Staff Reporter

Vuyo Mvoko ‘THE World in Soweto” — a project to be launched today by President Nelson Mandela — will give foreign governments the chance to make their mark on one of South Africa’s biggest and most famous townships. According to the project’s founder and co- ordinator, Zelda Mantle, it is envisaged that a foreign country […]

Hazel Friedman ‘GOD has blessed us,” says single mother Mavis A year ago she was about to be dumped on the pavements. Today she and 434 tenants from seven buildings in the highrise slum of Hillbrow are home-owners through a unique scheme that could solve the inner city housing problem. Called the Seven Buildings Project […]

Politicians calling for the reimposition of the death penalty are more interested in buying votes than in curbing crime, argues Dennis Davis ONE might have expected that the death penalty would have been settled after the decision of the Constitutional Court handed down earlier this year. Unfortunately, however, that tenacious and consistent advocate for human […]

A matter of frequency CITIZEN BAND, the intrepid explorer of the airwaves, has overheard a reliable source saying that the Independent Broadcasting Authority is expected to announce what frequencies will be available to commercial radio licence applicants within the next few weeks. It is expected that the authority will specify frequencies and transmitter sizes in […]

The government has delayed implementing its promise to recognise the Saharawi Republic, reports Gaye GOVERNMENT was tight-lipped this week on why it has back-pedalled on a commitment to give diplomatic recognition to Africa’s last colony, the Saharawi Republic, where the Polisario Front has been leading its struggle for freedom from Moroccan occupation of its territory. […]

POP/ROCK: Christopher Roper IT’S official. The gods love Jon Bon Jovi more than Michael Atherton. The rain held off on an overcast Cape night this week, and American supergroup Bon Jovi delighted the crowd with over two hours of the melodic stadium rock they’re famous for. Durban lite-metal band Arapaho took the stage first and […]

The final phase towards establishing telecommunications legislation in South Africa is finally underway, reports Leon Perlman THE much touted initiative to provide “Universal”telephony services to South Africa’s un-wired rural millions looks set for a boost following a national colloquium on telecommunications policy. “All Shall Call”is the message emanating from an intensive four day meeting between […]

A tiny farming community near Cape Town has accused the Moravian Church of robbing it of its inheritance and now wants to take legal action, reports Rehana Rossouw FORTY years after an eccentric Scotswoman left all her wordly goods to her coloured farmworkers, the Moravian Church stands accused of betraying the instructions in her will […]

TV broadcasters are promoting themselves at their advertising clients’ expense, according to a recent report, writes Neil Bierbaum THE enormous amount of airtime being devoted to TV stations’ own programme promotions is significantly increasing the amount of advertising clutter, thereby making it increasingly costly for advertisers to achieve the same noting levels. This opinion is […]

>From zouk to mbalax, world music is available — and pushing back the borders of Anglo- American culture. SHAUN DE WAAL dips into its SOME years ago, I lamented in these pages that there was more African and Third World music to be found in London’s Virgin Megastore than in all of South Africa. So […]

Simon Segal WITH South Africa’s inflation rate, down to 6,3 percent in October, at levels last seen in the early 1970s, much is being said about the economy entering a lower inflationary Most economists (there are a few exceptions) see South Africa’s inflation rate remaining in single digits both next year and in 1997, averaging […]

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 […]

For Helge Janssen, cult status’ has meant an 18-year career on the margins of the artworld. He spoke to HAZEL FRIEDMAN EVERY city has its cultural heroes, those living legends who define the times (and themselves) by defying the norms. Durban had Helg Janssen, DJ, designer, film-maker, performance artist and painter, tapping into the psyche […]

Bronwen Jones TEARS and righteousness make a potent mix in an angry young woman out to fight the wealth and might of big industry. Sitting atop a crumbledown dam looking over her community, Rene Smith, 21, adjusts blue rimmed spectacles and says: “We will not let them build their dam on our doorsteps. We will […]

Controversy is raging over tenders for the South African Airways corporate identity design. Neil Bierbaum reports A CALL for tenders by South African Airways (SAA) for the redesign of its corporate identity has been slammed as a front by applicants who fear that the appointment might have already been made. In the scramble to pitch, […]

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 […]

Philippa Garson LEADING academics are pitted against each other in the latest university furore which involves the resignation of the University of Transkei’s (Unitra) vice-chancellor, Alfred Moleah. Moleah’s resignation comes in the wake of months of conflict with the university Council, which comprises prominent academics, educationists and political figures, including its chair Fatima Meer, Blade […]

Lynda Loxton LOCAL government is facing “an affordability crunch”that could have long-term consequences for the delivery of services by newly-elected local governments. Development Bank of Southern Africa policy co- ordination manager Chris Heymans last week told a parliamentry select committee hearing on local government that a great deal of innovative thinking would be needed on […]

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. […]

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 […]

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 […]

THE day Susan Sithole died, abuse activists, counsellors and government officials met in Cape Town at a national conference organised by the Department of Welfare under the banner “Women in Africa won’t be beaten — unite to end violence”. Catholic Welfare Development counsellor Charles Maisel challenged participants to extend their services to the perpetrators of […]

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 […]

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 […]

EARLIER this week General Magnus Malan gave a briefing to the Foreign Correspondents Association, devoted to his forthcoming trial on murder charges. He did so in defiance of advice from his lawyers who, he related, were concerned that he might be in breach of the sub judice rule. Rare as it is for this newspaper […]

Visitors to the Western Cape may be on the increase but is it equipped to cope with the rush? asks Lynda Loxton THE Western Cape tourism sector has finally taken off — and run straight into a wall of infrastructural bottlenecks because of low investment that could be its undoing. This was the warning from […]

They’ve had a long, hard season and several key members of their squad are weary after representing the national team, but Orlando Pirates can rise to the occasion against Ivory Coast’s Asec Mimosa SOCCER:Lungile Madywabe DESPITE the national team’s recent triumph in the Four Nations tournament, there is still a belief that South African football […]

Wits University groups have rejected the tribunal set up to investigate the allegations against Makgoba, reports Philippa THE stage is set for further conflict at Wits University around the inquiry into deputy vice- chancellor Malegapuru Makgoba. The Wits Transformation Front (WTF) and Academic Staff Association have rejected the manner in which the tribunal — which […]