Staff Reporter

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, […]

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 […]

Worldwide African Investment Holdings has withdrawn its Free-to-Air shareholding to pursue satellite interests, writes Niel Bierbaum WISEMAN NKUHLU’S Worldwide African Investment Holdings has given notice that it intends to withdraw as a shareholder from Quentin Green’s Free-to-Air consortium. According to spokesman Joe Makobe, WWAIH intends to pursue direct-to-home satellite opportunities “rather than waiting for terrestrial […]

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 […]

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 […]

The government is finally addressing the tertiary education crisis brought on by students unable to pay fees, reports Philippa Garson THE government will contribute a record sum of around R260-million towards a new loans fund to aid needy students next year — ; a sum five times greater than the R55-million set aside by the […]

Niel Bierbaum M-NET has refuted claims by the SABC that it earns 70 percent of its advertising revenue during its unencrypted open window. According to Clare O’Neil, manager of strategic planning and research at Oracle Airtime Sales, which sells advertising on behalf of M-Net, the pay station has “never earned R430-million of advertising revenue in […]

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. […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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, […]

Rowan Callaghan THE Unemployment Insurance Fund (UIF), which has helped over half-a-million people and paid out over R1-billion so far this year, is to begin improving its service immediately. The steps are the first in a range of changes it will introduce to improve its public image. The Department of Labour reports that so far […]

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 […]

Funds destined for community cultural groups have been redirected back to the performing arts councils. HAZEL FRIEDMAN reports on the ensuing fracas CULTURAL war is being waged over cuts in provincial funding promised to community cultural structures by the Ministry of Arts, Culture, Science and Technology. The battlelines have been drawn between the Gauteng-based Arts […]

ATHLETICS:Julian Drew WHEN the iron curtain was swept aside in Bulgaria in November 1989 with the toppling of Todor Zhivkov’s discredited regime, the athletics career of Rumen Koprivchin crumbled too. Back then when his life and all around him seemed in turmoil he would have given short shrift to anyone who told him that in […]

FINE ART: James Garner KROTOA’S Room — in the Grain Cellar at the Castle, Cape Town — will confound anyone with a penchant for reductive categorisations. Consisting of a photographic component by Lien Botha and “utility furniture” by Raymond Smith, the exhibition operates somewhere in the undefined territory between historical display, site-specific installation and commercial […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]