Staff Reporter

Rehana Rossouw In a field on the edge of Parkwood Estate in Cape Town is a ramshackle wooden building with a tiny garden lending a splash of colour to the dreary township. The garden is filled with petunias, marigolds, tomatoes, cabbages … and dagga. This is the home of Bernard Brown of the Burning Spear […]

Preserved heads found in a British museum are set to stir up a diplomatic controversy, reports Eddie Koch Hard on the heels of well-publicised plans by Chief Nicholas Gcaleka to set off for Scotland in search of Xhosa warrior king Sandile’s skull comes news of another grisly discovery: five dried-out `bushmen’ heads stored in cardboard […]

Thabo Mbeki has accused the print media of a go-slow on affirmative action. Jacquie Golding-Duffy surveys the industry to see if this is true On a head count, local newspapers have not done particularly well in furthering the cause of affirmative action. With more than 80% of the local media controlled by four players, namely: […]

Louis Farrakhan visited South Africa to spread his message of segregation, to search for a homeland for the United States’ convicts and to try and borrow a bit of Nelson Mandela’s aura. One could not help but notice that he connected best in radio talk-back shows with South Africa’s far-rightwing ethnic separatists. It is coincidental […]

Philippa Garson To pay or not to pay? That is the politically loaded question. Whether school fees should be compulsory is being hotly debated in government circles and is holding up the implementation of new education policy for schools. If the government goes for minimum free education for all it risks losing wealthier parents — […]

Leon Perlman South Africa is about to enter the exclusive space satellite club with the launch of an affordable 50kg bar-fridge-sized micro-satellite dubbed SunSat. The locally-designed and built satellite will provide data transfer and remote sensing facilities for the Southern African region. The United States Space Agency, Nasa, is sponsoring the SunSat launch, expected at […]

An installation at the Johannesburg Art Gallery reveals surprising new dimensions to traditional African art and craft, reports RUTH SACK THE status of traditional African crafts and artefacts in Western museums has long been a question of unending debate. Over the years it has been possible to observe, in our museums and galleries, how versions […]

Bop Broadcasting is forging ahead with new programmes despite the prospect of losing its government funding, reports Jacquie Golding-Duffy Bophuthatswana Broadcasting Corporation (BopBC) is digging in its heels against integration with the SABC, despite having only two months before government funding is cut-off. Representative of the North-West premier Willie Modise said BopBC were intending to […]

After the stunning display against Ghana South Africa have to lift themselves once again to take on the wily, talented Tunisians SOCCER: Paul Mandelson JOHN MOSHOEU, Mark Fish, Lucas Radebe and Clive Barker must have had countless dreams — asleep and wide awake — about crucial tackles, glorious goals and winning the African Cup of […]

This week Africa’s largest banker, Absa, decided to reassure its perplexed staff about the `Bob Aldworth’ affair.

Jacquie Golding-Duffy THE `new-look’ SABC will hit our screens on February 5 when SABC 1, 2 and 3 take over the reins from CCV, TV1 and NNTV respectively. The grand reshuffling of programmes is an attempt to reach particular language groups at the provincial level. The provincial broadcasts will, at first, be half an hour […]

Philippa Garson MANY Soweto primary schools are half empty this year as tens of thousands of parents have chosen to send their children to schools in wealthier suburbs. In yet another irony thrown up by our skewed education system, many previously crowded Soweto schools have been abandoned by the township constituency. Instead, parents are sending […]

With the revival of foreign tourism to South Africa, an enterprising businessman has initiated bureaux de change shops, reports Lynda Loxton Free-standing foreign exchange `shops’ have been a common sight for South African travellers abroad, but something foreign exchange-strapped South African authorities have definitely not encouraged. All of that changed this week when it was […]

The apartheid state’s most efficient killer wants his murder trial put on hold so he can tell all to the truth commission, writes Eddie Eugene de Kock is ready to talk. The former Vlakplaas commander — dubbed “Prime Evil” by former colleagues because he is reputed to be South Africa’s most effective assassin — will […]

After 13 years, Art Against Apartheid is in South Africa — and destined to hang in Parliament. But, asks HAZEL FRIEDMAN, is this where it belongs? FOR years it has borne the distinction of being the art world’s open secret: an international art exhibition assembled as a tribute to South Africa’s first democratically elected government. […]

SOCCER: Lungile Madywabe HIS shots at goal probably travel at about 200km an hour, and his team-mates tease him that one of these days he will break the posts if not the goalkeeper’s hands. So one would think that Eric Tinkler has scored many goals, but he is still looking forward to scoring his first […]

KwaZulu-Natal’s embattled monarch finds himself between a rock and a hard place as negotiations for an imbizo gather momentum, writes Ann Eveleth There are few indications that the multi-party imbizo (mass gathering of the Zulu nation) planned for KwaZulu-Natal will achieve its nominal purpose of promoting peace and reconciliation in the blood-soaked province. Strategically planned […]

interest rates fall Simon Segal This week saw the launch of a 100-million 10- year Eurosterling bond issue at 9,38%, 190 points above the equivalent British benchmark It is the government of national unity’s third foreign loan. In June government raised Y30- billion in a Japanese samurai bond at 5%. In December 1994, $750-million was […]

development linked to Davis Cup TENNIS: Jon Swift IMPORTANT though next month’s Davis Cup tie against Austria on grass at the Wanderers undoubtedly is to the immediate future of tennis in this country, it is interesting to note that the glitz and glamour are not the only points of focus for the game’s new “Tennis […]

In any other country hurdler Tony Jarrett would be a star, but in England he has always played second fiddle to champion Colin Jackson ATHLETICS: Julian Drew WHEN Britain’s Tony Jarrett settled into the blocks for the final of the 110m hurdles at last year’s world championships in Gothenburg many people fancied his chances. Having […]

CINEMA: Andrew Worsdale IN 1982 Michelle Pfeiffer was the Pink Lady of Rydell High in Grease II and captured sap Maxwell Caulfield’s heart. Fourteen years later she returns to school in Dangerous Minds as LouAnne Johnson, a Waspy, liberal teacher and ex-Marine, who descends on an inner-city school and inspires the kind of delinquent youths […]

Soccer fever has gripped much of South Africa but in Port Elizabeth the sport doesn’t rate that highly SOCCER: Andy Capostagno and Mark Lamport- PORT ELIZABETH has never seen anything like it and has been largely underwhelmed by the dubious honour of hosting Group D of the African Nations Cup. Football has been front and […]

When it comes to advertisements in magazines, women are being discriminated against by the ad industry. Surely, the time has come for equality in advertising, writes Ricardo Dunn Women’s magazine publishers believe they can’t secure advertising for products that have traditionally been thought of as “male” because of the prejudice among advertising agencies and clients. […]

The Masakhane campaign is floundering as politicians dither over ultimate control, reports Gaye Davis THE three ministers in charge of the Masakhane Campaign are unable to agree who should take ultimate control of it and are fighting what one official described as an “unseemly turf battle” — putting the R30-million strategy to improve living conditions […]

Deficits are still the norm in many OECD member countries, and South Africa is no exception, reports Simon Segal GOVERNMENT’S budget deficit, now likely to be above 6% of gross domestic product (GDP) for this fiscal year (5,8% or R29-billion was budgeted for last March), blights an otherwise impressive economic record that boasts the most […]

Eddie Koch Evidence at the Eugene de Kock trial this week provided insight into the tremendous psychological pressures members of the police death squads at Vlakplaas operated under — and the therapeutic effects offered by their opportunity to tell the truth. “They beat me up to the point of submission, to the point of death […]

Stefaans BrUmmer WERNER VAN GREUNEN — who this week implicated Deputy President Thabo Mbeki when he claimed to have spied on “National Party” and “Broederbond” municipal officials in Gauteng — was a National Intelligence Agency (NIA) “source”. But it appears his brief went no further than to report on threats against last November’s local government […]

Thabo Mbeki’s media task team has ruffled the feathers of the major newspaper conglomerates, writes Jacquie Golding-Duffy Major newspaper conglomerates are worried that the 10-member media task team appointed late last year by Deputy President Thabo Mbeki will exercise its power to ensure large scale affirmative action at newspapers — up to the level of […]

David Beresford in Luanda Sitting on a hotel balcony, the ambassador recounted with gleaming eyes how a diamond prospector had invited him to grab a random handful of gravel from a river bed, and had then picked three precious gemstones from the palm of his hand. Below, in Luanda’s stinking, garbage-strewn streets, a street-urchin kicked […]

High-heeled boys are Hollywood’s new rage. But, asks ERIKA MILVY, does today’s fetish for drag really mean the coming of a new LARGER than life and sashaying soon to A Theatre Near You, the drag queen is having her day. More and more, Hollywood stars are sporting high heels and hairy chests. Outrageous, outlandish and […]

South Africa’s World Cup squad is a blend of experienced players mixed with stars of the CRICKET: Jon Swift THE SELECTION of the tour squad for the World Cup in Pakistan is an intriguing combination; a mixture of those with the experience of abject failure on the Indian sub-continent and those still carrying the aura […]

Four months on, the Makgoba row at Wits continues. Philippa Garson analyses the destructive row and finds both sides wanting WHO would have thought that a dispute between academics at Wits University could become a “rolling story” with all the dramatic elements of a national scandal? The saga has galvanised one opinion piece after another […]