A new reef may alter the economics of platinum mining in South Africa, reports Bronwen Jones FOUR Chinese geochemists, visiting their South African partners in a platinum exploration joint venture, have found evidence of a significant new platinum reef close to the surface. In an exclusive interview, project manager Yao Wensheng said: “The co-operation between […]
SADC members meet on Friday to approve a regional security initiative, but their action has been criticised by human rights organisations. Iden Wetherell reports A SUMMIT of Southern African Development Community (SADC) heads of state meeting on Friday in Gaborone to launch a regional security partnership has provoked protests over the omission of earlier proposals […]
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 […]
DONIZETTI: La Fille du Regiment (Nightingale Classics) ONE of the leading coloratura sopranos of our time (perhaps even of all time), Edita Gruberova is busy recording all the lesser-known Donizetti heroines for this small Swiss company. The added attraction of this recording for South African listeners is that it features Deon van der Walt in […]
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 […]
Justin Pearce While emigration may mean booming business for some, there is no clear evidence of a flood of people leaving the country in the past few months. A phone around the diplomatic missions of the destinations popular with South African emigrants – — Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom — showed that […]
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 […]
Mungo Soggot A LEADING United States lawyer has thrown his weight behind an attack on South Africa’s final Constitution for allowing big companies to steamroll the rights of individuals. Ralph Nader warns the Constitution could entrench a new form of power abuse in the country — “autocratic rule by big corporations”. In an article for […]
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 […]
Nelson Mandela, Dullah Omar and other Cabinet ministers are taken to task for breaking the law during last week’s Cosatu strike THE most astonishing feature of last week’s Congress of South African Trade Unions’ strike was not that it was unlawful, but that, even though it was unlawful, it was supported by the African National […]
NO matter which way you cut the cake, professional golf in this country has some serious problems to address. And there is the inescapable feeling that it has been coming for a while. It came to a head this week when the South African Professional Golfers Association threatened to withdraw its backing of the Pro […]
Michael White and Seumas Milne in London ARTHUR SCARGILL, leader of the newly formed Socialist Labour Party (SLP) in the United Kingdom, has opened a new phase in the guerrilla war which small parties are threatening to wage against the Labour- Conservative hegemony at the coming general election. When the SLP was finally given its […]
‘Hawk’ Makepula is the joker in the Olympic team, but in the ring he’s deadly serious BOXING: Julian Drew IN the first round of the All Africa Games boxing tournament in Harare last year the opponent of South Africa’s light-flyweight contestant failed to come to his corner. As Masibulele “Hawk” Makepula did a mock victory […]
An historic agreement between the government and teachers’ unions will affect the jobs of thousands of teachers, reports Rehana Rossouw A GROUP of negotiators has finalised the route to achieving equality in education and breaking down apartheid’s legacy of unequal funding for different races. Unequal spending will be erased by the year 2000, following an […]
MUSIC The inaugural Splashy Fen fiddling competition strives to boost appreciation for the fiddle, writes ALEX SUDHEIM IT is a beautiful late autumn evening in the foothills of the Drakensberg mountains — the moon at its fullest bathes the valley in alabaster and scented woodsmoke rises from a multitude of campfires. Groups huddle about pots […]
Election workers fear that the postponement of the KwaZulu-Natal elections is a recipe for chaos, writes Ann Eveleth KWAZULU-NATAL’S elections are still in jeopardy despite a unanimous central government decision this week postponing the polls by one month. Inkatha Freedom Party local government MEC Peter Miller’s warning the delay would create enormous logistical problems was […]
‘A BIRTH certificate” for the new South Africa was the way Cyril Ramaphosa characterised the final Constitution when it was approved this week. And, as is the custom at times of birth, the parents put aside any misgivings about the future to celebrate the occasion. Amid all the ceremony, jubilation and celebrations there were grounds […]
Marion Edmunds THE most coveted documentation at Parliament this week was not the latest draft of the Constitution, but an invitation to the party to end all parties, the big bash to end it all held on Wednesday night at Fernwood, the Parliamentary Estate in Bishops Court. In the last late nights of the constitution- […]
THE creation of a huge South African oil company is firmly back on the agenda of those in government quietly plotting a new-look oil industry. The scheme originally involved a link-up between Engen, Sasol Oil, and the state’s bag of oil assets, but government sources said this week that Total SA could also be part […]
Uganda’s president is waging an election campaign based not on economic prosperity and greater freedom, but on the country’s bloody past, writes Chris McGreal in Kampala YOWERI MUSEVENI, unlike most African presidents, has a record to run on. Campaigning for this week’s presidential election, Uganda’s leader could point to economic prosperity, greater social freedoms and, […]
THEATRE: Reviewed by: David Le Page OFTEN the oldest of dramas attract the most radical interpretations, the recent production of Medea at the Market being but one example. Phaedra at the Civic Theatre has not attracted a radical interpretation, but it is a production where radical design, at least for South African theatre, does much […]
Eddie Koch THE lesson from this week’s truth commission hearings in Durban is that the effects of the organisation’s work can never be easily predicted. Instead of hearing evidence from mainly ANC- aligned victims — as was widely expected because of an Inkatha boycott — the commission ended up strengthening its non- partisan image and […]
Manchester United have won the Premier League and now they’re going for the FA Cup, but Liverpool are a tough proposition even for United’s unique blend of youthful skill and wily experience SOCCER: David Lacey HISTORY beckons Manchester United. Now only Liverpool stand between Alex Ferguson’s team and a unique second double, the first of […]
Constitutional law expert Dennis Davis takes a look at the pros and cons — and concludes that the new Constitution does us proud AT first blush, the Constitution of 1996 looks decidedly similar in structure and content to the interim Constitution which was cobbled together under the pressure of the Kempton Park negotiations. The significance […]
Cindy Shiner in Accra NINE West African heads of state met in the Ghanaian capital Accra this week for an emergency summit to try to end the renewed civil war in Liberia. Hopes of success are slim. Officials are trying to rehabilitate an eight- month-old agreement that was supposed to lead to the disarmament of […]
CINEMA Reviewed by: Derek Malcolm FEW opening films at the London Film Festival have caused such consternation as Kathryn Bigelow’s Strange Days. Yet, on the evidence of this futuristic epic (as well as Blue Steel and the highly successful Point Break), Bigelow is clearly one of the most proficient practitioners of pyrotechnical in-your-face film-making working […]
Greg Barrow in Nairobi THE Kenyan government has published a 40-page dossier defending its human rights record. The report comes as Kenyan human rights groups grow increasingly vocal about a rise in mob violence and a breakdown of law and order. In the report, The Way It Is, the government says its overall record is […]
Mark Behr ‘I BOUGHT this huge tree to plant by the front wall,” a colleague says with a laugh: “I couldn’t get the hole deep enough so I walked across the road to where that white beggar always hangs around at the supermarket. I offered him R20 to dig the hole. He agreed and I […]
AMID all the talk of unbundling and black empowerment, one obvious means of broadening the economic powerbase — employee share ownership programmes (Esops) — is being largely ignored. Not to be confused with share incentive schemes, which are aimed at management, Esops are open to all employees, with the employer providing the funding mechanism. Says […]
CINEMA This year’s FNB Vita Art Now Awards were strengthened by being selective rather than widely inclusive, writes HAZEL FRIEDMAN. BABBIAGE” is the French word for a babble of noise, in which one voice is indistinguishable from another and sense is subsumed in a barrage of sound. If you looked for a visual equivalent, you […]
The Reverend Fernando Kuthino promised everything from a place in heaven to a cure for Aids, but he was no match for President Mobutu Sese Seko. Chris McGreal reports FOR Israel Ciswaka, his pastor’s arrest, torture and dispatch to a Zairean military prison for 12 months’ hard labour was confirmation that there is a God […]
Justin Pearce GROWING anti-landmine sentiments in South Africa and abroad have prompted the Department of Foreign Affairs to announce a permanent ban on the export of the mines by South Africa, confirming a moratorium which has been in place for the past two years. A suspension has also been placed on the use of mines […]