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, […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
A check-up on just who TML journalists have been calling from their phones at work caused an outrage, reports Stefaans BrUmmer TIMES Media Limited — owner of the Sunday Times, Business Day and other titles — this week apologised to reporters after being accused of tactics “reminiscent of the former security branch” in compromising confidential […]
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 […]
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 […]
`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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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, […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
Madeleine Wackernagel Official unemployment may not be as drastic as previously thought, according to the International Labour Organisation (ILO) report released last week, but levels of inequality are still abnormally high. And while there has been some progress on redistribution between the races, intra-racial inequality is growing. “The gap between the haves and the have-nots […]
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 […]
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 […]
Mungo Soggot IN a bid to become more transparent and accountable, Transnet has appointed three ombudsmen to handle complaints from employees, customers and business partners. They are chairman Louise Tager, general manager of auditing Nigel Payne and non-executive director Magamola Nana. Tager this week dismissed the suggestion that the appointment of three top company officials […]
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 […]
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, […]
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 […]
Mungo Soggot An extraordinary legal decision involving a controversial lawyer lies behind the case of acid- burn victim Bernadette Gibson, which has provoked an uproar over damages awards by the supreme court. The attorney who represented Gibson, Peter Soller, is an unrehabilitated insolvent who specialises in championing the causes of victims of medical negligence. She […]
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 […]
`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 […]
TRANSPORT Minister Mac Maharaj is not having an easy time trying to become the Cabinet’s Robin Hood. First he came under fire for suggesting the idea of taxing petrol to hit the rich, leaving diesel as the people’s fuel. And then the Law Society this week lambasted his proposed shake-up of the state’s accident insurance […]
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 […]
Ann Eveleth INKATHA Freedom Party (IFP) leader Mangosuthu Buthelezi strongly hinted this week that his party would quit the Government of National Unity in the next few weeks, leaving the African National Congress to rule South Africa alone in the run-up to the 1999 elections. Buthelezi told the Mail & Guardian he would support a […]
Alex Brummer in London The proposed alliance between British Airways and American Airlines, the two dominant carriers on the North Atlantic route, is becoming one of the most scrutinised deals ever hammered out. The British Government’s Office of Fair Trading considers it a merger in all but name. By putting marketing, code sharing, frequent flyer […]
Philippa Garson MASSIVE security force deployment, recent peace initiatives and a desire to get local elections over with have contributed to a significant decline in violence in KwaZulu-Natal in recent weeks. Although more than 50 people have died in the province so far this month, and intimidation and tension are still widespread, peace monitors report […]
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 […]