Staff Reporter

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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. […]

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 […]

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 […]

Charles Nupen=20 Appearance: New mannish. The kind of guy to have=20 around the house — he’d never complain when it was=20 his turn to take out the garbage.=20 Present occupation: In between mediating the=20 municipal strike he hopefully did his bit to ferry=20 the family’s uncollected rotting rubbish down to=20 the dump like the rest […]

The International Rugby Board has finally opened the door to professionalism, but it has also left the door open for amateurism RUGBY: Jon Swift YOU can’t help feeling that the International Rugby Board (IRB) has done yet again what history shows it to have done best … dither. Certainly, the latest set of guidelines — […]

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 […]

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, […]

Peter Vale argues the Comoros coup shows the time=20 has come for the government to expunge the=20 mercenary impulse from South African national life=20 THE proverbial fly on the foreign affairs wall must=20 have raised a wry smile when news of the Comoros=20 coup came rattling over the wire. “Hello, we’ve=20 been here before,” it […]

Karen Harverson Columbus Stainless is sceptical of carbon steel producer Iscor’s R100-million plan to convert its Pretoria works into a stainless steel facility for the production of slab and black coil. “While I believe Iscor had little option but to close the operation which wasn’t efficient as a carbon steel facility, or do something different […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

Cutting the costs of bad debt is high on the agenda of the telecommunication giant Telkom, reports Karen Telecommunications giant Telkom plans to implement a new strategy to stem the millions of rands lost each year through bad debt. Last year, the company wrote off 2,1 percent of its R9,6-billion turnover to bad debt — […]

Marion Edmunds South African Broadcasting Corporation Radio Chief Govin Reddy is fighting shy of releasing a foreign consultant’s report critical of the way change has been managed at the SABC’s controversy-ridden English- language radio station SAfm. Reddy wants to keep an Australian-funded report, which criticises change management at SAfm over the last year, confidential until […]

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 […]

Marion Edmunds RDP roleplayers in government met this week — without Jay Naidoo — to grapple with the realisation that the RDP is too much “pie-in-the-sky” and needs to be grounded in practical projects that promote economic Senior RDP officials, government leaders and technocrats met for three days in Cape Town to discuss ways to […]

>From the birth of the idea at a council bosberaad to the frantic finishing touches, the Johannesburg Stadium has been clouded in controversy ATHLETICS: Julian Drew THE meeting which launched Johannesburg’s new R97- million athletics stadium last weekend can be pronounced a success judging by the response of the world’s media. Linford Christie’s 9.97 seconds […]

FINE ART: Hazel Friedman IN his lyrical essay accompanying Jane Alexander’s exhibition (now at the Standard Bank Gallery in Johannesburg), Ivor Powell writes about the way technology has transformed life into an enhanced virtual-reality show. This has served, on the one hand, to blur the boundaries between self and simulated experience, evoking a more immediate, […]