Staff Reporter

The faces of 1996: This week and next, we speak to the four new recipients of the Standard Bank’s Young Artist Awards DANCE: Itumeleng oa Mahabane SOUTH Africa’s “current wonderboy of contemporary African choreography”, Vincent Mantsoe, is sitting patiently, fingering his bead necklace, in the lobby of the Braamfontein Recreation Centre, where the Moving into […]

Niel Bierbaum NATIONAL radio stations have continued to lose audiences at an alarming rate. The figures show that Afrikaans Stereo, SAfm, 5FM and Radio 2000 have all lost listenership over the past six months, continuing a downward trend that began two years ago. Likewise, a number of the African language stations have also lost audience, […]

A LETTER written by one of Ken Saro-Wiwa’s lawyers to Nelson Mandela says it all: “Were quiet diplomacy pursued in South Africa … I doubt you would be alive today.” Our humiliation at Friday’s executions in Nigeria is complete. The question facing South Africa now is how to proceed. We have snubbed the Nigerian national […]

With the advent of portable office technology one need never be away from work, reports Leon Perlman NOW that global system’s mobile (GSM) cellular telephony has firmly entrenched itself as a pivotal business productivity tool, a new breed of Virtual Office workers using “Portable Office” technology is beginning to emerge. These “offices” typically consist of […]

Ann Eveleth reports on the bizarre trial of KwaZulu-Natal rightwingers accused of a fantastic plot to take control of the province THE white right wing wanted a volkstaat. The Inkatha Freedom Party wanted a Zulu kingdom. Pat Hlongwane wanted explosives. And the Afrikaner Weerstandsbeweging wanted to wipe out African National Congress township strongholds in KwaZulu-Natal. […]

Louise Flanagan THE South African National Defence Force (SANDF) has refused to disclose details of any links between Military Intelligence (MI) and individuals in a private security company accused of running a destabilisation campaign against the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (Numsa). This raises the possibility that MI may still have well-hidden links […]

CINEMA: Andrew Worsdale PAUL VERHOEVEN and Joe Eszterhas’ latest collaboration, Showgirls, is at once the tackiest movie ever made by a major Hollywood studio and a satisfyingly bitchy backstage melodrama overlaid with all the usual sexual peccadillos common to both men’s previous work. Verhoeven’s first major hit was the Dutch art film The Fourth Man, […]

Karen Harverson THE platinum market, although sensitive to sudden increases in supply, is unlikely to be hit too hard when the United States sells off its strategic stockpile of platinum as announced in September 1994. “The US has not yet decided how much of its 453 000oz of platinum will be sold off or when […]

Symbiotic relationships between established and emerging enterprises are paths to solidifying black identity, reports Meshack Mabogoane VISTAS of low-cost housing and other public works projects, coupled with elaborate affirmative action measures formulated by government, are cementing relationships between established (largely white) and emerging (mainly black) enterprises. The construction industry is on its way to becoming […]

A court case this week saw Winnie Mandela lose R100 000 following her failure to pay an air charter bill — and revealed some bizarre facts about her Co-ordinated Anti-Poverty Programmes, reports Justin Pearce A PRINCE telling a court of law he took his orders unquestioningly from “Mummy”. A church minister and self-appointed business consultant […]

Whether I live or die is immaterial. It is enough to know that there are people who commit time and energy to fight this one evil among so many others predominating worldwide. If they do not succeed today, they will succeed tomorrow. We must keep on striving to make the world a better place for […]

Although the team will be without many of their foreign-based stars, there will still be some tough competition in the Four Nations tournament SOCCER:Lungile Madywabe POLITICAL turmoil in Africa has for a long time undermined the continent’s ability to fullfil its potential in world sport, especially the world’s number one, soccer, and the South African […]

The SABC is in the midst of a tortuous transition that is testing staff, top management and the board to the limits of patience and endurance, writes Marion Edmunds UNTIL recently, the bust of former Broederbond leader and SABC board chairman Piet Meyer graced the foyer of the SABC in Auckland Park. nnnNobody thought it […]

Bruce Cohen Way of the dodo THE great guru of electronic media, Roger Fiddler, has sentenced Anton Harber to 10 more years. Fiddler, speaking at a recent conference in Bali, forecast the end of print journalism by the year 2005 and its replacement with electronic “tablets” and other digital media. He says the superior economics […]

FINE ART: Hazel Friedman ASK anyone who knows anything about Trevor Makhoba’s art where his best paintings can be found, and you’ll be told to look not in the myriad institutions and public collections that house his work, but in the township of Umlazi. It was here, before this area of KwaZulu-Natal became one of […]

Fascist groups are using the information superhighway to spread the word of Aryan supremacy, reports Bruce Cohen NEO-NAZIS and racists are spinning a busy web of hate on the Internet. Previously limited to private bulletin boards, a number of these sites have emerged on the World Wide Web, offering a chilling and fascinating insight into […]

THERE was a sense of deja vu as South Africa’s most litigated public servant, Winnie Mandela, failed to testify in her own defence this week. Mandela has frequently been unavailable when called on to face the consequences of legal proceedings. l President Nelson Mandela resorted to a supreme court order to serve a divorce summons […]

CLASSICAL MUSIC: Coenraad Visser IN his long overdue debut season with the National=20 Symphony Orchestra Gerard Korsten has shown that=20 there is more than a grain of truth in the=20 assertion that there are no bad orchestras, only=20 bad conductors. Faltering and often awkward as a=20 result of its encounters with a seemingly endless=20 string […]

THEATRE: David Le Page DESCEND to the very lowest level of society, and=20 you are in the perfect position to thrust hard into=20 the softest part of its bloated, pallid underbelly.=20 If you are a playwright named Itumeleng Wa- Lehulere, you will not content yourself with a=20 single thrust of the weapon of words; you’ll […]

The decision to clear Philip Spies of doping=20 charges goes=20 against IAAF rules and could create a legal=20 precedent ATHLETICS:Julian Drew THE acquittal on a doping offence by an Athletics=20 South Africa (ASA) tribunal of javelin star Philip=20 Spies at the weekend could have serious=20 repercussions for the sport.=20 Under the regulations of the world […]

Karen Harverson Brands, though intangible, are often the most=20 valuable asset of a company, more so than its real=20 estate, equipment, stock, investments and=20 technology. “A brand has an economic value because of the=20 relationship that it creates between the supplier=20 and the customer,” says Raymond Perrier, executive=20 director of Interbrand, a specialist in the […]

My Fleeting Moment with Nelson Mandela (in his=20 absence, of course) THE first time I was in the presence of the man=20 whose influence was to permeate South Africa was in=20 the early 1970s. He was thousands of miles away,=20 but hey, I was in his presence _ in his house in=20 Orlando West, which […]

BASKEBALL:Rowan Callaghan=20 WEMBLEY Stadium won’t be echoing with the loud=20 cries of excited fans or the hoarse grunts of=20 determined players forcing their way to the hoop=20 for a while now. The last time the stadium came to=20 life was in the league final two weeks ago when the=20 Johannesburg Spartans won a hard-fought contest=20 […]

Without the skills, choosing a satellite system can=20 be a technological nightmare. Annicia Reddiar=20 guides you through the labyrinth MORE than a month after the MultiChoice satellite=20 launch, the equipment needed to access its system=20 is not widely available. Most retailers complain=20 that they have no stock of the two MultiChoice- compatible receivers, and people […]

Six unsigned bands on one CD … THERESE OWEN=20 discovers the joys of Aural Sex AURAL Sex _ or Soda Sex Fountain Part II _ is=20 finally available for public consumption. This=20 locally produced CD features six unsigned South=20 African bands _ who battled it out against at least=20 20 other groups at a competition […]

When will Stals ease up on interest rates and give=20 homeowners a break, asks Reg Rumney Real interest rates _ adjusted for inflation _ in=20 South Africa are punitively high, especially for=20 those buying a new home, but the reaction from=20 economists and the man-in-the-street is curiously=20 muted. The prime rate, the rate banks are […]

Biceps, butts _ and community spirit. HAZEL=20 FRIEDMAN finds out what makes Mr South Africa tick `HI, honey [the sweetener is optional]. Love your=20 pectorals. You must be a Taurus.” It may not be=20 the ideal opening gambit, but what else can you say=20 when you’re interviewing a hunk with wall-to-wall=20 muscles, whose baby blues […]

Jane Starfield REVOLUTIONS IN MY LIFE=20 by Baruch Hirson=20 (Witwatersrand University Press, R86,15) SOUTH African historical writing is low on=20 Trotskyists. Although there have been several=20 eminent Trotskyist politicians (for example, Gana=20 Makabeni and Max Gordon), Baruch Hirson is probably=20 our most famous (under the old government, read=20 “notorious”; they banned his first book for […]

MALU VAN LEEUWEN visited Cape Town’s custom=20 motorcycle show _ and found that the `easy rider’=20 of the Sixties is the big spender of the Nineties BIKES new and old _ some of which hadn’t seen the=20 light of day in decades _ were wheeled out, dusted=20 down and lovingly shined up for Cape Town’s […]

Data mining can unleash a gold mine of information=20 from one’s own databases. Leon Perlman reports Unbeknown to many corporates, they’re sitting on a=20 gold mine. Buried deep inside their databases are=20 vast repositories of data patterns that could=20 unlock acres of productivity and millions of rands=20 in revenue. The key to this info labyrinth […]

Reg Rumney First National BANK (FNB) announced bottom-line=20 earnings up almost 23 percent this week at R920- million for the year to end-September. The bank saw strong growth in advances and in non- interest revenues. Those advances were driven=20 mainly by consumer demand. Margins were squeezed, as interest expenditure rose=20 40 percent while interest income […]

The McDonald’s trademark battle flares up as local=20 MacDonald’s opens. Karen Harverson reports Pipping United States McDonald’s at the post _ the=20 South African version, MacDonald’s, opened its=20 doors in central Johannesburg this week, just 24=20 hours before the grand launch of its American rival=20 in Randburg. The store, situated on the corner of Commissioner=20 […]