Staff Reporter

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 […]

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 […]

The appointment of a national attorney-general could avoid a recurrence of the ‘McNally issue’, argue Dr Jeremy Sarkin and Suzie Cowen THE criminal justice system is in crisis. It lacks legitimacy and is seen as ineffective. It is in this context that the danger of giving attorneys-general independence, without creating mechanisms for effective accountability, has […]

Anti-conglomerate measures are still possible, argues Reg Rumney Anglo American executive director Michael Spicer has arguably made it harder for Trade and Industry Minister Trevor Manuel to avoid taking steps against South Africa’s big conglomerates. Spicer, who has gone to ground now, perhaps fearing further personalisation of the conglomerate debate, went on the offensive after […]

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 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 […]

Rehana Rossouw Human rights groups are furious at delays of more than two years in bringing child-abusers to justice. A former principal of a children’s home in Cape Town, Mike Viveros, has had his trial on charges of sexually abusing seven children postponed 15 times since he first appeared in court in October 1993. Welfare […]

Despite the recent strikes, local industrial unrest is on the decline, reports Meshack Mabogoane Though the latest nurses’ and municipal workers’ strikes have unleashed intense emotions and caused public disturbances, this year’s figures show industrial unrest to be at its lowest in five years. “The impression of industrial chaos is more a reaction to the […]

RDP officer Frank Meintjies reacts to criticisms by Nicoli Nattrass in a recent edition of the Mail & Guardian Government (and Cabinet) is aware that mechanisms such as the RDP Fund, the Presidential Lead Projects and, for example, RDP offices in provinces are an anomaly. They are in tension with the idea that all government […]

Peter Vale writes that the clash between gay people=20 and President Mugabe showed that civil society can=20 play a powerful role in Southern Africa=20 WHEN Robert Mugabe savaged the common law rights of=20 gays, he may well have initiated a geological shift=20 in the regional balance of power.=20 In the wake of his comments, South […]

Head of the Occult-related Crime Unit, Colonel=20 Kobus Jonker, in The Mark Gevisser Profile=20 There’s a child’s drawing, on Colonel Kobus=20 Jonker’s pinboard, of two stick-figures with arms=20 flailing against each other in a crayon-sea of=20 bileful yellow. One figure is labelled, in=20 childlike script, “Oom Kobus”; the other is=20 labelled “Satanis”. The drawing was […]

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, […]

Columbus Stainless looks to Maputo harbour as a possible solution to the crippling transport costs in South Africa, reports Karen Harverson Stainless steel producer Columbus Stainless is investigating the possibility of exporting product through Maputo harbour in Mozambique rather than through Durban because transport costs are so high. “We need the shortest route between Columbus […]

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 […]

The unequal racial balance in South Africa’s=20 justice system makes it quite possible that race=20 becomes a feature of South African trials as it did=20 in the OJ Simpson circus, writes Justin Pearce=20 COULD South Africa have its own version of the OJ=20 Simpson trial? The tensions that shifted the focus=20 of the Simpson case […]