Staff Reporter

THEATRE: Matthew Krouse IF, in some afterworld, the great muralist Diego Riviera were to see Helene Lombard playing his wife in Frida Kahlo’s Eyes, he’d probably fall in love all over again. Her dark, angular features are so similar to Kahlo’s, it makes you wonder whether playwright Harry Kalmer created the role especially for the […]

Too little, too late was the response to the announcement that the Transitional National Development Trust is finally to begin work, Rehana Rossouw reports MILLIONS of rand earmarked for education programmes have been held up by the failure of the Transitional National Development Trust (TNDT) to set up shop. The TNDT was established in October […]

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 […]

Karen Harverson South Africa’s first national lottery — expected to generate billions-of-rands in turnover a year — should begin operating by Minister for General Services Chris Fismer will appoint consultants before the end of February to advise on the format of the lottery as well as to make changes to the National Lottery Act to […]

Racial divisions rocked the latest financial hearing on taxation for the future, reports Lynda Loxton The wide economic divide that still separates blacks and whites in this country was highlighted during this week’s parliamentary joint committee on finance hearings into the Katz Commission’s proposals on taxation. On the one hand, there were the multi-billion rand […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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, […]

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 […]

South African psychiatry — so important to national healing — is in dire straits, argues Dr Zanele Sidzumo Baqwa ‘PLEASE, Mr Gunman, may I have my new shoes back,” said my 11-year-old daughter, Nosizwe Lise, to the hijacker speeding off in the hired minibus he had taken from us at gunpoint. This happened outside the […]

President Nelson Mandela’s high-profile Children’s Fund has netted more than R12- million since its inception last year, with a further R24-million pledged to it, while humbler NGOs are battling for money. Marion Edmunds reports Non-government organisations are frightened that President Nelson Mandela’s midas touch is proving so successful that it is threatening their own ability […]

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, […]

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 […]