Staff Reporter

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

Marion Edmunds SOUTH AFRICAN Broadcasting Corporation decision-makers are considering changing the course of SAfm and going for a niche market by targeting the new South African elite. The station has lost 25 percent of its advertising this year and, as reported last week, its audience is a paltry 250 000. A small team — headed […]

Karen Harverson A ROW within the ranks of the black construction industry may damage its initiative to fund a developmental programme for emerging black contractors. The programme is aimed at helping black contractors acquire the skills necessary to participate in the mainstream construction industry. All contractors wishing to be part of the home building industry […]

JOHANNESBURG was adorned with newspaper placards on Sunday trumpeting the latest atrocity of the criminal classes: “The burglars that use gas.” Those with the five rand required to be entertained by the newspaper were entertained by the disclosure that the good people of Lenasia have been reduced to a state of panic over the latest […]

Mail & Guardian reporter A TEAM of prosecutors worked around the clock this week putting the final touches to the 40-odd-page indictment against former defence minister Magnus Malan and nine others. Malan, former Military Intelligence chief General Tienie Groenewald and eight other former and serving officers are charged with murder, attempted murder and conspiracy to […]

SLOWLY DUMA SKHOSANA, convicted “Sharpeville Six” murderer, is breaking his hunger strike, but he remains resolute to force a retrial to prove his Skhosana (38) has gone back to “prison” volutarily. Sentenced and convicted with five others for the 1984 mob murder of Sharpeville deputy mayor Jacob Khuzwayo Dhlamini, he is staging a sleep-in and […]

Mapo-MiG has spread its wings to South Africa and offers huge opportunities to local contractors, reports Karen Harverson RUSSIA’S oldest aircraft manufacturer, the Moscow Aircraft Production Organisation — Mikoyan and Gurevich (Mapo-MiG), has opened an office in South Africa. Director Peter Malan says the office’s main function will be to provide technical support, training and […]

SOME staff members of the African Languages Department have expressed outrage at the way Makgoba handled their former acting head, Robert Herbert, an American academic. In a letter seen by the Mail & Guardian, Makgoba declined a request from Herbert for the renewed contract of one of his staff members, and then told Herbert that […]

Hazel Friedman ARMSTRONG BADUZA (52) recalls the day Archbishop Trevor Huddleston arrived at his father’s house in Soweto armed with musical instruments. “I was too young to play but those who managed became international stars,” he says. “I became a wandering star instead.” He also remembers his father leading the residents of Alexandra Township — […]

The tragedy of Susan Sithole, abandoned by love and the system. Rehana Rossouw reports ‘PAIN,” wrote Susan Sithole, “is wearing my husband’s face.” On Saturday — International Day of No Violence Against Women — the pain came to an end. Her husband is in jail on a murder charge. The tragic story of Susan Sithole […]

Evelyn Groenink DUTCH do-gooders have run into flak at home for handing out R20-million to South African political parties without any built-in checks and balances on how the money is spent. The organisation giving the money is the Foundation for the New South Africa (FSA), which is made up of representatives of political parties in […]

For the first time in years, Rockey Street, the pulse of trendy Yeoville, is free of drug pushers loitering on corners, writes Janine Lazarus IT has taken the murder of restaurateur Ridley Wright to clear the streets of pushers who had turned this colourful suburb into the newest drugs mecca of South Africa. Wright was […]

COSATU, the largest-ever federation of independent trade unions in South Africa, is to be launched in Durban tomorrow under the banner “One Federation, One Country”. With 33 affiliates, a signed-up membership of over 500 000 and 430 000 paid-up members, the Congress of South African Trade Unions overtakes the Trade Union Council of South Africa […]

Urban planners, white suburbs, and the homeless are locked in a struggle of competing needs, writes Justin Pearce POLITICAL squabbling has halted Johannesburg’s plans to house its homeless. Shack settlements have proliferated in the city while municipal and provincial authorities have failed to reach a universally acceptable plan to accommodate squatters in formal housing. At […]

CINEMA: Andrew Worsdale YOU can relax. Pierce Brosnan makes a fine James Bond in Martin Campbell’s GoldenEye, an otherwise disappointing foray into moviedom’s most successful franchise — 007. The story revolves around schemers and baddies in the post-Soviet world who are intent on worldwide cataclysm ( as usual ), and that’s the major problem with […]

Rehana Rossouw and Ann Eveleth THE civil war in KwaZulu-Natal has created a destitute class of people who have converted pavements in the centre of Durban into an informal camp site. Most of the single mothers and children who have turned the crannies of the city into their home are refugees — over the decade, […]

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 […]

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 […]

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. […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]