Staff Reporter

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

South Africa’s craft industry could be a gold mine, but its potential remains untapped, reports HAZEL FRIEDMAN IN a recently released document dealing with the future of the arts in South Africa, Dr Ben Ngubane, Minister of Arts, Culture, Science and Technology, paid tribute to the positive contribution made by the crafts industry to the […]

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 […]

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 […]

The sad loss of Fanie de Villiers through injury has been tempered by the return of Brett Schultz to once again form a deadly bowling double with Allan Donald CRICKET: Jon Swift OVER the next nine days, we will be able to gauge the preparedness or otherwise of Hansie Cronje’s team to fulfil the expectations […]

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, […]

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 […]

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 […]

Karen Harverson The Department of Public Works will set aside an as yet unspecified percentage of contracts for small black emerging businesses. This is part of an initiative by the Public Works and the Department of Finance to reform procurement policies to give small businesses access to the public sector market. A meeting will be […]

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 […]

Water crisis: It’s not about when or how much you can water your garden. It’s about how ongoing mismanagement and environmental damage have ruined resources Eddie Koch A front-page article in a national newspaper recently reported on how the Johannesburg city council was encouraging suburban residents to spy on neighbours who might be illegally watering […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

Eddie Koch South Africa’s “oil baron” Marino Chiavelli earned US$7,5-million a month for brokering a clandestine deal in 1980 that ensured thousands of barrels of oil a day was shipped into South Africa in contravention of the international embargo. This is one of the details contained in the new book Embargo: Apartheid’s Oil Secrets Revealed […]

Dance: Craig Hedderwick FOR just under a month, coinciding with Johannesburg’s Arts Alive festival, the Dance Factory in Newtown has showcased some of the most exciting contemporary choreography around in Dance ’95, which closed on a high note last weekend with a programme of festival highlights. The Soweto Dance Theatre’s Elevated Underground, choreographed by Collen […]

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 […]

Ann Eveleth Only the wind stirred in Ebu-hleni when Rogers Ngcobo took the podium last Sunday. Tens of thousands of white-robed Nazarites, who had gathered in the tree-cloaked shantytown to mourn the death of their spiritual leader Bishop Amos Shembe, listened in stunned silence to his message. Ngcobo, a local bottle-store owner and non-Nazarite, told […]

Just outside Johannesburg last weekend, a group of South Africans met with a group of Cubans. It was a non-governmental meeting — civil society, not happy to leave matters to governments, working out the potential for cooperation between the two countries. It was also a rare meeting of international solidarity where South Africans were not […]

Karen Harverson Real estate company Seeff plans to launch its own bank within two years based on its latest venture, launched in Gauteng this week, to offer home loans through the company. With Boland Bank as its partner and financial backer, Seeff offers a one-stop operation where customers can buy and sell property, register property, […]

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 […]