Staff Reporter

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]