Staff Reporter

IT wasn’t just the rain that George Smiley missed in =20 Johannesburg. It was also the knowledge that the spying =20 trade would never be the same again. =20 With his hands wrapped around a balloon glass of 10-=20 year-old KWV, and his body enveloped in the soft =20 cushions of a large leather armchair, […]

It’s time that the insured stood up for their insurance, reports Karen Harverson Insurance law in South Africa, unlike some European countries, is far more favourable to the insurer than the insured. The onus rests on the insured at the time of taking out a policy to disclose all material facts to the insurer of […]

The local clothing industry is suffering under the weight of imports. Lynda Loxton reports The slow growth in clothing sales this year has been blamed on the flood of imported clothing which appears to be escaping custom duties. “The extent of imports that escape customs duty is a very worrying element for both retail and […]

The Japanese could give us some pointers on how to =20 attract doctors to rural hospitals, writes David =20 MUCH attention has been given to alleviating the =20 chronic shortage of doctors for rural service both here =20 and elsewhere. The Department of National Health’s =20 drive towards the development of a health care system […]

Neil Bierbaum SCOPE is to become a general interest men’s magazine minus the girlie photographs — entering a domain so far occupied exclusively by the small but growing men’s lifestyle magazine Directions (formerly bigblue). A major repositioning of Scope is expected following a decision by the board of Republican Press to stop trying to compete […]

As the race for league honours enters the final straight Orlando Pirates look like they have too much to do and Sundowns and Cape Town Spurs are battling it out in the lead Soccer: Lungile Madywabe WHILE a Jackpot or a Pick Six carry-over is always received with sighs of disbelief by punters, soccer followers […]

Cinema: Justin Pearce It is irksome to use words like “charming” when describing a film — but in the case of Eat Drink Man Woman no other adjective quite suffices to sum up a movie which is at once so seductive and so hollow. As the yin-yang oppositions of its title suggest, this film by […]

Eddie Koch=20 THE National Intelligence Agency (NIA) this week denied =20 media reports that its director general Sizakele =20 Whijmore Sigxashe threatened to shoot his wife and =20 children on Tuesday night and refused to hand over his =20 firearm to a police patrol that was called to the =20 scene. =20 An NIA press […]

Anant Singh, independent film producer, in The Mark =20 Gevisser Profile=20 You want to know what chutzpah is? I’ll tell you what =20 chutzpah is. Chutzpah is being a little nudnik from =20 South Africa at Cannes and getting Whoopi Goldberg to =20 be in your next low-budget movie by promising her a cut =20 […]

Local telecommunication authorities can’t quite decide on their policies. Leon Perlman reports Virtually the entire ensemble of South African telecommunications Who’s Who assemble at Telecom 95, the International Telecommunications Union’s (ITU) seventh World Telecommunications Forum and exhibition. Curious strategy shifts in our telecommunications policy filtered through during the nine day event. Held at the massive […]

Eddie Koch=20 The right-wing movement in South Africa has advanced =20 nuclear weapons and can drop these on any town in the =20 country by using a squadron of Impalas or at least five =20 G6 cannons which are in their possession. This is the =20 most astonishing in a string of startling claims =20 […]

The complex process of merging six spy agencies =20 has created more internal problems for the National =20 Intelligence Agency. Eddie Koch reports=20 South Africa’s chief spook threatens to blow away his =20 wife and kids in their Pretoria home. The mysterious =20 death of another top intelligence agent exposes =20 ideological differences that will […]

There are many talented claimants to the No 8 jersey in the Springbok team, but a specialist flanker has been selected to fill that position Rugby: Jon Swift WE HAVE reached the ridiculous situation in this country where we have five international players at eighthman: two of them discards, one on the bench, another back […]

Gaye Davis=20 PAST and present National Party ministers and heads of =20 former bantustans could be called to testify before the =20 top-level probe into corruption and malpractice by the =20 former South African and homeland regimes announced by =20 President Nelson Mandela this week.=20 Presidential representative Joel Netshitenzhe said the =20 commission was expected […]

Rugby: Jon Swift RUGBY’S decision to open the doors to paid players has produced a xenophobia seemingly more iconoclastic than anything ever dreamed up by the human engineering of the apartheid system. The latest ruling effectively ends any contribution foreign players may make to the domestic leagues worldwide … if they want to continue playing […]

Justin Pearce=20 South Africa’s failure to support an outright ban on =20 landmines brought it into direct opposition to =20 Mozambique at the United Nations conference on =20 landmines, which ended inconclusively in Vienna this =20 week. Mozambique is one of the countries worst affected =20 by landmines.=20 The conference is to reconvene in December […]

The only change in the IFP’s new draft constitution for =20 KwaZulu-Natal is that ‘state’ has been changed to =20 ‘kingdom’, writes Ann Eveleth=20 KWAZULU-NATAL’S constitutional process is going around =20 in circles, if the draft constitution tabled this week =20 by the Inkatha Freedom Party is anything to go by.=20 Far from reflecting progress […]

A small group of mavericks is culture-jamming the consumer society, writes Bruce Cohen Grab your favourite spot in front of the television and watch closely for 15 minutes. Then, switch the set on – – but keep the sound off. Or pick up a magazine and in your mind write a parody of one of […]

Leon Perlman The days of sitting bored and probably scared during a mini-bus journey could soon be over. A Gauteng-based company, Maxtel, has developed the world’s first dedicated taxi phone which passengers can use to distract themselves. These South African-designed and manufactured devices, called “Taxi Talk”, will be available through global systems mobile (GSM) Service […]

Ann Eveleth=20 KWAZULU-NATAL Safety and Security MEC Celani Mtetwa — =20 named this week as a former paid police agent and gun =20 runner — is no stranger to the third force spotlight.=20 Allegations linking the former KwaZulu homeland justice =20 minister to gunrunning and to the notorious C10 =20 Vlakplaas security police unit first […]

Fine Art: Hazel Friedman If the success of an art exhibition were predicated solely on theoretical justification, then Persons and Pictures: The Modernist Eye in Africa (Newtown Galleries) would be a winner. The fact that, in visual terms, it translates into a slightly uneven display of works executed in the vocabulary of a bygone genre […]

Musical posts=20 THE University of Cape Town’s Professor David Woods has =20 been appointed vice chancellor of Rhodes University, =20 ending a drawn-out saga in the search for a replacement =20 for Dr Derek Henderson, who retires next year. Woods =20 was also one of two candidates presented to the UCT =20 Senate in a […]

Rowan Callaghan The membership of the Catering, Restaurant and Tearoom Association (Catra) may have changed over the last 76 years but the organisation still plays an integral part in issues facing members. The employee organisation was formed in the “good old days” when the genteel citizens of Johannesburg frequented tea-rooms and the more risque could […]

The flipside of the university fracas=20 * AS a former SRC president of the University of =20 Durban Westville (1993) and currently a member of the =20 executive of Convocation, I am concerned about the =20 negative reports that it has received in the press and =20 I have begun to believe that the press […]

THE ANC: Will madam ever vote for Eve?=20 Justin Pearce=20 Eve Jammy usually does her canvassing by phone. But on =20 a rare occasion when she does canvas house to house, =20 it’s easy to see why she prefers the phone. =20 Jammy is a local election candidate for Ward 11 in =20 Johannesburg’s posh […]

Pik Botha could be among those questioned by British =20 police when they arrive in South Africa to investigate =20 the bombing of ANC House, writes Marion Edmunds=20 BRITISH police will travel to South Africa next month =20 to question witnesses and suspects — including =20 “master” spy Craig Williamson — in the 1982 bombing […]

A small North-West town has been shaken by a spate =20 of seemingly senseless suicides. Molefe Matlou and =20 Thipapedi Rampou investigate=20 ‘Please don’t blame anyone for my death,” wrote 21-=20 year-old Rebecca Banda just before she hanged herself. =20 “God gave me the strength to kill myself.”=20 Banda’s death last month was the latest […]

Andrew Hudson has returned to form just in time to counter the powerful batting line-up of the English tourists Cricket: Jon Swift IT SHOULD be cause for much rejoicing that two of this South Africa’s most talented cricketers have been given a foretaste of success at Test level before this country joins in battle with […]

Lynda Loxton The South African wine industry is flourishing. Exports are booming and heavy rains in the Cape hold out promise of a good crop. The only fly in the ointment remains the antiquated system through which KWV continues to dominate the price farmers get for their wine. Distillers Corporation chairman Boetie van Zyl was […]

A billboard battle highlights the need for a uniform policy on outdoor advertising, writes Neil Bierbaum A FIGHT over a billboard on the grounds of a school in Sandton could turn into a test case affecting the future of outdoor advertising in the country. The billboard, at St Peter’s School, advertises Bridgestone Tyres and is […]

Mamphela Ramphele has trod a path from black =20 conciousness activist in the 1970s to the top of the =20 academic and corporate world in the 1990s. She is =20 tipped as the next vice-chancellor of the University of =20 Cape Town, sits on the board of Anglo American and =20 helps run the Nelson […]

IN THE DOCK: Former Italian prime minister Silvio =20 Berlusconi, committed to trial in Milan on corruption =20 JAILED: Keith Moore, Sting’s former accountant, =20 sentenced to six years for stealing Stg 6-million from =20 the rock star=20 HONOURED: Cape Times editor Mogsien Williams named =20 Sowetan Journalist of the Year at a Press Freedom […]