Staff Reporter

This was a good week for justice in South Africa. It saw the arrest of top former military leaders for their alleged role in one of the most brutal of the KwaZulu- Natal massacres of the last decade, and the demotion of that province’s safety and security MEC, Celani Mtetwa, accused of involvement in gun-running. […]

Collin Matjila, chairman of the executive committee of the Greater Johannesburg TMC, in The Mark Gevisser Profile Who? This is the man who, for the past year, has controlled a budget of R6-billion, bigger than that of four provinces and over half the size of Gauteng’s. This is the man who has had 35 000 […]

The SABC has successfully completed nationwide coverage of the local elections, writes Hazel Friedman ‘What the hell is going on in the Northern Cape and Mpumalanga?” asks a senior South African Broadcasting Corporation television staff member, his voice thick with tension and fatigue. It’s like watching the finals of nine ping-pong matches as the television […]

At the conclusion of last year’s freedom election, then-president-elect Nelson Mandela quoted the cry of American slaves from the last century: Free at last, free at last, thank God Almighty we are free at last. This week, at the conclusion of the next round of voting, we can paraphrase him: Normal at last, normal at […]

Jan Taljaard EVEN before the ballots were counted this week, South African right-wingers knew they had reached the crossroads. The Freedom Front saw the local government elections as an opportunity not only to emerge as king of the right- wing heap, but also to make significant inroads into a disenchanted voters’ base that once belonged […]

Including social and economic rights in the Constitution could lead to an inflated welfare state or place South African citizens in the 20th century, writes Dennis Davis THE case for the inclusion of social and economic rights in the final Constitution has been long and intensely debated ever since it became clear that South Africa […]

Local refiner Engen blamed external business conditions for its disappointing 1995 financial results announced this week. Net income plunged R300-million to R116- million compared to R416-million in 1994. Chief executive officer Rob Angel blamed the fall in profits on restructuring costs of R79-million, increased financing costs of R90-million, an eight-year low in refining margins and […]

Cinema: Derek Malcolm CHRIS MONGER, the writer-director of The Englishman Who Went Up a Hill But Came Down a Mountain, once made an existential thriller called Voice-Over, which was shown at the Edinburgh Festival and was radical enough to suggest that the last thing he would do would be to escape Wales for Los Angeles […]

South African fast bowler Brett Schultz thrives on competing with his pace partner Allan Donald Cricket: John Perlman BRETT SCHULTZ, the story goes, was in the middle of a typically fiery spell against Sri Lanka when Kepler Wessels sent him a message, to be passed along with the ball. It was relayed in Afrikaans so […]

Fine Art: Hazel Friedman I first saw the work of Sandile Zulu (now showing at the Market) during a 1992 exhibition held by Wits University’s Fine Arts Department where Zulu was a student. At the time his burnt offerings struck me as extraordinarily beautiful, but anachronistic in the context of all those post-modern pastiches produced […]

Gold mining no longer glitters all that brightly for the South African economy. Reg Rumney reports Working seven days a week will help gold mines survive in the medium term — but gold mining is in decline, says Amgold chairman Clem Sunter. Gold mining, once the mainstay and still a central pillar of the South […]

Philippa Garson THE debacle around Wits University’s “great black hope”, deputy vice-chancellor William Makgoba, represents a crisis on several fronts for the institution, including a battle for the top job. Clearly, a concerted attempt to discredit the man tipped to be the university’s next vice-chancellor by a group of senior academics, who presented current vice- […]

Certain vehicles will be cut from the Mercedes Benz range, reports Karen Harverson Mercedes Benz of South Africa, in keeping with local motor industry sentiment to cut production of low volume models, will no longer manufacture all Mercedes Benz ranges but stick to the C-class model and limited production of the E-class. Production of the […]

International players have given coaching clinics in Soweto before, but English cricketers actually playing at the township’s stadium is far more Cricket: Jon Swift PERHAPS some of the real significance of an international team playing cricket in Soweto will not strike the England players quite as dramatically as it will those of us who proudly […]

Mail and Guardian reporter The Mail & Guardian has opened South Africa’s first recruitment service on the Internet. Called work@za, the service is housed at the World Wide Web site of the Electronic Mail & Guardian. It lists a variety of current jobs available in South Africa, and on-line users can apply for many of […]

The festival will host four guests who are major gay or lesbian filmmakers: * John Greyson is a Toronto-based videomaker who is widely regarded as being in the forefront of politically motivated, risk-taking gay film in North America. The director of the brilliant Zero Patience, which caused such a stir at last year’s festival, Greyson […]

Opera: Coenraad Visser WITH this revival of his 1991 production of Offenbach’s Les Contes d’Hoffmann (State Theatre), Neels Hansen does himself proud. This time round his direction is more detailed, and there is a stronger sense of energy that pervades the Olympia and Venetian scenes. He is no doubt helped by an enthusiastic (and splendid) […]

The ‘video virtual meeting’ has now come of age as a strategic business tool. Leon Perlman reports Cut-rate airfares, Voyager Miles and bargain hotel and car hire deals are set to face stiff competition from an unlikely source — the telephone line. With near-video quality images, video-conferencing over normal copper telephone lines using new high […]

The IBA’s latest strategy on radio frequencies severely restricts potential independent commercial stations, writes Neil Bierbaum ONLY five low-power frequencies are available for commercial stations in Gauteng and some of these may be allocated to the South African Broadcasting Corporation. This is only one severely limiting implication of the frequency spectrum plan published by the […]

Lynda Loxton Despite South Africa’s 3 000km coastline, few black South Africans are seafarers while few cargo ships bear the South African flag — but all this is about to change. Several initiatives are in hand not only to make young South Africans more aware of potential careers in shipping instead of commerce, agriculture or […]

Iscor’s Hans Smith discusses his dreams and aspirations for the organisation with Aspasia Hans Jurie Smith, managing director and soon to be chairman of Iscor, describes himself as ‘a bit of a dreamer’. He has a vision of Iscor becoming a large international player in the commodities business with the potential to grow even faster […]

Neil Bierbaum BY applying public service attitudes to its commercial radio stations, the South African Broadcasting Corporation could cause the demise of these stations. This is the opinion of former 5FM programme manager, Keith Lindsay. Lindsay is sueing the SABC for wrongful dismissal after his contract was terminated two months before it was due to […]

Fine Art: Hazel Friedman VIEWING Jason Crystal’s exhibition From Tokolosh to Lemonade (First Gallery, Parkhurst) is a bit like being taken on a magical mystery tour that begins in the Middle Ages and ends in the Garden of Earthly Delights via the New Age highway. Sounds like an acid trip, right? Except that Crystal doesn’t […]

Soccer: Lungile Madywabe WHATEVER Kaizer Chiefs coach Jeff Butler tells his charges before their game on Saturday against log leaders Cape Town Spurs at the Rand Stadium, he knows that Chiefs will have to win to keep alive their hopes of salvaging anything this year. However, the real drama will be 20 hours later in […]

A Chicagoan with decades’ experience is creating a new forum for local comedy. He spoke to Pat OF the innumerable legacies left by Barney Simon to South African theatre — his words, his work and the many talents he nurtured — surely the most unusual has to be an energetic, ebullient theatre- maker from Chicago […]

The Sunday Times’ policy of producing racially targeted ‘Extra’ editions has come under fire. Neil Bierbaum reports IS the country’s biggest-selling newspaper, the Sunday Times, living in the past? Gauteng Premier Tokyo Sexwale took aim at the paper’s separate racially-targeted editions last week, criticising the paper for continuing to “produce ‘Extra’ covers around their white […]

Karen Harverson South Africa does not have the luxury of time to plan for the transformation of its economy. All players at national, sectoral, company and community level need to co-operate in a joint strategy to achieve this second miracle. “There is no alternative open to South Africa except to seek a meaningful social partnership. […]

Trade unionist Gwede Mantashe speaks to Karen Harverson about his appointment to the Samancor For the first time in South Africa’ s turbulent management-worker relationship, a trade unionist has been appointed to the board of directors of a major listed company. Ferro alloy producer Samancor has appointed 45- year old Gwede Mantashe, assistant general secretary […]

Cry, the Beloved Country is beautiful to the point of kitsch — but it doesn’t seem to have benefited from 50 years’ hindsight, writes JUSTIN PEARCE Our own dear Y-fronted South African flag appears at the bottom of the ethno-abstract poster for Cry, the Beloved Country. This may seem odd considering that the film is […]

Theatre: David Le Page Watching the first minutes of The Choice (Civic Theatre) is like being steeped in a wash of pop- psychology epigrams. If Ray and Sal were actually people, they would have to memorise reams of material from women’s magazines and Readers’ Digest “10 Steps to a better Marriage/Relationship”-type articles to be able […]

Jan Taljaard and Annicia Reddiar=20 MOSES SITHOLE, prime suspect in the Gauteng serial =20 killings, was caught by police this week and is likely =20 to stand trial for the murder of up to 40 young women -=20 – but it had almost gone the other way.=20 In an almost uncanny replay of the incident […]

Questions are being asked about the viability of the =20 Cape Town Olympic Bid Company’s budget, presented =20 to Cabinet this week, reports Rehana Rossouw=20 THE green light for South Africa’s Olympic dream shone =20 faintly this week when Cabinet decided to support the =20 preparations for the 2004 Games, but warning lights =20 flashed […]