Staff Reporter

Malan trial: Before the KwaMakhutha massacre, there was the Mpophomeni massacre. Both were connected to the SADF’s military support of Hazel Friedman THE murder of three union shop stewards on a lonely road near Mpophomeni on the night of December 5 1986 will be remembered as the beginning of the most violent period in this […]

ROCK/POP: Chris Roper JOURNALISTS eager to gain space on the shelf allocated to “world music” have expended many words documenting the emergence of new “ethnic South African music”. But few seem to have noticed a metamorphosis taking place in a heretofore Eurocentric area of local music: the white male rock band. Yep, even these colonial […]

BADMINTON: Julian Drew HE might not have had quite the same impact on his chosen sport as Paul Adams did when wreaking havoc on the English batsmen in Kimberley, but Michael Adams (no relation) is certainly making plenty of waves of his own in the badminton world. Adams is also 18-years- old and hails from […]

Philippa Garson THE crisis at Wits University around suspended deputy vice-chancellor Malegapuru Makgoba has taken on national proportions as direct ministerial intervention becomes increasingly Yesterday Minister Sibusiso Bengu met with vice-chancellor Robert Charlton and other university stakeholders in an attempt to put the brakes on Wits’ rollercoaster ride into disaster. Political squabbles have now erupted […]

Western Cape Local Government MEC Peter Marais, whose boundary demarcation plan was rejected in court this week, is at the centre of a new election controversy, reports Rehana A NEW local government row is looming in the Western Cape over Local Government MEC Peter Marais’ refusal to prepare new legislation for rural local elections or […]

An amended tax act has removed certain lucrative tax benefits, reports Rowan A NUMBER of tax consulting firms have had to scrap a company car scheme which they marketed as part of their attractive executive employment packages, after amendments to the Income Tax Act. Gareth Beaver, a tax consultant at Ernst & Young explained the […]

OPERA: Coenraad Visser FIRST KwaZulu-Natal gave us a Zulu Macbeth. Now, with equally striking effect, it gives us Mozart’s The Magic Flute in an African setting. This production is the fledgling Opera Africa’s debut. It is entirely fitting that it should transfer from the Playhouse in Durban to the Roodepoort stage, where so many enterprising […]

Justin Pearce ALEXANDRA’S Far East Bank squatters will soon be back in court, when Johannesburg’s Eastern Metropolitan Substructure tries, where the provincial government failed, to have the squatters evicted. Last week, after a blaze of publicity condemning the squatters as “land invaders”, Premier Tokyo Sexwale’s government failed in a supreme court application to have the […]

‘Former consultant to the ANC newspaper project Moeletsi Mbeki argues that the ANC did not welcome Tony O’Reilly into South Africa to monopolise the English-language media AS one of the people who have been intimately involved in the African National Congress’ efforts to create diversity in our country’s mass media, I welcome Bruce Cohen’s contribution […]

FINE ART: Hazel Friedman AT the opening of the Wits Technikon Students’ Exhibition at the Market’s Rembrandt Gallery, several guests hovered around a table laden with brown paper bags — neatly arranged and filled with popcorn — not knowing whether to acknowledge the “installation” with their eyes or their mouths. Given the nature of most […]

Leon Perlman FOLLOWING the move to electronic on-line communication with the masses, pioneered by the Constitutional Assembly, the Ministry of Post and Telecommunications, African National Congress MPs and the Constitutional Court, the offices of the president and deputy presidents have also become neophyte technophiles. A paperless office system is being implemented along with use of […]

_ght English ice The icy resolve of Mike Atherton and the English to avoid defeat needs to be combatted with the fire of unbridled enthusiasm the South Africans seem to have lost CRICKET:Jon Swift IT IS not stretching the imagination too far to believe that the greatest attributes of the game of cricket are drawn […]

Will religious and traditional law take precedence over equality in the new Constitution? Etienne Mureinik looks at The Gender Question IS the Constitution good for women? Both the interim Constitution and the final one now being written are constitutions to undo apartheid and its legacy. The ideal of equality is therefore a central constitutional value, […]

The apartheid years have laden South Africa’s public service with civil servants who are unable to reform local government departments, writes Lynda Loxton NEARLY two years after South Africa’s April elections, many government departments are still struggling to rid themselves of the detritus of apartheid and emerge as sleek and efficient operations. The process, unfortunately, […]

Ann Eveleth A COALITION of KwaZulu-Natal mental health and human rights organisations has warned that the start of the Truth and Reconcilation Commission next year could escalate rather than ease tension in the volatile province, unless the commission is adequately equipped to deal with the social aspects of the process. In a submission to Justice […]

Last weekend’s National Choir Festival reflected waning interest in an important art form, writes VUYO MVOKO MOST South Africans, even those who claim to have the interests of the arts at heart, probably won’t bother to try and understand why the National Choir Festival at the Standard Bank Arena in Johannesburg almost flopped last weekend. […]

Ann Eveleth THE shooting deaths of two political leaders in KwaZulu-Natal this week sparked a war of words between the African National Congress and Inkatha Freedom Party, with each party accusing their opponent of the attacks and calling for stronger “self-defence” measures. The IFP said the murder on Monday of IFP Impendle constituency chair Mgudeleni […]

Rehana Rossouw DISTRICT surgeons in the Western Cape who still practise racism are to be rooted out of public service in terms of new proposals devised by provincial health authorities. MEC for health and welfare Ebrahim Rasool this week said district surgeons were one of the first “bugbears” he faced in office. He had been […]

It appears that South Africa has chosen relations with Taiwan over mainland China to repay an ANC debt, reports Gaye Davis PRESIDENT Nelson Mandela has cited a $10- million donation from the Republic of China on Taiwan for the African National Congress’ general election campaign as one reason South Africa would not break ties with […]

With help from big business, an Mpumalanga community has improved its educational lot, writes Rowan Callaghan THE dank cell-like rooms of the former mine hostel still have rusty bunks stacked against the wall and the old coal stove still occupies centre stage on the cold cement floor. Listen carefully and you may just hear the […]

Marion Edmunds FREE State Premier Patrick Lekota is concerned that the African National Congress-aligned Congress of Traditional Leaders (Contralesa) is spreading its tentacles into the Free State. He has raised the matter with Eastern Cape Premier Raymond Mhlaba. Lekota’s concern adds to growing anxiety among ANC leaders about the role of traditional leaders in the […]

Gideon Mendel bridges two worlds in his photo- essays on living with Aids. He spoke to HAZEL HOW can an illness be photographed when its symptoms — until the final agonising stages — are largely invisible? How can the struggle of those afflicted with this disease be adequately documented without resorting to sensationalism or stereotype? […]

Mehlo Mvelase MELCHIZEDEC ZAKHELE “MZ” KHUMALO — the alleged link man between Inkatha and the paramilitary unit at the centre of the Malan murder trial — has a long history of doing propaganda work for Pretoria. The Mail & Guardian has established that Khumalo — the Malan trial’s “accused number 7” and the alleged middleman […]

Marion Edmunds THE Bophuthatswana Broadcasting Corporation’s (BopBC) new highly paid chief executive, Cawe Mhlati, has been stung with accusations of reneging on agreements with the SABC after less than a week in the broadcaster’s hot SABC officials have criticised her for her conduct in meetings to discuss the future of public broadcasting in South Africa. […]

Research into teacher training has revealed that the system is not making the grade, writes Philippa Garson THE first national teacher education audit to be conducted in South Africa has uncovered an alarmingly inadequate teacher education system in need of fundamental restructuring. Results of the audit, released this week, show that the quality of teacher […]

Klaus von Lieres, ex-Wits attorney general and now KwaMakhutha trial defence counsel, in THE MARK GEVISSER PROFILE OI’M glad,” said one particularly laconic senior counsel after the opening of the Trial of the Generals in Durban last week, “to see that Klaus is feeling a little better.” The comment was a reference to the fact […]

In this extract from his unfinished autobiography, Joe Slovo recalls the reaction in the SACP to news of Stalin’s excesses WE HAD always been taught that the Party was the vanguard of the struggle. But it was the 1950s which gave real meaning to this maxim in revolutionary practice. The central committee (to which Ruth […]

Justin Pearce THERE’S music floating over the boxy, red- brick buildings of the University of the North: the creamy sounds of Kenny G’s saxophone. The music is issuing from a loudspeaker on the wall of the student centre, the home of Radio Turf. Inside the studio, science student Thapelo Sehume is behind the microphone, chatting […]

THEATRE: David Le Page IN February 1956, in the foothills of the Drakensberg near Bergville, a group of Zulu dagga farmers took severe umbrage when the South African Police attempted a raid on their crop. It was, after all, not only a traditional indulgence, but their livelihood. At first the police retreated, but it was […]

A game between Austria and South Africa team showed that being in a wheelchair doesn’t limit the skill and excitement BASKETBALL:Julian Drew WHEN I set out last Friday evening to watch my first ever wheelchair basketball game I must admit I was a little doubtful about how much excitement there could be in such a […]

CINEMA: Andrew Worsdale HARVEY KEITEL gets to smile warmly in Wayne Wang and Paul Auster’s Smoke, and that’s only one reason to see this deceptively emotional, Zen-like drama about family, identity and Keitel plays Auggie, a cigar-store manager in Brooklyn who has photographed his shop at the same time every day for 14 years. William […]

Reg Rumney reports on the potential of the electric vehicle MENTION “electric car”to your average motorist and you will be greeted with scepticism. They are probably thinking of the homely, battery-powered vans that once used to deliver milk to the sleepy suburbs. Or the ill-fated three-wheeler that made inventor Sir Clive Sinclair a laughing stock. […]