Staff Reporter

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 […]

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. […]

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 […]

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 […]

>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 […]

Faces of 1996: We speak to the Standard Bank Young Artist Award-winner for Music Music: S’busiso Nxumalo EVEN when Victor Masondo recounts the story of how he landed a two-month gig as musical director for trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie’s 1991 Live the Future world tour, you never feel like he’s blowing his own horn. But perhaps […]

Justin Pearce A CIVIL Co-operation Bureau (CCB) operative turned mercenary boss and a disabled youth from Alexandra township made unlikely bedfellows as litigants in the Consitutional Court this week. In separate cases, Lafras Luitingh and Mokela Mohlomi challenged Section 113 of the Defence Act, which places limitations on the right of citizens to bring civil […]

ATHLETICS:Julian Drew IN 1986 the Commonwealth seemed to be teetering on the edge of the precipice. Only the stand against apartheid seemed to be preventing its disintegration as an organisation and even then Margaret Thatcher obstinately refused to agree with the rest of its leaders. But the rallying call which ensured the Commonwealth’s survival nearly […]

Leon Perlman COMPUTICKET, the national computerised entertainment and leisure reservation service, has teamed up with service provider Internet Africa to provide an Internet booking service to cinema patrons on a 24-hour booking basis. Developed by Internet Africa’s World Wide Web service division, the service is an extension of Computicket’s telephone reservation system. According to Mike […]

Bronwen Roberts THE South African Association of Municipal Employees (Saame) has sought an urgent meeting with Eastern Cape Local Government MEC Max Mamase following his announcement that several hundred white municipal workers are to be replaced by blacks. Chairman of the Eastern Cape Saame branch Johan Crafford said this week the union is concerned the […]

THE National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) on Wednesday said it would appeal against prison sentences imposed on three miners’ wives for trespassing at a De Beers diamond company in The women are serving their sentences at a prison in the Northern Cape town of Springbok. Two children, aged eight months and four years, were staying […]

Are there any solutions to prevent sophisticated fraud syndicates plundering our credit card accounts? asks Karen Harverson CREDIT cards represent convenience to card holders, big business for banking institutions and increasingly, easy pickings for criminals. Credit card fraud, estimated at millions of dollars a year worldwide, has more than doubled in South Africa this year, […]

AS rumours multiplied yesterday of the imminent release of Nelson Mandela, the African National Congress in Lusaka said any plan to fly their jailed leader to freedom in another country would be And a representative of the state president’s office in Pretoria said there was absolutely no truth in speculation that an unconditional release of […]

Faces of 1996: We speak to the Standard Bank Young Artist Award winner for theatre Thestre: Matthew Krouse CHEWING heavily on nicotine gum, Lara Foot Newton confesses to being born and bred in Pretoria. “And Pretoria is an identity of its own,” says the 28-year-old winner of the 1996 Standard Bank Young Artist Award for […]

SOUTH AFRICA this week passed the test of religious tolerance after a “misunderstanding” about visas almost blocked a visit by controversial Reverend Sun Myung Moon, “messiah” of the Unification Church. No sooner was Moon allowed into South Africa than his followers showed intolerance of their own. Press photographers were assaulted when they tried to get […]

SOCCER:Lungile Madywabe AS an international defender Ruud Krol played 83 games for Holland before going to Belgium and Switzerland where he coached Mechelen and Servette. He then went on to become coach of the Egyptian under-23 team and after the success of the youngsters at this year’s All Africa Games in Harare two months ago, […]

Change is not new at Eskom, although it faces some novel challenges. Reg Rumney reports PEERING down into the garden of the cavernous three-storey atrium at the centre of the Megawatt Park HQ, with its hanging baskets of greenery, one is struck by the scale of what has been dubbed Eskom’s hanging gardens of Babylon. […]

The government has retreated behind a wall of silence to wrestle with the Nigerian issue, writes Gaye Davis FEARS of ruffling the feathers of African leaders and of being seen as acting as an agent of western governments abrogating their own moral responsibility dominated top-level government talks on the Nigerian situation this week. Led by […]

With its huge prize money the Million Dollar can attract top overseas players, but the poorer tournaments on the local tour can’t compete GOLF:Jon Swift THERE IS a feeling of distinct inevitability about the way the professional golf tour in this country is starting to fragment. The Zimbabwean customs holding back golf balls and equipment […]

CINEMA: Andrew Worsdale AVI LERNER and Trevor Short – two producers who made junk over here in the heady days of tax- breaks and Hollyveld – have now teamed up with Martin Scorsese to produce an art movie. They claim it’s part of their plan to diversify their product from the usual Cyborg Cop I, […]

FINE ART: Ian Tromp PAINTINGS by Walter Meyer, on view at the Newtown Galleries, freeze moments in Eastman Color eternities, like slightly faded catalogues for holiday destinations called “Home”. Seen from afar, Meyer’s scenes are photo- realist in the rendering of their subject, bordering on coolness in their apparent dispassion. Step nearer, and – as […]

AND at the end of the week, does it really seem any less important than it did in the instant 1 000-megawatt surge of collective astonishment on Monday night? Absolutely not; indeed if anything, it seems more important rather than less. Re-viewing the interview with the Princess of Wales two things are clear. First, it […]

Barbie dolls and plastic telephones vied with live goldfish in last weekend’s Smirnoff International Fashion Awards. But, in the end, it was the cows’ stomachs that walked off with the prize, reports MALU VAN LEEUWEN ‘IMAGINE your mind is shut away from the real world, you are living in darkness, completely detached. Then, suddenly, the […]

The debate concerning state enterprises is in need of transformation, reports Meshack IF foreign investors were looking for dramatic statements on privatisation to emerge from the recent state enterprise restructuring bosberaad, they would have been disappointed. The government, under persistent pressure from some major stakeholders to take a definite stand, is adamant not to be […]

The National Gallery’s exhibition of images of District Six is a valuable reconstruction of our collective memory, writes NEVILLE DUBOW Question: Name the place in Cape Town that was destroyed and where the residents were forcibly emoved to the Cape Town townships? Answer: District Six Question: Name the building that was erected through the heart […]

Justin Pearce INSURANCE brokers in Johannesburg are advising clients that drivers of luxury cars such as BMWs run the most serious risk of being hijacked. BMW South Africa has in turn accused the insurance industry of giving customers inaccurate information about car hijackings and has called on the police to reveal the truth about which […]

CLASSICAL MUSIC: Coenraad Visser TWO outstanding soloists and an orchestra still inspired by Gerard Korsten’s recent visit marked the first two concerts conducted by Vladimir Simkine, the Russian conductor currently on the podium in front of the National Symphony First Tasmin Little gave a breathtakingly lyrical account of Beethoven’s violin concerto. Her articulation was always […]

Bill Gates has committed his vision of the future to paper and it will appear in shops around the world today. Bruce Cohen takes a look at Gates’ roadmap to the information LET me state my heresy upfront: I like Bill Gates. I think the founder and chairman of Microsoft is a pretty smart guy. […]