Africa went to Barcelona for the 1992 Olympic Games it was a hastily assembled and rather under-prepared team that marched into the Montjuic Stadium. On July 19 it will be an […]
MINISTRY of Sound opened the doors of its London nightclub in 1991, at the height of the rave explosion. Granted the UK’s first 24-hour music and dance licence, it has developed into a multi- faceted, award-winning centre for dance and club culture, spreading its name through pioneering projects and aggressive — sometimes terrorist- style — […]
Emigration consultancies seem to be booming. Jeremy Gordin attended one of their seminars — and decided it was enough to make him stay WHAT was making our feet itchy, my wife and I agreed, wasn’t the tax rate. Nor the bond rate. Nor even the unavoidable realisation that our (remaining) deputy president looks and (much […]
Marion Edmunds THE Labour Market Commission has recommended that the Home Affairs Department relax its immigration selection policy to allow more skilled foreigners to settle and work in South Africa. And in its report, released by the government last week, the commission recommends that immigration policy be overhauled completely to suit the economic and social […]
Worcester residents had widely different opinions of the truth commission which visited their town this week. Marion Edmunds reports DOWN at the Brandwacht Hotel, in the saloon bar, a Worcester prison warder sat glowering over his brandy and coke. It had been a pleasant enough afternoon, until two journalists had come in for a drink […]
`THEY’VE changed everything,” said Paul Dickens, a 32-year-old civil servant, fluffing a newly spiked hairdo last weekend at the Sex Pistols’ first British gig in 18 years. You wouldn’t have known it to look at the four beer-bellied market traders on stage in Finsbury Park, north London, but these were the erstwhile swearing, gobbing punk […]
The Wall may have fallen, but Germany has yet to resolve its post-war economic problems. David Gow reports from Bonn The German social market economy, engine of the country’s post-war renaissance, may have run out of steam well before the fall of the Wall, but the political battle to preserve its soul is only now […]
ANC trade expert Rob Davies sees the EU moving away from aid and trade packages towards reciprocal deals with African-Caribbean-Pacific countries. Lynda Loxton reports Developing countries are becoming increasingly concerned about an apparent bid by the European Union to link negotiations on a free trade agreement with South Africa to the future of the Lome […]
David Beresford It was not quite Noah’s Ark. But the ecstatic look on the face of the Israeli, Shai Doron, sitting in a tent on a KwaZulu-Natal hillside last weekend must have been there on the face of the patriarch when the animals tripped in two-by-two. Doron, the director of the Biblical Zoo in Jerusalem, […]
Guy Standing sets out the principles for a social accord, labour creation and wage levels IN recent days there has been much talk about an incomes policy or social accord to help realise the government’s economic growth strategy. It is important to appreciate the rationale for such a policy, and to know what type of […]
Patrick Bond MEXICO’S southeastern mountains and valleys still occasionally resonate with the sounds of gunfire and poetry, as they did on January 1 1994, the day the North American Free Trade Agreement went into effect and the Zapatista peasant army temporarily took control of dozens of towns in the state of Chiapas. But next month […]
Stan Katz There has been much criticism, debate and misinformation surrounding the sale of six SABC radio stations and the role of the Independent Broadcasting Authority in the process. This is a pity because the environment which will ultimately be created, will in all likelihood, be much healthier for broadcasters. The IBA is faced with […]
Reformed boom-boom banger Boris Becker is using his head to mount a menacing challenge to champion Sampras TENNIS: Jon Henderson ONCE UPON A time, Boris Becker played tennis using only his racket, his pugilist’s right arm and, perhaps the main source of his power, his beer-keg thighs. Now he uses his head as well, and […]
`Terror’ Lekota’s position as premier of the Free State lies in the hands of an ANC delegation which will decide whether he has overstepped the power of his position, reports Jacquie Golding-Duffy The knives are out for Free State premier Patrick “Terror” Lekota, even as a delegation appointed by President Nelson Mandela prepares to defuse […]
Iden Wetherell in Harare PROPERTY owners in Harare’s upmarket Borrowdale suburb whose homes overlook an estate used by President Robert Mugabe as a weekend retreat have been told to sell their properties to the government for “security reasons”. But they say they are only being offered half the market value. The 12-hectare estate, including an […]
Appropriation or plagiarism? What’s the difference? HAZEL FRIEDMAN grapples with a debate raging in South Africa’s conceptual art circles ESAU did it to Jacob, Brahms might have done it to Beethoven and Shakespeare has been accused of doing it to his assistant. History is filled with the famous, talented and treacherous who have indulged in, […]
Ann Eveleth KwaZulu-Natal’s local government polls were probably the most peaceful political event the historically stormy province has ever seen. Here and there a dark cloud hovered over the province’s 3,5-million voters as political opponents waged a final stand to protect — or extend — their turf, and in some cases angry voters’ tempers burst […]
There were some stutters in Tuesday’s match, but there were signs that the new Springbok team can live up to South Africa’s world champions status RUGBY: Jon Swift ANDRE MARKGRAAFF, the man charged with shaping the South African rugby side, was at some pains to dispel any idea of the South African XV playing festival […]
South Africa’s top linguists are to wrestle with the practicalities of 11 official languages at a conference in Midrand this weekend. Marion Edmunds reports FORMER Robben Islander Dr Neville Alexander has to unravel one of the tightest knots tied by the politicians of the post-apartheid order. At a crucial conference on Saturday, Alexander and the […]
MATTHEW KROUSE met up with the cast of Indiscretions during rehearsals this week `ARE real tears wrong?” asks actress Fiona Ramsay of director Robert Whitehead during a break in rehearsals. Eyes all red and puffy, she’s just been emoting heavily in the maddened climax of Indiscretions, which began previewing last night. Real tears, it transpires, […]
CINEMA: Andrew Worsdale CINEMA audiences, it seems, have fallen in love with drag queens. Mike Nichols’s The Birdcage, a distinctly unfunky remake of La Cage aux Folles, grossed $18-million on its opening weekend in the US, and is still going strong at over $117-million; Patrick Swayze and Wesley Snipes in frocks drew over $40-million in […]
TWO pulsating European Championship semi-finals both ended in exactly the same way on Wednesday night when the sudden-death penalty shoot-out sealed the fate of England and France. In the first match favourites France had the most chances against a Czech Republic team determined not to concede a goal. France’s Youri Djorkaeff came closest to scoring […]
Belgians are joining the protests against a costly armaments plant in Kenya, reports Greg Barrow from Nairobi THE citizens of Eldoret, a small town at the top of the Rift Valley, cannot believe their luck. Eldoret, once known only for its mushroom farming and world- class middle-distance athletes, has become Kenya’s main beneficiary of government […]
After two-and-a-half years of TV captioning for the deaf, how do we rate? Elsa Semmelink reports This month it will be two-and-a-half years since the former NNTV introduced the SABC’s first half-hour magazine programme for the deaf, but some people within the corporation feel South Africa still lags far behind international broadcasters. Sign Hear! was […]
The Constitutional Court must heed the dangers involved in giving corporations the same rights as individuals, argues American consumer advocate Ralph Nader SOUTH Africans should be aware that a key provision of the new Constitution risks entrenching a new form of power abuse in the country: autocratic rule by big corporations. The new Constitution establishes […]
Simon Segal THE consensus forecast from 10 of South Africa’s major economic units is that gross domestic product (gdp) growth is still short of what is required to absorb people coming on to the labour market — and that it will slow next year. Sluggish and slowing growth will result in lower interest rates but […]