Staff Reporter

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 […]

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 […]

CINEMA: Andrew Worsdale LET’S get one thing straight. Amblin Entertainment, those nice guys who gave the world ET and have now brought us To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything, Julie Newmar, will never, ever, make a good movie about drag queens. They may have enough money to secure the most fabulous outfits in the world, […]

Justin Arenstein As anti-monarchist and labour protests in Swaziland continued this week, a prominent human rights campaigner claimed the country’s ruler, King Mswati III, appears to have been sidelined in a palace coup. Ironically, although the protests are directed against Swaziland’s Tinkhudla traditionalist system of government, the 27-year-old absolute monarch remains popular with the Swaziland […]

REASON has triumphed over fantasy in the Palestinian elections. Yasser Arafat’s landslide victory is an overwhelming endorsement of the peace process, and reflects a growing view among the Palestinians that their aspirations for an independent state are more likely to be gained by negotiation than by terrorism. The election result is also a vindication of […]

Labour wants a greater say in the decisions made on the mines, report Karen Harverson and Vuyo Mvoko No one is arguing with Anglo American Corporation’s call last week that cost and productivity changes are needed at Free State Consolidated Gold mines (Freegold) to avoid the threatened closure of five of its shafts and the […]

GOLF: Jon Swift IT is a distinct measure of the worth of the tournaments which now make up the FNB Tour that Ernie Els can fly into the country and fly out with the South African Open title and second spot on the Order of Merit after earning R118 500 for his victory at Royal […]

FINE ART: Hazel Friedman FOUR Young Artists, at the Newtown Galleries, is more than a showcase for new kids on the block. Consisting of works by artists with little prior exhibition experience, it successfully creates a series of correspondences and juxtapositions based — refreshingly — as much on serendipity as on artistic intention. And the […]

In the dangerous game of media-bashing, in which some elements of the ANC have recently been indulging, the charge has been levelled that the press has failed to discharge its responsibilities. This week the cry was taken up by President Nelson Mandela who reportedly criticised the South African media for failing to expose the role […]

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 […]

Stefaans BrUmmer A BRITISH human rights lawyer has released a report highly scathing of the tribunal which condemned Nigerian activist Ken Saro-Wiwa and others to death, branding it a political charade and “downright dishonest”. Michael Birnbaum QC, who last year attended the Saro-Wiwa trial as an observer for two British legal bodies, bases his criticism […]

Marion Edmunds ANC secretary general Cyril Ramaphosa is pulling out all the stops to win National Party support for the African National Congress’s stand on the KwaZulu-Natal provincial constitution. Ramaphosa met Constitutional Development Minister Roelf Meyer, for secret bilateral talks in Cape Town on Thursday, in a bid to unblock progress towards the provincial ANC […]

Most of the top players at the African Nations Cup already play for overseas clubs, but the Italian agents are here in force looking for new talent SOCCER: Mark Gleeson THEY peer like vultures from behind their designer sunglasses, puffing continuously on Marlboro Lights and scribbling on leather- bound pads.nnnStrangely, somehow, the posse of Italian […]

Lynda Loxton In September 1994, Munich-based BMW chairman Bernd Pischetsrieder caused a stir when he warned the luxury automaker’s South African subsidiary that it either had to shape up to international standards or BMW would pull out. This week, a long process of painful adjustments to become more competitive, meet international standards in quality, productivity […]

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. […]

Rehana Rossouw The prostitute’s corpse was found buried upside down in bushes near Milnerton in November 1995, her legs and buttocks protruding above the ground. The post mortem revealed she had probably been buried alive. This month another body was found in bushes near Durbanville, and police announced a serial killer was on the loose […]

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 […]

ROCK: Hazel Friedman A STRANGE sense of dej vu permeated last weekend’s Crosby Stills and Nash concert in Johannesburg. Attended by a small but frenzied crowd of followers, the show served as a nostalgic reminder of an era which, for many South Africans, was like the sexy older woman next door. We were the pimply, […]

Obituary:Harold Wolpe Colin Bundy “Everything I have written in these lectures underlines the importance to the intellectual of passionate engagement, risk, exposure, commitment to principles, vulnerability in debating and being involved in worldly causes.” (Edward Said, Representations of the Late last year, Harold Wolpe flew from Cape Town to deliver some lectures in Sheffield. In […]

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 […]

Vuyo Mvoko WHILE most former homeland radio stations are preparing to wind down their businesses, Bophuthatswana Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is tying its shoelaces. It is the employment this month of top journalists Sefako Nyaka and Frances Majola to top executive positions within the corporation which raised eyebrows. They are head of TV news and of […]

Philippa Garson CONSTRUCTIVE steps to solve Wits University’s crisis were taken at this week’s council meeting, and indications are that all parties to the dispute have agreed on a way forward. The council has mandated four of its high- profile members — Nthato Motlana, Enos Mabuza, Bobby Godsell and Ken Maxwell — to revive the […]

Edwina Spicer spoke to Margaret Dongo, the woman who took on Robert Mugabe and his Zanu PF party, and won ‘WILL someone remove this barking dog from our midst” President Robert Mugabe is reported to have said of Margaret Dongo, MP for Harare South, during the run-up to Zimbabwe’s general elections last year. Dongo lost […]

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. […]

Eddie Koch and Mehlo Mvelase Police either colluded in the Christmas Day massacre at Shobashobane or are guilty of negligence in the run-up to the attack that left 19 people dead in the KwaZulu-Natal village, according to a television documentary to be broadcast by SABC’s Agenda programme on Sunday night. The documentary includes strong criticisms […]

Jacquie Golding-Duffy THE Congress of South African Trade Unions cannot count on the support of its main affiliate, the 300 000-strong National Union of Mineworkers (NUM), in its planned anti- privatisation strike on Tuesday. Although, as a Cosatu affiliate, the NUM is bound to some degree by the federation’s decision to strike, ambivalence is being […]

Wits University faces the challenge of finding a non-racial solution to a racial problem with the Makgoba affair, writes Russell Ally Professor Etienne Mureinik correctly pointed out in his article (Mail & Guardian December 22 to January 4) that there are important, larger lessons to learn from the William Makgoba affair. It is unfortunate, however, […]

An uproar at the Peninsula Technikon following the administration’s failure last year to discipline a student for sexual harassment has once again highlighted this hidden problem, reports Rehana Rossouw SEVERAL months after a student at the Peninsula Technikon in Cape Town reported she had been lewdly fondled by SRC president Solly Lamini, there has been […]

Rehana Rossouw LIE detector tests for top ranking policemen aimed at rooting out corruption in the force have been temporarily suspended while police examine the practicalities of implementing the search for crooked cops nationwide. Last year, in a well-publicised exercise National Police Commissioner George Fivaz took a lie detector test — which he passed. Questions […]

Rehana Rossouw HILLBROW musician Solomon Sithole appeared briefly in the Johannesburg Magistrates’ Court last week following the fatal stabbing of his wife, women’s abuse campaigner Susan Sithole, last year. The alleged murder occured on November 25, International Day of No Violence Against Women. Susan Sithole had planned to leave her husband and had returned to […]

Rehana Rossouw MURDER-accused Allan Stokes was 369 miles from Cape Town on Wednesday aboard the monohull Sunday Star, participating in the Cape-to-Rio race after a court postponed his trial to April 5 to accommodate his racing plans. Stokes is accused of murdering trainee diplomat Nithianandan “Elvis” Govender at the Vaal Dam last November. Govender’s family […]