Staff Reporter

Lynda Loxton SOME analysts were somewhat sceptical this week about the much-publicised decision by the Rupert family empire to merge their tobacco interests in Rembrandt Group Limited (Remgro) and Swiss-based Richemont Securities AG. The merger will create a new, unlisted global tobacco giant, to be known as R&R Tobacco Holdings, which will incorporate Remgro’s tobacco […]

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 […]

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, […]

In the final extract from his autobiography, Joe Slovo recalls the beginnings of the ‘people’s war’

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

‘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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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, […]

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 […]

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? […]

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 […]

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 […]

The transport minister is embroiled in allegations that he has linked ministerial support of Cape Town’s Olympic bid with moving Parliament to Pretoria, reports Rehana Rossouw IN a remarkable war of words, leaders campaigning to keep Parliament in the Mother City this week repeated claims that Transport Minister Mac Maharaj wanted to link his department’s […]

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 […]

The power sector has come under the spotlight lately and is an issue of major concern for sub-Saharan countries, reports Meshack Mabogoane ATTEMPTS to restructure parastatals in the sub-continent have been the focus of fundamental discussions recently. Two conferences, addressing this issue and setting scenarios for market-related developments and economic changes, have been held in […]

A proposed waterfront development in Durban’s run-down Point is being plagued by controversy, report Ann Eveleth and David THREE of the world’s most colourful businessmen — Australian media mogul Kerry Packer, legendary British gambler John Aspinall, and Anglo-French “Marmite king” Jimmy “Goldenballs” Goldsmith — have been caught up in a furious investment squabble over Durban’s […]

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. […]

The structure — not just the colour — of South Africa’s newspaper industry is where the real problem lies, writes Bruce Cohen CARL NIEHAUS should know better. As one of the African National Congress’ key media liaison figures during the run-up to the April 1994 elections, he got to know the press as well as […]

ANGLO AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL CORPORATION (AMIC) has invested R117-million in a South African safety syringe plant to be set up in Somerset The project, due to be commissioned by the end of 1996, signals Anglo’s entry into the medical consumables and equipment market. Safety syringes can only be used once and reduce the risk to healthcare […]

Adam Sweeting RECORDING a James Bond theme demands more dignified attributes than mere pop stardom, as Duran Duran demonstrated with A View to a Kill — stupid title, pathetic song, crap movie. Even wily pop veteran Paul McCartney found it difficult to shake and stir the perfect Bond cocktail, and his Live and Let Die […]

Rehana Rossouw BRIAN is a Cape Town engineer now attending counselling sessions, who said he physically and sexually abused his wife because he wanted to control her and because he could. His wife Lynne, the owner of a successful restaurant in Cape Town, tried to leave him at least 18 times during their six-year marriage […]

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 […]

Brenda Fassie, South Africa’s bad-girl singer, in THE MARK GEVISSER PROFILE ‘HOW can I make you smile?” I asked an enraged Brenda Fassie, dressed in baby-pink denim cutoffs and throwing the contents of her handbag around my car with the jerky impetuousness of a seriously cold turkey as we drove away from her latest humiliation […]