Staff Reporter

Karen Harverson South Africa has the opportunity to leap-frog ahead using other countries’ technology and experience to do things right the first time. “This country should take advantage of California’s advances in environmental issues, computers, communications and electronics,” said California Trade and Commerce Secretary Julie Meier Wright, speaking at the Made in the USA Expo […]

Ann Eveleth=20 Inkatha Freedom Party hardliners this week=20 succeeded in uniting the KwaZulu-Natal opposition=20 against their increasingly divided party.=20 Apparently straining under the weight of a=20 democracy which would have forced them to negotiate=20 a provincial constitution, the party’s hardline=20 cabal of national leaders wilfully burned its=20 bridges with the minority parties whose support is=20 […]

Artists are teaming up with designers for the Johannesburg Art Gallery’s Spring Fashion Show. HAZEL FRIEDMAN takes a peek behind the seams THE Friends of the Johannesburg Art Gallery can’t be accused of timidity. In fact, in their efforts to turn art into entertainment, they sometimes walk recklessly where purists fear to tread. A few […]

The Boland town of Worcester is as divided as ever.=20 But the local government elections could change all=20 of that, reports Gaye Davis=20 WORCESTER’S Durban Street once drew the line=20 between the Boland town’s white and coloured areas.=20 Now town clerk Neels de Bruyn talks about an=20 “integrated town” — with its black township,=20 Zwelethemba, […]

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 […]

Supporting ‘smart’ mines ignores the international=20 landmine crisis, writes David Bruce=20 IT WAS a shock for the Ceasefire Campaign to hear=20 last week that the government had decided to=20 implement a ban on “dumb” or “long-life” mines=20 while adopting a position of support for the use of=20 “smart” or “short-life” mines.=20 While all landmines are […]

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 […]

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 […]

A proposed French/South African accord could revitalise the SA film industry, reports TREVOR STEELE TAYLOR FIRST steps have been taken towards a collaboration which could be of resounding importance to South African film. At a symposium in Johannesburg last weekend, organised by the French Institute, plans were mooted for a film treaty between France and […]

For women to have any real power in society, they=20 need to be represented in the Budget, argues ANC MP=20 Pregs Govender=20 WHILE women have won initial victories by filling=20 positions of political power, economic power still=20 lies where it always has — with a few new black=20 faces — in the all-male white echelons […]

Lynda Loxton In today’s world, competitiveness is everything but no company can hope to be in a world class competitive position unless its suppliers deliver on time — and in South Africa that can be a major problem. With 60 percent of its turnover based on exports, Epping-based marine and general engineering company Petrel Engineering […]

THE local government election campaign season is=20 getting underway. Thankfully, this should bring a=20 shift of focus: from arcane debates about=20 boundaries to the issues and the candidates. Who,=20 in short, one should vote for. On what basis should=20 one make one’s choice: historical party loyalty or=20 the best available individual?=20 While this election is […]

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. […]

SWIMMING: Julian Drew WITH a series of brilliant performances this year 20-year-old swimmer Penny Heyns from Durban has swum herself into contention as one of the favourites to win gold at next year’s Olympic Games in Atlanta. As early as April at the national championships in Durban she showed her intentions for the year with […]

Theatre: David Le Page ‘THE (previous) South African government was my faithful scriptwriter,” says Pieter-Dirk Uys in his Truth Commissions (at the Johannesburg Civic Theatre), and his brand of satire has not been left unscathed by its demise. Much of his latest parade of personas, led as always by the inimitable Ms Bezuidenhout, is not […]

Victims of the Masterbond crash have the crusading=20 zeal of one man to thank for last month’s fraud=20 conviction of three of the company’s directors,=20 writes Rehana Rossouw=20 MASTERBOND crusader Don MacKenzie can give you the=20 low-down on the effects of white-collar crime –=20 after all, two of the 12 600 victims of the=20 investment […]

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 […]

WAS it bought? Would a poor unemployed black man=20 have received the same verdict? Was this a triumph=20 of lawyers over justice? The questions in the wake=20 of the “not guilty” verdict in the OJ Simpson trial=20 are unending.=20 Commentators who believe the trial was hijacked by=20 the 17 lawyers on the Simpson defence team […]

Marion Edmunds=20 THE National Party has a strategy to solve this=20 coming week’s fight with the ANC over local=20 government legislation. Talk of the strategy makes=20 Nats smile, but they’re not going to show their=20 hand yet.=20 Parliament meets in a special session next week to=20 debate the Local Government Transition Amendment=20 Bill, a move […]

The United Cricket Board is taking the game to the people, and not just South Africa’s people but to other countries in Africa as well CRICKET: Jon Swift THERE is a certain strangeness about the notion that international cricket will be played at Paarl. In the recent South African experience the Boland town is a […]

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 […]

Gaye Davis WHEN Idasa launched its national survey of parliamentarians, the reaction was immediate — and largely allergic. But, while some MPs and senators fumed and balked, others quietly set about filling in replies to the 161 questions. Those coming up trumps in the transparency stakes so far include such notables as Minister of Posts […]

Health care can cost an arm and a leg and is a grave concern for the employers of today, reports Karen The cost of health care has been identified as the priority issue facing employers in the 1995 health care benefits survey undertaken by Old Mutual. Yet the survey also revealed that more than 70 […]

Chief Rabbi Cyril Harris in The Mark Gevisser Profile This week, during Rosh Hashanah, two strange things happened to Rabbi Cyril Harris. They are not unconnected. On Tuesday morning at 6am he received a personal call from Nelson Mandela, wishing the Jewish People a Happy New Year (his awestruck maid had to explain to the […]

Citytv’s Nick Taylor wants to see communities involved in regional stations, writes Neil Beerbaum Nick Taylor has a show in his mind which illustrates what regional television can be about: “There is a man in Guguletu who makes washing powder in his garage over the weekends. He believes it washes faster and whiter than other […]