By negotiating forward cover, Eskom’s foreign loans cost it nothing, but they do cost the taxpayer, reports Simon Segal Eskom’s second samurai bond, a R550-million five-year issue, is expected to reflect an improved credit rating for Eskom and, by implication, South African borrowers in general. The loan is expected to be priced at 50 to […]
Bafana Khumalo Whitey didn’t know what hit him. One minute he was walking down the crowded early evening street and the next, bang! The film of alcohol in his eyes, which made the piss-smelling streets seem as safe as Disneyland, rudely cleared. A film which made the redlined people around him seem as friendly as […]
Dr Nkosazana Zuma, Minister of Health, in The Mark Gevisser Profile There’s a lesson Nkosazana Zuma learnt from the African National Congress training manuals when she was an operative that she continues to apply, now that she is in Cabinet: “If you sell your people out by giving in to the enemy, the enemy will […]
CINEMA: Andrew Worsdale JON AMIEL, the British director of Sommersby and Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter, turns away from romanticism to manipulative horror in Copycat, a very nasty thriller that seems to gloat over the violence the story deals with. Sigourney Weaver plays criminal psychologist Helen Hudson, an expert on serial killers, who gets involved […]
Runners hoping to win Saturday’s world cross coutry championships will have to contend with the formidable Kenyans, running as a team CROSS COUNTRY: Julian Drew IF YOU are not Kenyan and you want to win the world cross country championships, you not only need to be the best middle distance runner in the world, you […]
industry If drastic action is not taken soon, the textile industry may face irreversible damage, writes Karen Harverson South Africa’s R8,8-billion textile industry is trying hard to get its house in order before trade barriers come tumbling down and it is faced with international competition. Already, a government programme, implemented last September, is phasing down […]
Kenneth Clarke came to town to promote privatisation in South Africa, reports Madeleine Wackernagel Privatisation, which warranted barely a mention in last week’s Budget, was brought back into the spotlight by Kenneth Clarke, Britain’s Chancellor of the Exchequer, this week. Selling off state assets would solve the problem of under-investment and output expansion in the […]
Does the SABC have the right to decide what is or isn’t savoury advertising? Jacquie Golding- Duffy reports on “code orange” Before the launch of the new South African Broadcasting Corporation in February, the corporation was banning what they thought to be unsavoury advertisements. A month after the launch, the SABC continues to censor. Prior […]
The Mail & Guardian has received exclusive documents detailing IBA salary packages. Jacquie Golding-Duffy reports Chairman of the Portfolio Committee on Communications, Saci Macozoma, emphatically denied this week that a gravy train existed at the Independent Broadcasting Authority. He said his committee would not be drawn into the salary issue and would not get involved […]
Amichand Rajbansi, the much-pilloried leader of the Minority Front, is back in the political limelight and being hailed as a saviour, writes Ann Eveleth ‘Bengal Tiger” Amichand Rajbansi played the key role in securing KwaZulu-Natal’s Constitution last week. Walking out of the parliamentary chamber in Pietermaritzburg last Friday morning, bleary-eyed after the 24-hour negotiations which […]
Justin Pearce Among the ornaments crowding every shelf in Johanna Claasens’s living room in Welkom is a mug with the inscription “Harmony Gold Mine – — 5 000 accident-free shifts”. It was given to her by a friend after Harmony’s worst accident ever — the Merriespruit mudslide in February 1994, which killed 17 people, including […]
David Beresford In the final adjournment on Tuesday in the case of Mandela vs Mandela — waiting for the Judge President of the Transvaal, Judge Frikkie Eloff, to deliver the by-now inevitable decree of divorce — the state president sat slumped in his chair, gazing into the middle distance. Gone was his bonhomie with the […]
If one goes back to the Dennis Davis article in this newspaper — which led to the furious counter-attack from Human Rights Commission head Barney Pityana, and this week’s impassioned television debate — it is striking how mild his criticism was. Davis lamented the commission’s “lack of profile” and the appointment of its members. He […]
Julian Drew PAULO GUERRA of Portugal was the second European home in last year’s world 10 000m final in Gothenburg, finishing eighth, one place behind Germany’s Stephane Franke. Ahead of them were the might of Ethiopia, Kenya and Morocco, the untouchables of world middle distance running. But for Guerra the world championships and track racing […]
Despite a law forbidding in-depth coverage of divorce cases, the media scrutinised the Mandela case, writes Philippa Garson THE flagrant contravention by the media this week of a section of the Divorce Act has raised questions about whether that aspect of the legislation is unconstitutional. The media had a “field-week” reporting on the ins and […]
Xhosa chiefs are not convinced that a skull found in Scotland is that of King Hintsa; they have confiscated it for DNA tests, writes Eddie Koch The president, the Prince of Wales, the Xhosa paramount chief, the British prime minister, the Eastern Cape premier and a prominent paleo-anthropologist have all been dragged into South Africa’s […]
The Open Democracy Bill has already been before a Cabinet committee and is expected to go before the full Cabinet in the next three weeks. It is a long and complex Bill intended to give teeth to the government’s undertaking to give meaning to the idea of open democracy. If enacted, the Bill would give […]
murders case Ann Eveleth The special investigations team probing a spate of murders on KwaZulu-Natal’s South Coast has in the past few weeks arrested a total of 18 people relating to 10 cases involving about 30 counts of murder — showing up local detectives who had failed to make progress in these cases. Senior police […]
Budget Karen Harverson There are positive features about the Budget, the most important of which is government’s plan to reduce the deficit to 5,1% of Gross Domestic Product, said Leslie Boyd, chairman of Business South Africa and Anglo American Industrial Corporation. He added that it was, however, difficult to describe the new Budget as bold […]
POLITICS: An expert warns against moves to weaken local democracy The triumphant election of 30 000 councillors is already being undermined, argues Mark Swilling By the end of the local government elections in KwaZulu-Natal and the Western Cape later this year, South Africans will have elected more than 30 000 councillors to over 800 separate […]
Breastfeeding has become an issue of marketing, rather than motherhood, reports Jacquie Golding-Duffy The health department is still debating whether to legislate against the advertising of infant formula milk, in its bid to encourage pregnant women to breastfeed. While mothers remain stripped of information relating to infant formula milk, government could further smack down on […]
A row over Namibia’s reconciliation process has led to calls for a South African-style truth commission, reports Denford Magora THE reconciliation process in Namibia — carefully nurtured by President Sam Nujoma since independence — is teetering after a row over Swapo’s treatment of detainees during the liberation struggle and allegations of crimes committed by policemen […]
South Africa got it wrong in the quarter-final against the West Indies, but on the public relations front they got it right every time CRICKET: Mark Lamport-Stokes SOUTH AFRICA may have suffered the extreme disappointment of exiting stage left from cricket’s World Cup after their quarter-final defeat against a resurgent West Indies in Karachi on […]
CINEMA: Andrew Worsdale HOW to Make an American Quilt is based on a graduate thesis project at the University of California, by Whitney Otto, which eventually made it to the New York Times bestseller list. An affecting, bittersweet drama, it is one of the best in the set of “women’s movies” — Moonlight and Valentino, […]
The new Constitution could give local government a better place in the hierarchy, writes Marion Edmunds The new Constitution is likely to raise local government from its Cinderella status to a position in the new South Africa where it can compete with its two ugly sisters, national and provincial government, for revenue and political status. […]
Advertising agencies remain hesitant of pumping money into Video Cab’s new medium, reports Jacquie Golding-Duffy Some in the advertising industry regard the Video Cab concept — a television monitor in minibuses — as a viable means of advertising. But they are hesitant to put their money where their mouth is. Monitors fitted in taxis was […]
Simon Segal One of the key components of Finance Minister Chris Liebenberg’s Budget is to address fears around the budget deficit and government debt. These blight an otherwise impressive economic record that boasts the most buoyant growth, lowest inflation, largest net capital inflows and most sizeable fixed investment in two decades. Liebenberg’s numbers for the […]
Christie RUGBY: Jon Swift THE decision by the South African Rugby Football Union (Sarfu) to get national coach Kitch Christie to step down as the steersman of Transvaal’s storm-tossed fortunes should come as no real surprise. Neither should the volte-face be examined in any other light than that Sarfu inspired the double-barrelled responsibility in the […]
Justin Pearce Etienne le Roux used to install carpets in Heidelberg. Nicolaas Barnard, Abraham Myburgh and Jan de Wet farmed in the North West province. These four men, who escaped from Diepkloof Prison last weekend, are among those who could have the most to lose when the Witwatersrand Supreme Court delivers judgment on March 29. […]
POLITICS: Two very different responses to the recent attack on liberals Margaret Legum IN her autobiography, Mamphela Ramphele quotes Steve Biko’s opinion that white liberals “lacked a coherent critique of racism and its socio-economic manifestations”. Since then white liberals have been accused of unconscious racism, patronising behaviour and refusing to countenance criticism of themselves, while […]
An open letter from ANC parliamentarian Phumsile Mlambo-Ngcuka to Human Rights Commission chair Barney Pityana, supporting his attack on ‘racists’ Your response to the remarks made by Professor Dennis Davis (Mail & Guardian February 23 to 29) will hopefully encourage more of us in the government to defend the decisions we take from the assaults […]
TELEVISION: Hazel Friedman ‘HOW can one forget or forgive when the distrust lies so deep?” This is one of the many questions posed by Beauty (Mama) Mkhize, one of the central protagonists in award- winning producer Barbara Volscher’s Chronicles of Change, a documentary series to be screened weekly on SABC3 from March 18. Divided into […]