Staff Reporter

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 […]

Theatre: David Le Page Raiders of the Lost Count is a play play, so silly that one is astonished by the fact that one is watching what appear to be adults performing it and by the extent to which they have liberated child-like imaginations. It’s tremendously exhilarating watching actors having so much fun. It’s not […]

Janet Wilhelm=20 Age: Somewhere between angry young political firebrand =20 and boardroom fossil.=20 Also known as: Ex-Benny Alexander!=20 Appearance: Also in transition. Businesslike blue suits =20 with fewer lapses into ethnic West African dashikis and =20 Mao tunics.=20 Is that what they call dressing for success? He is =20 following the modern fashion trend of […]

Athletics: Julian Drew THERE has in the past been considerable criticism of the way in which South Africa’s athletes have been prepared and selected for major championships. On Thursday a bold and positive plan was announced by the National Olympic Committee of South Africa (NOCSA) and Athletics South Africa (ASA) to prepare the athletics team […]

NONE of the violence and gang warfare I saw in my youth =20 in the Cape Flats prepared me for the carnage which =20 unfolded before my eyes in Thornton Road, Athlone, Cape =20 Town on a sunny Tuesday afternoon this week.=20 As I drove down Belgravia Road, Athlone, my eyes were =20 burning and […]

BLACK pride returned to Washington on Monday in the =20 shape of the Million Man March. The contrast between =20 the last time such civil rights numbers assembled and =20 now could not be greater. =20 Three decades ago the great black leader, Martin Luther =20 King, warned his people “not to thirst for freedom […]

Meshack Mabogoane Prospects for major commercial property developments in emerging markets, or black areas, could increase dramatically once black local government has been legimitised. A morass of technical hurdles, such as identifying owners of land and registration of title deeds, still remains to be cleared up. So, too, does the role of numerous community development […]

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 […]

Very brief.=20 — Frenchwoman Jeanne Calment , when asked — breaking =20 the world longevity record this week at 120 years and =20 238 days — how she sees the future=20 We were victims of technology.=20 — A BBC spokesperson on how a secret fax about =20 privatising the BBC was sent by accident to […]

Nigeria’s exiled democracy campaigner Wole Soyinka =20 tells Bartholomeus Grill about his disappointment at =20 the way South Africa’s leaders are turning a blind eye =20 to the excesses of Sani Abacha’s military regime=20 WRITER Wole Soyinka, Nigeria’s foremost democracy =20 campaigner-in-exile, has spoken angrily about the =20 failure of President Nelson Mandela — the […]

Mail & Guardian reporter=20 POLICE have dropped charges against a man who half blew =20 himself up while attempting to blast open an auto-=20 teller machine, because it was too expensive to pay his =20 stay at a Johannesburg private hospital.=20 The man, a Mr Brits, was admitted to the hospital on =20 Monday last […]