Marion Edmunds ‘This is a walk-out menu,” said Senator Mohamed Bhabha, “I come into the dining room, I look at the menu, and I walk out.” But Bhabha stayed put in the parliamentary dining room this week when he hosted the Mail & Guardian’s food critic, Robert Mulders, manager of Cape Town’s popular Rozenhof restuarant, […]
game Tactics in the one-day game are constantly being updated and coach Bob Woolmer is making sure the South Africans stay ahead of the game CRICKET: Mark Lamport-Stokes SOUTH AFRICA’S national coach Bob Woolmer has earned a deserved reputation for being an innovative cricketing thinker and strategist. nnnSince the former Kent and England all-rounder took […]
Stefaans Brummer THE arrest of Dr Omar Sabadia on an allegation of complicity in the murder of his wife, Zahida, has highlighted the relationship between the Brixton Murder and Robbery Squad and two private investigators, former hitsquad member “Slang” van Zyl and convicted double- murderer Jack la Grange. Some police and judicial eyebrows lifted this […]
wall Madeleine Wackernagel Opinion is swinging away from an increase in value-added tax (VAT) in next week’s Budget, as the cost in terms of inflation and labour relations is deemed too high. Instead, Finance Minister Chris Liebenberg is expected to go ahead with the Katz commission proposals to tax the retirement funds, despite strong opposition […]
Sugarboy Malinga has always had the talent to make it to the top, but circumstances always contrived to prevent him meeting his destiny — until last weekend BOXING: Gavin Evans THERE are times in the self-contained little universe of prize fighting when the whole thing seems no better than a crass charade; and then there […]
The trial of General Magnus Malan and the 19 other accused has has exposed the methods of the previous government’s State Security Council during the turbulent 1980s. Mangosuthu Buthelezi was seen as a puppet by the State Security Council in its covert battle against the ANC. Eddie Koch and Ann Eveleth report TOP-SECRET government documents […]
Dennis Davis criticised the Human Rights Committee; the chairman responded by calling him a racist. Now Davis asks why a man in this position uses hate speech SPEECH characterises our humanity. It is fundamental to the development of a community. But speech can be employed to exclude targeted individuals or groups from participation, or even […]
THE fat file from the archives in Military Intelligence on the 22nd floor of the Liberty Life building in Central Pretoria was the key which opened the door for the team from the Investigative Task Unit. The file was handed over by the then head of counter intelligence General Niewoudt and Brigadier Van Deventer to […]
Stefaans Brummer SOUTH AFRICAN arms dealer Ters Ehlers — ex- President PW Botha’s last private secretary — has been implicated in “unauthorised” flights of a Russian cargo aircraft between South Africa, Namibia and Angola. Namibian Deputy Minister of Transport Klaus Dierks last Friday said his department had grounded the Russian- registered Antonov-12 in Grootfontein pending […]
Gaye Davis A HUGE computer database, capable of cross-checking names, dates and incidents, will be the truth commission’s most powerful tool. It will allow for fast checks on the truth of victims’ claims. It will also ratchet up the pressure on perpetrators to come forward — and come clean. Building the database is central to […]
One committed to emulating Europe; the other finding talent at home. COENRAAD VISSER reports on two opera companies fighting to survive TWO professional opera companies are playing in Gauteng — only one likely to survive in the long term, according to current thinking in the Ministry of Arts, Culture, Science and Technology. The teasing question […]
Karen Harverson Corporate fraud is on the increase and it’s costing companies millions of rands each year. In many cases, companies are reluctant to bring a criminal case against the perpetrator — frequently an employee. “Companies are scared to bring criminal charges for a number of reasons, be it their reputation, lack of knowledge of […]
The special horror of the terrorists’ bomb is only heightened when it shatters a period of apparent peace. The Israeli people are reeling from the same sense of double shock which hit Britain two weeks ago. Not only was the bomb on Jaffa Road devastating in its destruction of human life, but it came after […]
The offices of the attorneys general around the country are virtually bare, reports Vuyo Mvoko OFFICES of the attorneys general in Gauteng and the Cape are heading for a crisis as senior prosecutors make a dash for entry to the Bar before it closes next week — undermining a whole spate of “third force” trials […]
We chose a mid-month weekend, a Friday, Saturday and Sunday — and tried to get a sense of how many died, where, and how. South Africa is one of the most violent societies in the world — and the murder victims are often faceless, unidentified bodies, buried in unmarked graves. In one ordinary weekend in […]
It was a first: an advertisement flighted simultaneously on all four channels. And it cost millions. Hazel Friedman watched the advert which brought mysticism to the concrete industry Strange, inexplicable sightings have been known to take place on the SABC from time-to- time. But nothing could rival the image onslaught that hit viewers during prime-time […]
Have the ANC’s young lions turned into pussycats? Rehana Rossouw looks at the dilemmas facing the ANC Youth League THERE was a time when the African National Congress Youth League’s leaders roared and the security establishment’s grip automatically tightened on its rifle butts. This was the 1980s — when the ANCYL was one of the […]
Marion Edmunds It was a casual weekend — Hernus Kriel was wearing baggy tracksuit pants, Sheila Camerer a light pink slack suit, John Mavuso designer moccasins and FW de Klerk a checked shirt. But behind the informality and bonhomie in Hermanus, the Nats were in deadly earnest. “Tell me,” said De Klerk, leaning in earnest […]
CINEMA: Andrew Worsdale LIKE a film by Quentin Tarantino, Get Shorty begins in a diner. And, like a Tarantino movie, it has lots of characters who go off on wild monologues about the weather and, specifically, about Orson Welles’s Touch of Evil: main guy John Travolta is an obsessive movie fan. In Get Shorty, Tarantino […]
Two months prior to the Constitution’s finalisation date, minority parties are panicking over checks and balances on the future government, writes Marion Edmunds Disillusion is setting in among minority parties, as they believe the new Constitution will not provide sufficient checks and balances on the power of the future majority party government. At the same […]
Justin Pearce SOMEWHERE in the suburbs of Pretoria, religious prejudices have collided with a roadsign. Last year, the directorate of roads erected signs on the N1 Eastern Bypass indicating a recommended speed limit for night driving. The signs show a crescent moon and a star together with the recommended speed. Then suddenly, towards the end […]
Karen Harverson South Africa’s corporate standards are being polluted by corruption, and the toll on the country is far higher than the mere monetary value. For example, corruption in Nigeria was initially accepted as a way of “getting the job done” — and so the cost of corruption was less than its monetary value because […]
A TV documentary series puts township residents behind the camera, writes HAZEL FRIEDMAN THERE’S a poignant scene in Ghetto Diaries where an unemployed man articulates his dreams of moving from his cramped cement house into one built from bricks. “Maybe I’ll build a swimming pool and tennis court. Move away from the smells and dirt. […]
Justin Pearce ‘IN Cuba only a few old people have TB,” explained Dr Leandro Ruyz. “In 1959 we had a revolution — and everyone born after that was vaccinated at birth.” A day after arriving in South Africa from Cuba, Ruyz was sitting in the superintendent’s office at Klerksdorp Hospital, a facebrick pile where the […]
The Budget must set the stage for investment growth if Thabo Mbeki’s ambitious employment plan is to succeed, writes Madeleine Wackernagel Thabo Mbeki’s ambitious blueprint for economic growth and job creation brings into sharp focus the need for the “right” Budget on March 13. Without the building blocks to encourage foreign and local investment, the […]
Gaye Davis MINISTER Zola Skweyiya’s announcement of a radical shake-up for the Public Service Commission (PSC) — often cited by government ministers and officials as the biggest obstacle to the country’s transformation — faces a rearguard action. The Forum of Commissions — a non-statutory body comprising the national PSC and eight provincial PSCs — intends […]
While the government considers more equitable ways of aiding the film industry, Justin Pearce reports that a single producer scooped more than half the subsidy money in recent years Films, including Oh Schucks, it’s Schuster and There’s a Zulu on my Stoep, earned more than R20-million in government subsidies for film production giant, Toron, over […]
Next week sees the beginning of the end of one of the most sordid chaptersin South Africa’s history. Ann Eveleth previews the Malan trial History will also be in the dock when the multiple murder trial of former defence minister Magnus Malan and 19 other security force officers gets under way next week. As it […]
STEVE GORDON, organiser of several music tours to South Africa, explains why the Cape Town jazz festival collapsed — and how to put together a successful event ANNOUNCED by Captour in 1994 as “the biggest- ever jazz festival in Africa”, the Cape Town International Jazz Festival, which collapsed last week, had already tasted controversy a […]
The controversy over the now-celebrated musical, Sarafina II, can be seen at two levels. The first is the justification and circumstances of the expenditure of more than R14-million on the Aids-awareness production. The second relates to the handling of the row by our political masters, and what it says about the workings of our newly […]
The Super 12 competition will provide a feast of top quality rugby and television viewing, but the lesser unions not invited to the meal are likely to starve RUGBY: Jon Swift THE new Super 12 competition has kicked off amid all the magic that a media circus tends to give an event which it has […]
Madeleine Wackernagel The appointment of Graca Machel to the Thebe Investment Corporation’s (TIC) board should ensure it a first bite at Mozambique’s privatisation cherry. Litha Nyhonyha, executive director of TIC and chief executive officer of its financial arm, Msele Financial Holdings, said the new appointments underline TIC’s intention to be a major player in the […]