Staff Reporter

Neil Bierbaum Delays are expected in the issuing of new commercial radio licences in order to ensure the sale of South African Broadcasting Corporation stations. The Independent Broadcasting Authority has been accused of intending to delay the licensing of new commercial radio stations in order to ensure the sale of the SABC radio stations at […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

A marketing study determines that the quickest way to access South African black youth is through subcultures. Justin Pearce reports Ultraviolet light glows on the fluourescent grafitti-style murals. Ambient techno throbs in the background as the guests, their rave tickets hanging round their necks, down smart drinks before entering the venue. Can this really be […]

Simon Segal Encouraged by declines in the inflation rate and money supply growth, economists are increasingly changing their forecasts and talking about the next movement in the Reserve Bank’s (RB) interest rates being down rather than up. This will herald a decline in the prime and bond rates for the first time since November 1993. […]

Pop/Rock: Malu van Leuuwen IF the name The Springbok Nude Girls conjures up images of nubile strip-artists decked out in cheeky cheerleading outfits in the old green and gold — think again. In fact, the name belongs to an all-male, five- piece band based in Stellenbosch where, in the band’s early days, half their audience […]

Rehana Rossouw=20 WHEN Chris Ball was Barclays Bank managing director=20 in the 198Os, he became the victim of a bizarre=20 witch-hunt where National Party commie-spotters=20 pronounced they had found a bunny resembling an=20 African National Congress symbol in the bank’s tree=20 Coupled with numerous accounts the bank attracted=20 from anti-apartheid groups, “evidence” surely=20 mounted that […]

This year’s national Vita Awards for theatre celebrate the past, argues MATTHEW KROUSE THE FNB Vita National Theatre Awards, like any extended family gathering, pay homage to founding fathers, and stroke their fledglings, encouraging them to follow traditional paths. The 1994/1995 award-winners are testimony to a developing consensus between fundis, audiences and practitioners. Apparently, what […]

RUGBY: Jon Swift WHO would have imagined on that tumultous day Francois Pienaar held the William Webb Ellis trophy aloft at Ellis Park that the domestic competition could have come close to matching it in intensity? Few would have chanced a wager on it. And yet we have been graced with just such a domestic […]

Dear Walter,=20 I AM in trouble. It came on Monday morning in the=20 form of a letter from Oslo. The envelope was=20 immediately recognisable, featuring heavily- embossed scenes of people being blown to pieces.=20 The Nobel people have a sense of history.=20 Inside was a note from senior management at their=20 gunpowder factory, advising that […]

Marion Edmunds=20 GOVERNMENT anthropologist Jan van Wyk is in a=20 quandary over who should be South Africa’s real=20 traditional leaders: “The definition of ‘leader’ is=20 easy, but ‘traditional’ creates more problems.=20 Basically, I think it’s about handing over the=20 goods, the values and culture from the past=20 generation to the present.”=20 That definition is not, […]

They’re black, they’re pretty small and they believe they can beat the best teams in the Premier Basketball League BASKETBALL: Rowan Callaghan IT IS early evening and the End Street basketball courts are still drenched in sunlight and the usual sounds of the playground can be heard above the traffic. A small noise can be […]

Rowan Callaghan Bayathenga 2000 has joined the call for increased local content, only this time the issue is not broadcasting but support for locally manufactured goods. Bayathenga — meaning all the people are buying — is a section 21 company which plans to embark on a massive “buy South Africa” campaign to promote increased support […]

Classical Music: Coenraad Visser AFTER the drought, the deluge. For too long was it rare for overseas string quartets to visit South Africa. Then, within a space of three days, two of the leading United Kingdom-based quartets appeared in the Wits Great Hall in Johannesburg. Interestingly, their performing styles could not have contrasted more sharply. […]