Staff Reporter

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

The Economist magazine has devoted a lengthy article to Anglo American’s staunch advocacy of conglomeration, which it points out is long out of fashion in business schools and American boardrooms. The Economist reports the reaction of Anglo chairman Julian Ogilvie Thomson to the 20 percent or so disparity between Anglo’s net asset value and the […]

Mighty McDonald’s — with some 16 000 restaurants in 84 countries — has been outwitted by a crafty South African who this week won a court battle for the right to use one of the world’s best-known brand names. At the end of the first stage of the hamburger war, there’s ketchup on the floor […]

Ann Eveleth Deputy President Thabo Mbeki avoided confrontation with French President Jacques Chirac over France’s controversial nuclear testing programme and its handling of the recent Comoros coup during a state visit to Paris this week. Mbeki made the official state visit at Chirac’s invitation to discuss a financial protocol and an agreement on the protection […]

The draft of the Bill of Rights is a victory for South Africa’s poor, writes Gaye Davis THE first complete draft of a new Bill of Rights, laid before a Constitutional Assembly committee this week, represents a major victory – not for any one party, but for the country’s poor and powerless. The draft includes […]

To get doctors to use their medicines, companies give them free drugs, which the doctors sell at huge profits. Hazel Friedman reports on the practices which have made our drugs the most expensive in the world MANY of South Africa’s 6 000 dispensing doctors receive free bonus drugs which they sell to consumers at high […]

The French flair of Thierry Lacroix for Natal and the poise of Joel Stransky for Western Province will be vital in a tense Currie Cup final, but the two pairs of locks will also be key factors RUGBY: Jon Swift THERE are some haunting shadows in the importance placed on this weekend’s Currie Cup final […]

Gaye Davis DEPUTY President FW de Klerk chaired a routine meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Security and Intelligence “as usual” on Thursday as both African National Congress and National Party government sources said ANC attacks on him were simply “electioneering” and discounted any threat to the Government of National Unity. An unfounded rumour that […]

Karen Harverson George Sombonos — owner of the R100-million Chicken Licken, the third biggest fast food chain in South Africa — is unperturbed and mildly surprised by the uproar caused by the successful outcome of his court case against US hamburger chain McDonald’s. He admits to feeling “very relieved” at the verdict delivered last week […]

Theatre: David Le Page A NAKED queen scrabbles in the dirt of a filthy dungeon, fighting off rats with a crucifix and babbling her way almost deliriously through the Lord’s Prayer. This is the opening of French Gray (at the Market in Johannesburg), a story not only of Marie Antoinette’s last hours, but of her […]

Charles Nupen, ace labour mediator, in The Mark Gevisser Profile When Lili Nupen, a Standard Six pupil at Roedean, had to do a research project into her relatives, she chose two lawyers. The first was her great-uncle, Buster Nupen, a Springbok cricket captain in the 1930s and an illustrious attorney. The second was her father, […]

Reg Rumney The investment of around 3 000 debenture holders in the troubled Owen Wiggins Trust group is still at risk. For the first time since March 9 the curators of Owen Wiggins, whose troubles bear similarities to the Masterbond saga, have formally contacted investors. The curators, in a circular dated September 29, have poured […]

Major-General Karel “Suiker” Britz is under investigation for his alleged poor track record in bringing to book SAPS members tied to political crimes. Philippa Garson reports THE Ministry of Safety and Security this week ordered an investigation into the country’s top crime buster, Major-General Karel “Suiker” Britz, after the Mail & Guardian raised questions about […]

CRICKET: Jon Swift LIKE many other eight year olds in this country, young Wynand is a cricket- mad kid. It drives his mother — proud as she obviously is of his abilities — to distraction. So, when the new set of four coaching videos entitled The Woolmer Way were released featuring the national coach and […]

HEAVY METAL: Christian Figenschou COLONEL Jonker of the occult squad better be worried — Iron Maiden, veteran heavy metal outfit and pet target of the satanist-hunting brigade, packed the Standard Bank Arena in Johannesburg to its capacity with black-clad, angst- ridden youth last Thursday night. The British rockers, who have released 10 studio albums since […]

Eddie Koch Documents which suggest that a bus-making company used a private security firm — headed by a former Special Branch policeman — to plan a third-force campaign of “deliberately and openly hostile terrorism” against selected targets of the National Union of Metalworkers have been handed to police for investigation. Documents on letterheads of the […]

John Seiler Former Bophuthatswana strongman Lucas Mangope must be charged for a series of frauds — including the theft of mining royalties and homeland security funds — that total R22-million, according to the report of the Skweyiya Commission. The report will have massive political repurcussions, as it will be released today by North West Premier […]

Cinema: Stanley Peskin RUTH PRAWER JHABVALA’S sharp, engrossing screenplay for Merchant Ivory’s Jefferson in Paris provides a richly complex experience. The film begins in Pike County, Ohio, where the history of Thomas Jefferson (a very accomplished Nick Nolte), the third president of the United States (1801- 1809), is probed by a journalist. Interviewing a black […]

The air force is trying to sell itself in the new South Africa. Jan Taljaard visited the Pretoria air show. Last weekend Top Gun blistered into town on augmented turbo-fans. Tokyo Sexwale briefly ruled Gauteng from the air; the American F16 took top honours in the phallic stakes; and the British Red Arrow aerobatic team […]

Sam Sklair DAVID SANBORN: Pearls (Electra) PEARLS is not the usual David Sanborn fare. Sanborn virtually started the funk-fortified pop-jazz style of alto playing in the late Seventies, and became easily recognisable for his soulful, wailing sound. Most of the young, aspirant alto players go for Sanborn’s style and sound, as opposed to that of […]

Cinema: Justin Pearce MOST gangster movies these days have a rap soundtrack. Little Odessa has Russian chorales. And it’s these ponderous, bass-heavy anthems which set the tone for the film: it’s turgid. Locating itself in the Russian Jewish neighbourhood of Brighton Beach in New York, Little Odessa suffers from a malaise not uncommon in films […]

SOCCER: Lungile Madywabe ORLANDO PIRATES’ hopes of being the first team from South Africa to feature in the finals of the Africa Champions Cup will be determined by the next 180 minutes of competition — starting on Saturday against Express of Uganda at the FNB stadium and culminating in two weeks time in a return […]

Perplexed about the complex issues surrounding privatisation of state assets? The International Finance Corporation offers this parable at the beginning of its latest publication, attributing it to an anonymous agency official. “To privatise is to drive a two-horse cart. The cart is the enterprise in question. One horse is called Political Goals and is flighty […]

Sheena Duncan, former president of the Black Sash, responds to allegations in a new book that her organisation compromised liberal principles Jill Wentzel says in her Author’s Note that her book The Liberal Slideaway is a “subjective account of life in the liberal community during the last 14 years.” Of course, it has to be […]

Karen Harverson reports on the court verdict against McDonald’s and the burger giant’s preparation for appeal The first round of the David and Goliath trademark battle fought by local businessman George Sombonos against United States hamburger giant McDonald’s is over — with Sombonos emerging the victor. Despite the cries of outrage from the United States […]

Janet Wilhelm Appearance: Historically disadvantaged patriarch with a penchant for dark designer suits and flash cars. Must be difficult to belong to a disadvantaged group? Not if you had the job of bantustan (sorry, homeland, sorry, independent state) leader. As Bophuthatswana president he consoled himself with lavish government spending — and evidence to the Skweyiya […]