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 […]
Luan Nel abandons his miniature landscapes and transforms concrete walls into canvases for a show this weekend. He spoke to Hazel Friedman.
Secret documents handed in at the Malan trial last week link two current cabinet ministers to violent raids into Lesotho in the 1980s. Minutes of the State Security Council (SSC) show Minister of Mineral and Energy Affairs Pik Botha was authorised – along with three other ministers in the National Party government – to use […]
Amy Lawrence talks to the proud men of Croatia, a nation that has emerged from the ravages of war to create a team capable of challenging Europe’s finest SINGING the cherished national anthem with hand on heart, wearing the red and white check shirt of Croatia, is a feeling beyond description for the 11 men […]
The good form of Natal and Northern Transvaal and the demise of Transvaal point to changes in the national team RUGBY: Jon Swift THERE was, for new national coach Andre Markgraaff, something of the old good news, bad news cliche in the way Natal took Transvaal apart in the Workers Day Super 12 mauling at […]
Luan Nel abandons his miniature landscapes and transforms concrete walls into canvases for a show this weekend. He spoke to HAZEL FRIEDMAN VISITING the site of Luan Nel’s Centre is like watching an old silent movie (in technicolour) at the Top Star drive-in. Giant, flickering images – many of them bucolic in mood – are […]
Former Pact CEO Louis Bezuidenhout was given a secret “severance package” before being immediately re-employed on contract by Pact. And the amount – estimated at around R500 000 – was never reflected in Pact’s financial records. These are the findings of an investigation into the existence of a secret trust fund set up for senior […]
The SABC is considering commissioning a business programme from Times Media Limited. Is this a poor reflection of the broadcaster’s own economics desk? Jacquie Golding-Duffy reports The SABC, with no immediate plans to develop its own business show, is considering commissioning a new business programme from Times Media Limited (TML), whose Business Day Tonight contract […]
I READ your article “TML’s nervous editors” (April 19 to 25) with keen interest. The editors and their managers have every reason to be nervous. In fact, they should be shaking in their boots. If a black consortium does take over Times Media Limited, it should bring an end to racism at this self-proclaimed citadel […]
Norman Kempster AT least three Liberian gunmen were killed by Marine guards this week when they tried to invade the US Embassy compound. Monrovia was swept by factional fighting and lawlessness after the breakdown of a 10-day- old cease-fire. The Pentagon said unidentified Liberian assailants fired on the embassy on three occasions, drawing return fire […]
Hugo Young in Washington THE United States bestrides the world, but the colossus is bewildered. She doesn’t know where to fix her gaze. Her responsibility has never been more solitary, but her attitude never more uncertain. In the Middle East, and Asia, and Europe, other outside powers count for little. But nor, often, does the […]
Mungo Soggot THE truth commission could be paralysed by being forced to operate like a normal court after the Cape Supreme Court’s decision this week to allow retired policemen access to truth commission documents, lawyers said this week. They said the decision could set a precedent which opened the gap for other judgments to order […]
Gaye Davis reports on the dramatic scenes behind this week’s constitutional impasse SCENES of high political drama played out in Parliament’s old Assembly chamber early on Thursday morning when African National Congress negotiators declared deadlocks with the National Party on single-medium instruction, property rights and the employers’ right to lockout. The crisis, culminating at the […]
Cuba is reaffirming its Marxist ideology in an attempt to regain slipping state control of the economy. Douglas Farah reports from Havana Facing a freeze in Cuban-United States relations and slipping state control of the economy, Cuba’s ruling Communist Party has slowed moves toward free-market economics, raised pressure on dissidents and re- emphasised its orthodox […]
While House Republicans thwart Democratic efforts to pass an increase in the minimum wage, their natural allies – business groups – are divided on the issue and seem much more willing to compromise. The National Federation of Independent Businesses, the largest small-business organisation in the United States, mounted aggressive opposition to a wage hike proposal […]
As demand for South African exports increases, mining houses can expect profits, but the consumer will be hard hit, writes Bronwen Jones COAL will be in short supply this winter as overseas demand soars and the rand makes foreign sales more attractive. Add to this the lulls in production enforced by heavy rains earlier this […]
Was the ANC’s support for this week’s Cosatu strike a trade-off? Jacquie Golding-Duffy reports While labour analysts say the strike this week by the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) was “relatively successful”, some are questioning why the federation opted to avoid any direct conflict with the African National Congress. The 1,6-million-strong federation embarked […]
Arts education has never been a priority at school level. Now that’s about to change, reports BARBARA LUDMAN COMPULSORY arts education for all school pupils up to Standard Seven is likely to be implemented by the beginning of 1998. The national Department of Education is planning to publish guidelines early next year for arts curricula […]
Gaye Davis All three issues outstanding appear in the draft Bill of Rights of the new Constitution. They are: l Education: The ANC and NP clauses agree on the right to education in the official language of one’s choice in public educational institutions, where reasonably practicable, and that national legislation and policy will play a […]
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Michael Fletcher AFRICAN-AMERICANS are more likely than the general American population to be victims of crime – a reality that fuels their support of tough criminal penalties, although they have little confidence in the criminal justice system, according to a new poll. That ambivalence reflects the dilemma facing many blacks: they feel more threatened by […]
Philippa Garson talks to an adviser who is determined to help turn South African universities into world-class institutions The drive by South African universities to become world-class institutions is endangered by the number of top administrators leaving their stressed jobs for greener pastures, according to a top American educator who has been advising these campuses. […]
Moyiga Nduru A banana war between two of Somalia’s main warlords is under way over the control of the lucrative banana export trade. The forces of General Mohamed Farah Aideed, the self-proclaimed president of Somalia, are pitted against the militiamen of his former financier, Ali Hassan Osman “Atto”. Aideed needs the revenues, estimated at around […]
A FRISSON of fear is running through the ranks of junior advocates, following the recent decision of the Bar Council to allow attorneys to appear in court with senior advocates. Attorneys were given the right to appear in court on their own last year, but the latest move is seen as more of a threat […]